A Bad Start in Beijing

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I don't like to be negative in my blogs, especially not at the beginning of an entry but we didn't exactly have the best of starts to our time in Beijing. Are you sitting comfortably? Let me begin...

First off, our flight out of Hong Kong wasn't until nearly 5pm but we had to check out of the hostel by 10am. We were both quite happy to go as we'd spent enough time looking at the inside our our room while I was recovering from my bout of flu. Thankfully the medicine was doing it's thing and I was feeling far better though still not quite up to my usual standards. As a result, we decline the hostel's offer to mind our bags so we could spend some last minute time enjoying Hong Kong, and instead headed straight for the airport where we knew there would be air-conditioning. I still had a bit of fever and this was the best thing for me - sorry Glynn!

It was at this point, things started not to go our way. First off, when we caught the airport bus, we didn't have the exact change of HK$66 and so had to kiss goodbye the last HK$14 of our money as we only had HK$80 in notes on us. We could have got change and waited for the next bus but it was a supremely hot morning with full sunshine (normally it's quite hazy) and neither of us had it in us to stand around and wilt for another 20 mins till the next bus came. Oh well, just a small thing.

The flight to Beijing was a joy. Cathay Pacific really are a fab airline to fly with and I was just as impressed with their service this time as when we left Japan for Hong Kong last week. We didn't arrive until 8pm so Glynn had arranged an airport pick-up by our hostel, the Leo Hostel. They didn't turn up. We had to buy a phone card for 100 Yuan (about 5 quid) to make a 0.5 Yuan phonecall to the hostel to find out where they were.Another waste of money. "We'll be there in 3 minutes", they said. It was currently 9.00pm and they should have been there at 8.30. When 9.30 came and went, we were both getting really fed-up of waiting as well as sick of fighting off the constant stream of hotel and taxi touts who could see we'd been hanging around for ages. Another phonecall to the hostel gave us the news that the car had broken down and they wouldn't be coming - we had to get a taxi instead!

The taxi queue was huge though it moved quite fast and within 25 minutes we were on our way. It was now just after 10pm and we were pretty shattered. The taxi drove fast down the many stretches of multi-laned streets of Beijing (I was a little nervous as there was no seat belt in the back) and after a very long journey, we finally arrived - but not at the hostel! Instead, the chap dropped us outside a weird looking hotel, phoned the hostel and then assured us that someone was coming to get us. We then paid him (surprisingly cheap fare of only 10 pounds for about 1.5 hours) and to our dismay, he drove off! Glynn looked at me and I could tell he was thinking the same thing as me, namely "Oh shit..." but just a few minutes later, a Chinese guy called Jim (?) turned up on his bike and led us to the hostel. It was now nearly midnight and we were very relieved to be there.

Then they broke the news that they couldn't give us our room (I suspect they had sneakily rented it out to someone else while we were trying to get to the hostel) but they had an "ok" one for us just for one night. It was at a reduced rate and we were so tired that we went along with it. Oh my God, what an awful room! While it looked generally clean, the sheets obviously hadn't been washed; the window had bars on it and was covered by a stained curtain simply strung between two hooks; there was virtually no furniture and the twin beds were very uncomfortable and squeaky; the block was at the back of hostel, well out of the way of things so we didn't feel too safe; we had a commununal bathroom down the hall that wasn't too bad but none of the toilet or shower doors had locks and this was for mixed use...you get the general idea. We needed to sleep so we got our sleeping bags and travel pillows out and tried to make the best of it. Unfortunately neither of us slept too well and my thoughts in the night turned constantly to wondering "what do we do if the room we get tomorrow isn't any better?".

Well, it turned out everything was ok with the new room. It's not as nice as anything we've stayed in so far but it's got furniture, an ensuite bathroom and comfy beds. It's in the main part of the hostel so we feel a bit more secure and both feel happy enough to stay here now. We've decided just to spend 10 days in beijing now instead of 14 (we even considered staying longer so we could meet up with Claire and Brett but I'm afraid we won't be able to make it now, sorry Claire) and then head towards Xi'an after that. I'll keep you posted daily as this is subject to change! So far, we've only paid for 5 nights so that we have time to make up our minds. Let's see! Main thing is that we're safe and sound - just!

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Comments

[mom harris]

sad day
sorry to here about the hostel.hope the next place is better.take care love mom and dad plus lee x x x x x x x