So here we are in Beijing. Day 3 of our adventure and whilst I wasn't planning on blogging so soon, there is a computer and I have a bit of time so figure why not? I had a hard time trying to decide what to call this post, but I've gone with the above as I think it sums up last night quite well.
But first, a bit of a run down on the last couple of days.
We headed out of Wuxi with no dramas, not that we expected any. Catching the train here is so easy, nothing like what Sa and I experienced in Europe when we were constantly on the wrong train, wrong platform, missed the train etc. We went upper class and stayed in a soft sleeper cabin, which was great but still didn't provide us with any sleep. We ended up sharing the room with 3 other people, a Chinese man and his daughter (great way to save on money,just share the same small bed!) and a "Chinese"girl. I say this, because when she came into the cabin,she introduced herself as being English, but as our conversation continued we soon learnt that in fact she was as Chinese as could be, but had spent a couple of years at Cambridge uni and obviously had done everything in her power to take on the poshest English accent you have ever heard. Anyhoo, our trip was entertaining,the little girl was very cute and was happy to tell us jokes and say a few things in English and feed us biscuits. When I woke up in the morning she was hanging off the bunk above,looking atme. As soon as I opened my eyes she gave me a big grin and an even bigger"Good morning!" Very cute.
I should point out quickly that the space baron the computer barely works, apologies for the bad typing. (** Marcus ninja edit - i'm on a computer with a working spacebar just keys missing letters; inserting spaces into Courtney's post so no-one catches eye disease**)
So my initial impressions of Beijing are that it is an awesome city. It currently outweighs Shanghai in a big way. I "heart" Beijing! Everywhere we go is just cool, and we keep having these moments of whythe heck do we live in Wuxi!!! The hostel we are staying in is very good, the room is pretty small and the bathroom has that wonderful no shower curtain thing going on, so you basically turn the bathroom into a pool everytime you use it,but otherwise it's a great spot and the staff are so helpful and friendly. We are right in the middle of a huge area of hutongs, it's a really gorgeous spot. There are beautiful shops everywhere, trees, all this history going on all around us. We spent Saturday walking, literally all day. We meant to have an easy day, yet somehow managed to walk from our hostel through the HouHai area, which consists of a large lake and streets of awesome bars, down past BeiHai park, a spot of lunch, then more walking.....around the entire perimeter of the Forbidden City, and then finally Tianemen Square! We were buggered by the end of it,but it gave us a great view and feel of the city without actually going to any sights. It was a case of, let's just see what's around this corner, let's just walk tot he end of the street etc! Tianemen Square is a huge place, but didn't really have the, what's the word I'm looking for...I suppose the awe inspiring power I thought it would have. Saturday night was spent with a bit of bar hopping and dinner.
Yesterday we went to the Panjiayuan Flea Market, which is supposedly at it's best on Sundays. What a place! Not only was it huge but it was packed with people and great buys. A lot of what was on offer you see everywhere,but there was some amazing paintings and what seemed like the entire world's supply of jade. Not much was purchased, a pair of earrings for me and a couple of fans to use in the heat. This is a market where you haggle HARD, of course I hada moment of brain deadedness when I started haggling and offered more than what the stall owner had originally said...duuuhhhh. The heat was full on yesterday and we ended up crashing in a restaurant for a while to escape the sun. A great lunch was had before we headed off to the Temple of Heaven with a million ofour closest friends. Parts of this were stunning, the size,the gardens and the painting, but the actual "altar" part was just teeming with people, making it impossible to really take in or appreciate. After a quick pit stop at the Pearl Market it was back tothe hostel to freshen up.
