Who would've thought... This trip is ending up much better than I thought it would be!

Well, I won't be getting exactly the type of visa I came here for, but they explained me why... and what can I do? I won't get into an argument with the visa guy. At least they're giving me something that's kind of close, and that they say can (and in fact has to be because that's the normal procedure) be changed in a latter day to the one I want without having to come abroad again. I hope they don't change me the story again when I go back to the other public office.

But the reasons why I say this stay is getting to be a lot better than my previous one is:

1. As soon as I crossed the border, I went straight to the consulate, and got served in little more than one hour, as opposed to last time that I crossed the border only to find that the consulate was closed for TWO working days due to ONE national holiday. And when it finally opened, I had to stand in line under the tropical sun for four hours!

2. As a result of that, I will stay in this country for only one night instead of three, which cuts costs.

3. This time I decided to skip common tourist 'attractions' such as museums and temples, and instead went to a place where they do 'traditional massage' and 'herbal sauna'. This was so good I now think this is the best thing to do if I'm stuck in this town again.

The massage was good. You'll have to excuse my ignorance, but I didn't get which part of it was local and traditional. It just felt pretty good to me, but nothing out of this world. Then the sauna was sooo nice! I spent two hours coming in and out. This was all done in a hut on the way to a temple. It's located in the suburbs, but there's so much vegetation around that it looks like part of the forrest. Then there's this elevated hut (perhaps so that the snakes won't climb) without walls except for the walls of the changing room and the sauna. It was all very pleasant save for the mosquito bites. This herbal sauna smelled inside like chamomille, but the guy in charge said that today he'd put about twelve different things.

4. The bus ride was also better than my previous experiences in the same line. Even though this time the bus was older, the seats were much better cushioned and really reclined as they should, plus this time the TV was in working order!

Oh got to tell you. The bus company guys didn't find any better thing to show us than a Hollywood horror flick. I think the title of the movie was 'Ghost Ship'. I didn't recognize any of the actors, but the producer was Robert Zemeckis, the same as 'Back to the Future'. This film has the grace to begin with a scene where you see a ballroom full of people dancing when a 'strange hand' moves something so that one of the metal wires that is holding some heavy stuff breaks loose and goes through the whole room cutting in half all of the people on the dancing floor. You get to see the wire going through them like a hot knife cutting butter. I wonder why couldn't the bus driver play for us something more appropriate like a busjack or a major highway accident instead?

On the not so bright side though is the fact that the consulate guys had the wonderful idea of changing the visa fees last week! Now they charge ten times (yes, TEN times) as much for the one I intended to get. Fortunately I was still going to be able to pay, although I'd have had to tighten my belt a lot. But then when they told me they'd give me the other visa, the fee was less than half of that. I wonder why they advertise the price of that visa in the first place, if they say that they cannot issue it in that office.

Anyway... it started raining a while ago, so I think I won't go to the river to watch the sunset. What should plan B be?