Had a massively productive day preparing for my travels. Got up early and caught the bus to Beijing. First stop was TTC so that Hannah could drop of some stuff whe will be storing there for the vacation. We also struck lucky as they said they would pay us our transport fees and reclaim it from the school - this means we don't have to worry about whether or not we will get it before Friday. Unfortuately the internet was down at the time and so they couldn't check out the rate, but we agreed to go back later in the day. Next stop was the hospital to get some malaria tablets for Vietnam, Cambodia and India. It was the most expensive consultation ever (120 quid for 5 mins) and really made me realise how lucky we are to have the NHS, but at least I got the medication! Then it was a stop at the bank to get some US dollars which I know will be recognised and accepted at all the countries I will travel to. This was an extremely frustrating experience as their systems are so inefficient - everything has to be written out on triplicate paper and checked by hundreds of people. What normally takes me less than 5 minutes at Heathrow took about 40 minutes in the bank of China, and this excludes the time waiting to see the cashier which I by-passed as a nice European guy had accidentally taken 2 tickets and gave me one of them. Then back to TTC to pick up the transport money and into Starbucks for refreshments. From here I went to the Vietnamese embassy to find out the situation for getting a visa on their express service. I arrrived with 5 minutes to go before closing time and discovered that I had to get the application in today if I wanted to get it back before I leave on Friday. So, it was a quick scrabble around to complete the form and get it submitted. Afterwards I went to the train station to buy a ticket for Friday to take me to Kunming - it's going to be 30 hours on the train, but it's substantially cheaper than flying - 60 pounds compared to 150. Then it was time for home and the plan was a night out at Datang until one of our friends texted us to say it had closed down!! Instead we settled on a night playing cards!