Last night we thought we would just take it easy, grab a beer and some dinner. Oh how the best laid plans go awry! We started at a little rooftop bar down the road. There are just the coolest little bars everywhere here, and almost all of them have a rooftop section,which I just love. The one down the road is run by this very cute girl about my age, she is really sweet. After a beer there, we had been tossing up our options of where to eat. On the way to the bar we had taken a detour through some of the hutongs and near the Bell and Drum Towers which are just down the road, we found a little street that had rows of tiny tables and stools along the side of the road, and a guy cooking meat sticks on a bbq in the wall. Everyone was just hunkered down on these little stools devouring platefulls of sticksand beer. So it was decided that we would join the locals. What a great idea! We got a table, and Marcus went and ordered. Turns out the lady who ran the bbq side of things, knew an english speaking guy who worked at the place next door. So hecame over to see if we wanted anything else, of course we ordered some beers, and this next question was "Anything else? Maybe cucumber?" He seemed quite earnest on the cucumber front, so ok,what the heck,bring us cucumber! Within a few minutes we had a huge pile of sticks in front of us, and then appeared the cucumber, which we were so glad we tried. Just a plate of roughly chopped cucumber, drenched in this garlic/soy/vinegar dressing oh so good and refreshing with the spicy sticks. Marcus went off to get a couple more beers, when the guy behind us indicated that they were cheaper down the road. We thanked him and Marcus soon returned with beers that were of course more expensive than the food shop!
This guy was soon motioning for us to join him at his table, we figured why not. What ensued was a great night with this local guy, who spoke about 4 words of English. We had a great conversation with him though, he was pretty much tanked when we sat down as he had been drinking not only beer but baijiu (the rice wine) out of little plastic bags. And by the time we left we were pretty tanked too! Actually, it's not often I can say this, but Marcus was significantly in worse shape than me! This guy was cool though, we talked about China and where we lived, the school, where he lived etc. All in Chinese too might I add! The highlight of this entire thing was of course heading off across the hutong to use the bathroom. We've been amazed by the number of public bathrooms in the hutongs,of course it only just occured to us that these are people's bathrooms, because the little rooms they occupy in the hutongs dont have bathrooms. After muchmuch beer I could wait no longer so off I went. The day before I had already experienced one of these bathrooms. Let's just say it was pretty open, some little half walls in between each squatter, but no doors etc. Well this one was just a row of 3 squatters. Nothing else, and there was a woman at each of the end ones, meaning I would take centre stage in the middle. Well,when you gotta go you gotta go! Thankfully they didn't pay me TOO much attention ;-)
It was shortly after this that we left. The guy we were sitting with appeared to suddenly realise how drunk he was, and the mood shifted. He got real quiet and had that look to him that said "I'm about to spew". So we bid him goodbye and got the heck out of there before one of us was wearing his dinner. We strolled along into the square outside the Bell and Drum towers, and it wasn't long before we saw him stumbling along the street, stopping behind a rickshaw to have a bit of a vomit.
One thing about this country, I have seen and heard more vomit than I care to. Just this morning before I got up I could hear the guy in the next room vomiting. Vomiting and toilets,it's just a minefield here.
We then proceeded onto another bar for a final beer, which probably wasn't necessary! I think it was at this point that the alcohol started to hit Marcus. We crossed the road, only for himto turn to me halfway and say "Ican't see the road"...great, you were leading us!! Then a sudden fascination with my feet, which he followed up with the statement "Look at your feet, it's like I've never seen them before". And finally once I managed to get him back to the hostel, he asked if I was wearing my new earrings, which is where the title of my post comes from "They're cute, but I can't see them". Night Night Marcus.
So all in all, Beijing is great, I absolutely love it hear. It's one of those cities that if we had have been living here, I could see how you could stay for longer than a year. Everywhere you go there is stuff happening. From people going about their lives in the hutongs, to artwork, to cool bars...it's all hustle and bustle yet doesn't feel overwhelming. The heat isn't as bad as Wuxi, but it's still damned hot once you start wondering around. Sadly there aren't a lot of food vendors here, I think in the lead up to the games they have pushed a lot of people out of the city in a bid to clean it up. And it is a pretty clean city. Just being out on the street here feels exciting, there is so much to see and explore.
Today we are going ot explore the Lama Temple, which is the largest Tibetan temple outside of Tibet, and not that far from where we are staying. Tomorrow we have actually booked to go on a tour for the Great Wall. We've chosen to go to the Simatai section,which is further out and a little more treacherous and authentic. Not as many hawkers we hear! And the only tour which didn't involve going to factories or shops along the way. So it will be a couple of hours by bus which should give us a good chance to see some of the wider area, then about 3 hours to explore the wall and then onto a lunch at a farmer's restaurant. It's going to be a long day,all up about 11 hours but we can't wait, it's sure to be an amazing experience.
Well that's about all for now, sorry for no photos just text but the computer I'm on looks like it is from the 80s!
Until next time =)
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