Monday, May 27, 2019: Day 1: Beijing Arrival and hotel check in

We arrived in Beijing pretty much on time. We went through Immigration, collected our luggage, went through Customs and found the Viking agent at the exit. We waited for several others to arrive before heading to the hotel. It was about an hour's drive. Our Chinese guide, Ray, said Dave and Diane arrived about an hour before we did.

The room is nice. We are on the ninth floor. David and Diane are on ten. The weather in Beijing is mild and the pollution not bad at all...yet. We have masks  but hopefully we will not need them.

View from our window

On the way to dinner

There is nothing on the agenda for the rest of today. Dinner is up to us. Based upon Diane's research, we went to a local restaurant, the Small Pear, and had a nice meal of shared salad, shrimp, pork and Jasmine tea. Essentially a tapas affair and it was very tasty.

We meet at 0800 hours tomorrow morning after breakfast to begin the day's activities.

Sunday, May 26, 2019: Day 0: We Are Off

We got up at 3:00 am this morning to ensure we could make our 7:20 am flight out of IAH. We left the house at 4:00 am. Being early Sunday morning (and Memorial weekend), there was very little traffic. Even so, as we approached the interchange between I-45 and Beltway 8, Laura’s navigation system warned of “stop and go” traffic 15 miles ahead on I-45. Indicating an accident, she opted to get on the Sam Houston Expressway. We got to the airport, parked in a remote lot, took the shuttle to the terminal, checked our bags, got our boarding passes and arrived at the gate with two hours to spare! Oh, well, better early that late.

We were flying first class on a Delta CRJ 900 to Detroit before the leg to Beijing. The CRJ 900 is a small plane with three across in First and four across in Economy. Flight went smoothly and I got a short nap. In Detroit, we had a three layover, which we spent in the Delta Sky Club. The club was ok, larger than the United lounges I’ve been in, but one flaw was the shortage of power outlets.

We boarded the Airbus A350 and found our seats. We are both on the starboard side in window seats.

The flight path seems to be over the northern part of Canada and down through Russia. Flight time: 12 hours and 11 minutes

They fed us well.

Then tried to get some sleep.

Monday, April 8, 2019: Final Shots, VPN, Visas

This morning, I went down to SLU and got my third and final Hepatitis B shot. This completes the inoculations I intend to do for the China trip.

Yesterday, I signed up with NordVPN for a three year subscription to their VPN. The trip to China is one of the reasons I wanted to try using a VPN.

Last week Dave and Diane got their China visas, a couple of days before the deadline. So that issue is finally put to rest.

Update: Thursday, April 11, 2019:

Texting with Laura yesterday, she mentioned that she had or was going to have her pcp call in a prescription for typhoid. I had completely forgotten about typhoid. Going back to a message from my pcp (Marcella) on August 9, 2018, she recommended typhoid as well. She said it was 4 pills taken a week before travel. I sent Marcella a message yesterday and she responded saying the prescription was at the pharmacy. I went down today and got the pills (Vivotif EC Capsules). The instructions said to take on pill every other day for a total of four pills AT LEAST one week before potential exposure. It said the vaccine should be good for up to five years. I took my first capsule today.

Friday, March 15, 2019: Tibet Entry Permit and Visa Nightmare

While I have four trips booked with Viking, I have never been on one of their tours yet. This has been of some concern, but Maxine, my travel agent, has assured me that they are a quality organization that she has used for a number of years. This week however, has caused me a great deal of concern.

Back on February 20, I received an email from Viking discussing the need for a Chinese Visa AND a Tibet Entry Permit. At that time, I did not remember hearing about a Tibet Entry Permit. The email stated:

For the Roof of the World itinerary you will need a China visa and a Tibet Entry Permit. 

Tibet Entry Permits will be provided to you in destination and are arranged by our China staff. In order for them to obtain your permit we must receive color photocopies of your PASSPORT INFORMATION PAGE and CHINA VISA PAGE no later than 60 days prior to departure.

If you obtain a visa through our partners Generations Visa they will submit your copies on your behalf as long as they are aware you are booked with Viking and if the proper visa application was processed. If for any reason they are unable to provide them on your behalf you will be responsible to provide them and will be contacted by Viking accordingly.

The details provided must show all information on each page clearly and must be recognizable. For best results, we recommend scanning or using a digital camera to take a picture of these pages and email them to us at operations@vikingcruises.com.

I read and reread this several times. The initialized and underlined paragraph shown above led me to believe I had nothing to do and nothing to worry about. I discussed this with Maxine and she came to the same conclusion.

On March 14, Viking sent out the exact same email. I did not get it but Maxine forwarded the one she received to me. I sent a note to Maxine and said that I had not received any contact from Viking telling me I needed to send them anything, so I again assumed everything was OK.

