Beijing ~

Oh hello,


Beijing side of the train:


After 8 hours of sleep (I was confortable but it seemed like I was possibly the only one). Everyone woke up at 7 AM. We had some breakfast of ham and cheese we bought before we left and read and hung out and talked, took a nap, had a light lunch and we were there!


This space is reserved for a rant - Smoking, is rampant in China. Basically everyone smokes. The bathrooms which were already dirty before we even got on and even dirtier every time you had to go in, was littered with cigarettes. There were cigarettes in the sink, the trash can, and in the passenger car. Why? I have no idea. There were clearly marked cigarette disposals everywhere. The sinks weren't self cleaning, the cigarettes just sat there. The ones on the bathroom floor at least absorbed some of the urine and spit which covered most of it. Oh yes the other thing. If you ever happen to go to Singapore or China be prepared for spitting. Its a constant sound in the background, much worse in China then Singapore. In Singapore spitting is at least relegated to bathrooms. China it was everywhere, on streets and in buildings and while people where talking to you. Its not just a nice southern quick spit on in the bushes either. They hauk these for seconds and let it slowly drop while looking straight at you. Saliva and flem are like mine fields in every walkway and public place. And while I am on the topic vomiting is also a much more common occurrence; especially for children. I saw plenty in Singapore and was reminded of it in China. Kids will be walking normally, then suddenly vomit with no warning. They do it while walking and just look down and let go. Parents then scoop them up and hold them up from the armpits or hips at arms length and point them towards the street or bushes then put them down like nothing is wrong and keep on walking. It happened twice in Hong Kong and we were there for only a week. I didn't see any children in Beijing so no vomit either.


We arrived in a station that had a metro, then inconveniently was the only metro that didn't connect to other metros. After breaking a 100 with some Jujube juice (delicious), we tried to get out of there. So after a lot of pointing and trying to read chinese, we took a bus to what we hopped was a station. And so we were able to find it because of some English that was in some places. From there we metroed (only 33 US cents to anywhere) to our hostel. Where we checked in and then made our way to dinner. On the way we stopped at a grocery store and I got some cantaloupe flavored soy milk and on the street some fried tuber like thing with salt water and garlic which was delicious. For dinner we only had a choice of western places in the area, so I had a pork burger and Michelle had a philly and we watched Super Bad while we ate (not our choice). We then showered (finally) and slept.


Beijing ~ the first day.


Just a note: Sun rises at 5. We woke around 8 and made a quick escape from the hostel and got breakfast nearby. We split a british breakfast of sausage egg toast and baked beans. We then wandered through some Hutongs (local side streets where people actually live). They were nice and we saw a duck and a chicken. We got some drinks in a store (ice coffee mix bottle thing and some mix fruit juice), and walked in a cute park bordering a main street. This delivered us to the Lama temple, which was visited thoroughly. It was nice, not to grand but large, with some unique architecture and an active monastery. There were no llamas (or Lamas due to some political things).  After a long walk we came to our lunching spot. A local chain restaurant that sells dumplings cheap. For 6 USD I had 600 ml of the best local beer (it was ok) and 24 dumplings (Shreyas will hear of this). Twas delicious.


We then made our way to the touristy shopping district. Which had the most aggressive vendors I have ever seen and the only place in Asia we have been to where people tried to screw you over in a in your face way with no tact or attempt to hide the fact that they are screwing you over. It was off putting. There were scorpions and other crawly things on sticks that were still alive and squirming, pics on facebook. A shirt vendor tried to sell me a shirt at 30 USD and wouldn't drop it down so I walked away until he grabbed my wrist, but I shook him off and walked away. We bought some food, which somehow magically quadrupled in price when he gave it to us. I had given him a 10 (about 1.5 usd) and was waiting for my 5 in change, but insisted it was 20. He took half the food back and tried to shove me off, but I did not relent and asked for my money back and for him to take the food back. I blocked off his sales for two or three minutes of an intense staring competition until he grew tired of me and put the half of the food he put on the plate back and I just cut my losses and left, no doubt leaving both parties unhappy. A hat selling lady gripped michelles wrists hard enough to bruise them at one point. We walked away from the place. Michelle got some fruit covered in caramelized sugar at a stand, and I got a local drink which turned out to be fermented milk with honey. Basically a honey sweetened light fizzy yogurt in a reusable glass with a skin stretched over the top and punctured with a straw. It was good. 


After all the excitement we returned to the dumpling place for more. Then made our way to the hostel. There we showered and slept.