The beginning of the HARD PART
As soon as I entered train station police lady came to me and asked for a permit. I explained her that it is coming later and took a ticket out of her hands. But the permit isn't coming at all...
After waiting for a while in a waiting lounge I decided to walk around a little bit as the police lady was watching me. And went to another waiting lounge leaving my bag with a monk and I saw some "white people" on my way, who just came from Lhasa. They are some guys from Canada and are travelling around much like I do just in a legal way. They adviced me a lots of things as the girl use to work in Lhasa for a tourist company.
Word by word and I asked about the permission and explained tbat I don't have one. They said it's impossible without it but she remembered that they do have the old one which they used to but with the expired date and issue date: 2010.08.06 and today is a 2010.08.17. They gave that permit to me and I added a nummber 1 with a black pen before 06 so it looks like it was issued just yesterday!:)
(the number "1" before "6" is my masterpiece - anyway - I don't understand a word what's written in there - just added "1" as I felt it might work - but none was sure about it - the Lithuanians did not had such a stamp in their permit... ) :)
I got back to lounge and I met a guys from Lithuania who where travelling with permissions and we exchanged with information and showed to each other the documents we have. They where leaving with previous train.
Shortly after they left the Police lady came to me and asked for a permit. I showed just a one part of it - the part with no personal names on it and explained that the second part is in Lhasa with my tourist agent (I lied) and the company who was just there took the rest of documents as the group they're travelling is bigger and They told me that this document will be enough for me. Police lady asked me for a passport and gave back a permit and a passport after checking a Chinese visa in it.
The guys from Lithuania had a copies of the permit. I believe it is possible to fake them as they do not check the numbers. Luckily for me...:)
The train has been delayed for two hours so it is departing at 18:46 instead of 16:46. I afraid to leave the waiting room as I see it as already passed obstacle and I'm not willing to shine around much as the less noticeable I behave the better even if once 8 got through with my lies and a fake permit. I don't like to lie and I feel actually really bad because of it but I guess that in current situation this is the only way to continue my journey.
I hope my permit will work in a train but at least after the police saw and accepted my story I feel a bit more relaxed and have an inside feeling that I do have a permit even if I don't - that inside feeling makes me more powered in my lies. And it's good. Kind of confidence which I was lacking. A lack of confidence which held me back and because of which I stayed in Tianjin for so long as everybody was scaring me.
With my new Tibetan friend we speak using gesture only as non of us understands each other. So even if I'm speaking I'm doing it in my mother tongue -Latvian.:) The monk knows that I'm travelling without a permission and it seems like he does not like it, but ... Life is life!:)
But finally - I got on the train which is very modern comparing to the one's I've driven before. It has got much more space in a doorways and it seems like it's brand new.
My real journey begins. From this moment I'm illegal. I'm a smuggler who smuggles in myself. I'm gonna wait until the next station which might be in about 3 to 4 hours and then sneak under the chairs so I could continue my trip unnoticed until Lhasa - the beginning of HARD PART II... :)
Just noticed - about an hour after my entrance into a train the police patrol containing three policeman where doing a checkoff documents and tickets. I went in a doorway for a cigarette just with my ticket in a hope that when they will get till me I will tell them that the rest is in my bag and hopefully they will skip the detailed check - but it did not worked. The police went back with me in a saloon and checked my passport, visa and ... permit, off course. AND I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D:D:D
Thank's God! So far - so good.