Maxine called to say that she thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and send Viking copies of the passport and visa...just to be sure. I resisted, telling her that if they wanted me to do that, why didn't they say so. We went around and around and finally, Maxine said she would call them to get clarification. She did and was told the only way to communicate with Viking Operations was via email, so she sent an email. She also had called GenVisa and was told that they had sent both Laura's and my passport and visa photos to Viking. Mine was sent to them on February 12.

Maxine received and forwarded the email response from Viking Ops which said that the photo of Laura was not acceptable because there was a black line through the photo and Laura needed to send new photos. As a footnote, the email said I also needed to submit photos of my passport and visa. I asked Maxine what happened to the GenVisa photos of me that they sent on February 12 and why had they not let us know that we needed to submit photos as their notices said they would. Maxine sent them another email with those questions and also asking what would have happened if we had not inquired?

I was very upset due to the apparent loss of confidence that I could trust Viking. Maxine suggested I could call them and "discuss" it with them. I agreed and told her I would do so. This morning, after calming down overnight, I decided to go ahead and send photos of my passport and visa to Viking Ops. I requested an acknowledgement of receipt and confirmation that they were acceptable for use. I also decided to wait until Maxine had received a response to her email.

I also noticed that the notice Viking sent out both on February 20 and March 14 stated that Viking needed the photos no less than 60 days prior to the trip. The trip begins on May 27, so they would want the photos no later than March 27...12 days from now!! While this did not concern me, I knew that David and Diane had just mailed their visa application to GenVisa last week. My visa took 31 days to be received. I sent an email to Maxine and she suggested David needed to call GenVisa immediately and probably needed to expedite the visa process...at a cost. I sent the recommendation to David and also called him. I explained my concern. He subsequently called both Viking to confirm the deadline (they did and said there was little "wiggle room" and then called GenVisa and authorized expediting the visa application. It still will be very close.

Monday, February 25, 2019; Flight Changes

Maxine forwarded an email from Viking stating there was a change in our flights. Unfortunately, there was no attachment, so I went on the Delta site and downloaded the current flight information and seat selection.

The change from the update we received on February 6 is the flight from Atlanta back to IAH. That trip is now on a different flight and will depart and arrive an hour later than the previous flight. That gives us a 3 hour and 20 minute layover in Atlanta, arriving in IAH at 7:07 pm. They also have changed some of our seats. The seats between DTW and PEK were no longer selected, so I selected the same ones we had previously. Here are the current selections:

IAH to DTW

Originally, we were in seats 2D and 3D on the flight from Detroit to Beijing. Now they are showing us in center seats 5B, 5C.

DTW to PEK

I went on the Delta site and changed the seats back to the original window seats.

DTW to PEK revised on 02/25/2019

They showed no seats selected for the PVG to ATL, so I selected the same seats we had previously.

PVG to ATL

Thinking about it however, I decided to go ahead and change the PVG to ATL seats to port-side window seats as well.

PVG to ATL revised 02/25/2019

ATL to IAH

Wednesday, February 20, 2019: Tibet Entry Permit????

Today, Maxine forwarded two emails to Laura and I from Viking Cruises. One was a copy of our Guest Statement (invoice) and the other was a note stating that, in addition to the Chinese visa, we will also have to have a Tibet Entry Permit. Never heard of that one before!

To obtain the permit, they needed a photo of our passport information page and a photo of the China visa page. With this information, they would obtain the permits and present it to us on the trip. But, they needed the photos no less than 60 days prior to departure, which would mean before the end of March.

The note stated that if we had used Generations Visa to obtain our China visa, that company would submit the necessary photos to obtain the permit if they knew we would be traveling to Tibet and if the proper application forms were used. However, if Generations Visa was not, for any reason, able to provide the needed permit information, the responsibility was on the guest AND Viking would notify them of that situation.

Laura and I did use the Generations Visa service and the application form supplied by Viking for this specific tour along with the itinerary.

I responded back to Maxine that if I am interpreting the email correctly, we should assume that Generations Visa will submit the needed information for the permits OR someone will contact us. Laura has not received her visa back from Generations Visa yet. She submitted on January 28, so it should show up in the next week or so. Mine took just under five weeks from the time I submitted.

I copied Dave and Diane on my note back to Maxine. They booked the trip through a different travel agency. Whether they used Generations Visa to get their visa, I do not know.

Laura and I are speculating whether or not Viking just now found out about the Tibet Entry Permit issue? There is not much time if someone has not started the visa process in order to get the visa back and the entry permit photos submitted more than 60 days before departure.

Friday, February 15, 2019: Visa received

I got my passport back with the Chinese visa pasted to one of the pages. It is good for multiple entries between now and January 29, 2029. That means my passport will expire about six months before the visa expires. I can stay for a maximum of 60 days for each visit. I received it 31 days from the day I mailed it to Generations Visa Services.