In Need of Inner Peace...

We arrived into Bodhgaya early this morning; on first impressions, a very peaceful, colourful village, (especially orange!) obviously proud of its spirituality. But first, I have to tell you/vent about our day yesterday. To say it was frustrating is the biggest understatement since we were told overnight buses could get a 'little' bumpy. Get ready for it- I'll try and leave out expletives...
    Discovering that there is a Chinese embassy, we though we'd be geniuses and get our Chinese visas in Kolkata, so that we didn't have to worry about it for the rest of the trip. Sounds easy, right? Well, we get one of Kolkata's signature taxi's- sort of a mixture between New York and London cabs, yellow with a 1950s style. They drop us in Salt Lake City, a newly built 'town' that is characterized by letters, like AB Block and EC Block, which are distributed randomly- very peculiar and confusing. So, we get to the embassy, give in our visa applications, only to realiza we need photos. Oh, I wish that was the only mistake we were to make...
    Applications given in, we're to come back the next day. Great, job done, easy enough. The only thing we have to do is get a 'demand draft', like a bankers cheque, made out to the Chinese Consulate General in Kolkata. Easy right? The people in the bank were lovely as well, asking us questions, giving us tea- when do you ever get tea at your local bank? A girl working at the bank came and chatted to us a while, and said some very poignant words. When I said I wanted to be a writer, she said that was good because it was the 'best way to people's hearts'. Such a lovely way of putting it! Also, when I told her how much India had inspired my writing, she nodded and said it was because 'India has a lot of heart. You speak to the people, they tell you their heart'. So true, and so well put! I've never left a bank with a smile on my face before, or with inspiring words swirling around in my head!
    Excited to have figured out the bank and met some lovely people, we get the taxi and head to the Embassy, demand draft in hand. Time's ticking away; we only have half an hour to get there. Somehow our taxi dirver manages to work our what block we need, even though they all look the same, and we run in, 15 mins until the visa office closes. We excitedly give our demand draft over; the Chinese lady at the counter sadly shakes her head. 'The wording has to be exact,' she says, and points to a sign on the window. We'd spelled Kolkata wrong. Insert big swear word here.
   We'd been planning to do a bit of sightseeing that day, but this was all now out the window because of our stupidity. Blaming everything from the sign to the bank, we hailed a taxi back to the bank, embarrassed to have to see the bank people again after they'd been so friendly before.
   To cut a long story short, we're idiots, BUT fours hours and four taxi rides later, we FINALLY got our Chinese visas! It was tight; the Chinese lady told us we needed to be back by 4pm, and we made it at 3.30pm. The security guard nearly didn't have any of it, but we pleaded, and told him how urgently we needed our passports- we were leaving that evening, and we couldn't leave them behind!
    SO! It probably doesn't sound as dramatic in writing, but needless to say it was a bloody stressful day. Ah well- good job we're now in a village known for its meditating and spirituality! We could sure do with some inner peace after yesterday!