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April 24th 2009

Published: May 3rd 2009

April 24
So my day started off pretty sweet, morning hot tub soak and shower. From my sauna it was a short walk to the train station to grab my bag and the bus stop was right outside. We managed to get passed by 3 other airport buses on the way our driver was really slow. But we made it with time to spare. I was just sitting down after check on to eat some crackers and peanut butter and milk when I heard my name called over the loud speaker. They had scanned my bag for security and wanted to see me knife. I don't know why, I was leaving the country and it was under the plane. The girl said your not allowed knives to bring big knives but again I was leaving not arriving so I was confused but they let me go through. The flight was a bit bumpy but not terrible. Customs and immigration were a breeze. I was expecting a bit more. I tried to find and info center to get a map or something but I couldn't find it then I couldn't find the airport subway. I went out the exit that had it in the sign but once out there there wasn't any more signs for anything. I walked around asked a few people and finally found it in the basement. As I was walking up I noticed a xray machine. I thought shit my knives and with out fail they wouldn't let me on the subway with them. They had only noticed my filet knife so I almost left it there but then worried about my good dive knife. The girl said I could take it on the bus. So apparently I can stab people but just walking around or on buses but not underground. I almost took the bus to the city but I had asked the girl if they have xrays there as well and she said yes. I wanted to leave them at that desk but she said no to that too. She said they wouldn't take them at the luggage storage either. I was stuck. I didn't want to have to navigate by bus both couch surfer guys I talked to said it's really hard for foreigners because there is no English. I am splitting my time here with 2 surfers so I'd be on the subway a bit and I didn't want to chance loosing my dive knife. I tried the left luggage area but that would have been 30 for the week. I thought about hiding them or burring them somewhere. Then I thought about mail. The first quote I got was $130 air mail. No way then sea mail was 17 ish so I bummedly did that. I don't think bummedly is a word but you get the idea. Then got back to the subway passed the bag check even though there is a leather man pocket knife thing in there too.
I got to the stop where I was told to get off and I walked around a bit. It's super trafficy and tons of people it's really windy too which I think is normal. I caught a taxi to chris's apt (the couch surfer) now just waiting till he gets home since the other cs isn't at his place either. He is hosting 2 of us this week pretty cool. So I went and grabbed some food then tried to see if anyone was in the apt and the other surfer was so he left me in. His name is Ebrie he is Taiwanese Canadian. We talked for along time then Chris finally came home. His parents are visiting so it made it kind of weird. They aren't staying with him but they came over. They went out to dinner so Ebrie and I talked some more then went to grab some food. I had some awesome meat on a stick then I got dome sort of dough balls with meat and veggies inside. They were pretty good as well. When we got back we all sat around and chatted a while till we feel asleep.

