Almaty

So 12.00 bus to Almaty from Bishkek to hopefully get a visa for China. Spent a little time getting an acceptable photo to upload to their online form (which is designed terribly) - it took many goes to load. Then left the hostel to the bus. As the bus was departing i realised I'd left my fancy Bose headphones behind. Phone call to the hostel. They couldn't find them. Then an email an hour or so later saying they had. Phew! Uneventful trip to Almaty including an unmemorable border crossing. Don't even recall it! Got to the backpackers hostel in Almaty - dorm was a huge room with 7 bunk beds - mostly russians I think. Spent the evening trying to fill in the chinese visa application form. Not an easy task as it asks some questions that don't make sense or are strictly speaking unanswerable. For example it asks you entry destination into China. My plan was into Kashgar, but that wasn't one of the options - I'm guessing it only shows cities with airports? Anyway, not possible to answer honestly and yet you don't want to lie on these forms - especially not where China is concerned. So I left a few questions unanswered in the hope that I could get advice at the visa centre tomorrow when I hope to compete the application.

Went for a nice meal at the Mendal Restaurant as advised by Alex the Russian I met in the hostel.Läs mer