We came to Klang so that we could take a train to Kuala Lumpur to visit the Chinese Embassy as we have been spending the last few weeks sorting out our visa for a trip to China. This was complicated because we were applying from another foreign country not our own. It entailed a detailed form about 10 pages long, we had to book our flights and our trip as well as procuring a letter of invitation to China from our hosts, in this case the tour organisers. We are adding extra days at the end of the tour to visit Peter and had to have hotels and travel arrangements ready booked for this too, fortunately the tour operators did this for us.

We were somewhat nervous about all these arrangements as it all had to be paid for before we knew whether or not we would be granted visas. The application forms, letter of invitation, copies of airline tickets, tour booking and itinerary all had to be handed in personally at the Embassy. There were questions about the trip and why we were in Malaysia; my passport was new last year but the interviewer flicked through Chris’s with its myriad of stamps including several in and out of Thailand and Malaysia for both of us. We were then told we would have to attend next day for an interview with someone more senior.  We assumed they would interrogate us to find out if we were members of the National Front or had a history of undermining the communist state. In fact we were asked 2 questions, where were we going in China and why we were in Malaysia both of which we had explained at the original interview. The next step was to return 4 days later and collect the visas having paid the required fee. Needless to say this involved a lot of hassle and expense, including staying overnight in KL. Hope China is worth it!

The delay in Kuala Lumpur turned into a treat. We stayed in China Town and ate out well at very reasonable cost for the capital city. Next morning after our interview we visited the National Museum which was very good and then moved onto a magnificent exhibition of masks from around the world all free of charge.

There were literally hundreds of masks, these are just a few of them.