April 25
I woke up around 8 or so but I stayed in bed till around 10 because the other guys weren't up yet and I didn't want to be rude. Finally, the woke up Ebrie and I went to get some breakfast. Chris came with us because he needed to get some more keys made. We finally found this tiny shop they guy made the keys and saw chris was holding a key card as well and the guy said to him he can make them too. I was stunned this was a tiny street vendor with keys and some bike parts how is he going to make a copy of an electronic key card. But he pulled out this tiny machine and synced a new card in seconds it was amazing.
Anyway Ebrie and I then had steamed dumplings for breaky which were pretty good. Then we got some massive strawberries and some hot/warm soy milk apparently it's very typical for breaky. After that Ebrie and I headed to Tienanmen square and forbidden city. T square is massive and really cool looking they scan everyones bags to get in there as well. We walked around a tiny bit them crossed the street to Forbidden City which was amazingly big but it was basically temple style building after temple style building once you see one you see them all. The courtyards were pretty cool and the garden in the back was pretty neat as well.
I would have liked to rent a bike and hit more spots today but Ebrie tagged along and he is a weird traveler. He doesn't go to places to see sights he goes to meat people. He is really nice and talkative and speaks some Chinese so it's been awesome ordering food and things. It's just weird be doesn't sight see unless he's tagging along with other travelers. And he's got very little money so when we had to pay to get in Forbidden city I felt bad for him a bit. But anyway after FC we walked to a street market where we had kebabs then noticed the live scorpions on sticks. I'm super pumped, game on. I ordered a stick 4 scorpions and a stick of a sea horse. I thought you got to eat them alive but they fried them. The scorpions weren't bad at all they were pretty good the sea horse was terrible though dirty and bitter tasting. We then got some sort of baked good that was quite tasty like a flattened croissant but little sweet. Then we saw another bug stand where they had centipedes, silk worm, grass hoppers, sea dragons, cicadas, star fish, scorpions, little geckos, and sea horses. This time we tried the centipede, silk worm and star fish. The centipede didn't gave much too it just it's skin on the stick. The silk worm wasn't terrible it was a little mushy and had a weird texture to it. The star fish tips were ok very salty and sea food taste to it but as you got closer to it's center where it's mouth and ass are it was very bitter and pretty bad. I still was to try the cicadas and sea dragon. However, they are all fried and pretty much anything fried is going to be crunchy and taste the same.
After our food adventure it was getting late so we headed back to chris where we hung out for a while then went and got something to eat. We had lamb kebabs and some sort of pasta with a tomato sauce both were delicious. We went back to chris's hung out talked a while and hit the sack

April 26
Well I'm up early again and since it's the weekend chris doesn't have work and us sleeping in. Which seems to be the biggest down fall of couch surfing I feel like I'm at the bane of the host. I don't want to take off and be rude so I'm just lying here waiting. I may move to the other couch surfers place because chris had told me he might not be here the whole time I'm here. Which would be good because I'd have a bit more freedom I think. But I think I mentioned it to ebrie yesterday and be wants to contact the same other surfer I am going to stay with. I feel like this kid is a leech. He's really nice and been helpful but I have been on my own for 4 months and I don't want to miss anything here because of it. He's only 19 so he's young and doesn't really appreciate things I don't think. Or just appreciates different things. I don't know. Well hopefully they will get up soon so I can do something.
Well they did and ebri and I grabbed some breaky then chris showed us how to get to the summer palace.
The palace is large and beautiful it covers something like 70 ha. It's up in a hill one side over looks Beijing the o ther side over looks a beautiful lake. We bought the through ticket which let us hit all the main spots. The suzho river walk was really cool it was meant to resemble an ancient city and it had a Venice feel to it because it was a small walking path arlong the river with buildings right up to the river. The tower of Buddha incense was large and beautiful. We also got to see the garden of virtue and harmony that had a small pond inside full of tree flower peddles so of was really gorgeous. We also saw 2 galleries but they weren't anything special. One had some cool carved furniture and the other had some small statues. We grabbed some weird egg sandwich on the way back. Then I had some street meat when we got home. Chris had his girlfriend and a 2 other friends over so we all hung out and chatted awhile before bed.

April 27
Ebrie turned out to be pretty decent yesterday. I don't feel rushed much or I was making him pay so it's was cool to see things with him. So today we went to see the Lama temple which was similar to most except it's the largest in china and has a 38 meter Buddha carved from one tree inside. It was really massive and really cool. After that we had good buffet style lynch then I got some more bugs. This time the cicadas and the sea dragon. The cicadas were decent a little bitter but not to bad and the dragon was definitely better than the sea horse but pretty hard. Ebrie said be wanted photos if him eating the scorpions so we got them again this time they had much bigger ones. The heads are I guess meatier so that bit wasn't bad but the back end, the business end, was pretty bitter and not very good.
Then we popped into a craft store but it was the high end touristy style one so we left. Ebrie had to go pick up his visa for Russia so he did that and I tired to visit Beijing under ground city but it looks like it's closed for good for some reason. Then on the way home I noticed this new street. They made these new building look old I think it will be a shopping street but it's so new nothing in them but it was a pretty street. Then I just headed home used the net a while then chris showed me a place to eat the guys came with me and we all hung out a bit, now just off to bed.

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