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Random Street
Random Street Wall Hey guys, guess what...I'm in China (and sooo excited to be here)!!!
Day 0.5: So the flight over was some what painless. I can normally sleep anywhere/anytime, and did some of the on the 16 hour flight, but I also discovered that it is much easier to sleep when you are not someone Else's pillow 😊 Interesting note about the flight; we went directly over the north pole (on a sunny clear day) so Haley and i got a chance to see what it was like. (Just as you would imagine - you could even seen the cracks in the ice) - no reindeer though! We were a bit surprise when we landed in Beijing it was very hazy/or smoggy or something - you could not see very far. It almost looked like a sandstorm (I actually read that they get sandstorms here or a least sand winds).
We had arranged a taxi to our hotel and things went very smoothly We opted to stay at a hostel (Leo) to help us transition to things here in china. The first evening we walked around town a little bit - Haley was really out of it, looking a bit
Tower of Fragrant Buddha
Tower of Fragrant Buddha like a zombie, she was ready for bed but sucking it up for me i guess. i wanted to stay up as late as possible so that we could get back on the normal schedule. I convinced here by stopping at a massage parlor nearby
Massages!: So one thing that we were extremely excited about was the Massages. We had read a lot of stories about massage parlors around Beijing and wanted to check them out. So one of the last things that we did on our first night was get a foot massage (sooo excited.) We go into this pretty "classy" looking place (if a massage parlor can look classy) and sign up for the 20rmb massage ($2.50 = 45 minutes, can you believe that). It was an amazing massage but there where a few odd things about the place. (1) there was a huge TV in the room playing one of those randomly awful Chinese game shows - our massage chicks were constantly watching tv while massaging our feed (2) my girl had nooo same - she was picking at my toes nails, picking at my athletes foot, and pushing in my varicose (sp?) veins. I couldn't
Dinner
Dinner believe it. (3) there was a huge stage with speakers and all sorts of lighting around it - this is what made Haley and i VERY curious - what the hell goes on on that stage (they wouldn't tell us). We have now been back a few times but still have no idea. I see a section of rooms in the back with girls in nice dresses, so of course we assume the worst, but no one speaks any English so we have no way of asking. We are on a mission and will report back to you guys with any updates.
My stomach: So one thing that we had been a slight bit worried/excited about was the food. Well if anyone knows me they know that i am a bit of a trash talker. I was talking trash all week to Haley about how i have an iron stomach (I still stand by that statement), and how i won't need any of her stomach medicine, yadda yadda. Well guess who had an upset stomach before we even landed....it wasn't Haley.
I have been fine for the past few days though - and we have been pushing it a
Beijing Street
Beijing Street bit. Haley's approach is to not order any meat, because you really don't know what you are getting. On the very first day here, at our very first restaurant we ordered off a menu that was only Chinese - but it had a few pic's. I ordered something that looked like Chinese chicken and haley ordered some veggie plate. We knew right away that something was amiss with what she ordered - the entire restaurant (which was empty when we came in but now had about 10 people) where all crowded around our waitress talking Chinese at an amazing pace.) eventually someone came over with a cell phone that does translations and told Haley that she ordered a plate of hot peppers..hhaa. Ordering food is a bit of an adventure, you never really know what you are going to get. And the meat is a whole other thing. In the states we have chicken, beef, pork and fish for meat - here they eat anything! so you truley have no idea what you are getting - so far we have done pretty good - but then again, we just arrived( and i have no idea what is in all those
Dumplings
Dumplings at 6:00am dumplings i have been eating).
So after 2.5 days the most interesting menu items: donkey meat, pigs feet, boiled intestines.
[Clean but yet dirty:
Beijing (well at the the older part that we are staying in) is really dirty and somewhat smelly but they make great efforts to keep it clean. I always seem people sweeping and washing and cleaning up everywhere (even on the side of highways and in parking garages).
Day 1: On our first full day in china we decided to see as many sites in Beijing as possible (there are a lot) So we started with a trip (one hour) to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace was quiet impressive, lots of beautiful pagodas (temples) It was around a large lake and really spread out. It was tons of fun to hike around and check out everything. I got my first chance to hear a sitar (one string guitar)
We also saw the Forbidden City which was quiet amazing. It was my favorite place so far. The Forbidden City was a place that the royalty was only allowed until somewhat recently (50 years ago or so). These places were really amazing but not
Hrmonious Interest Garden
Hrmonious Interest Garden really much to write about. The most interesting thing was the names of some of the palaces and temples. Things like 'the palace of beautiful harmony and peaceful existence'. I'll have to me a proper list and include it in my next blog
That night we where exusted but went to see the Chinese Opera. Which proved to be a bit boring at first but ended really strongly.
Random one liners: The real china is actually very similar to china towns - surprisingly. Which is part of the reason that this trip does feel 'real' yet. You have the exact same colorful archways everywhere - and dragon boats (straight out of disney world). and old men with long thin beards and rice hats.
So the very first day, on our very first outing i got us lost. I am normally a champ at maps and this made me feel a little less like a man since i couldn't read the map...but alas it wasn't my fault (they gave us an incorrect map)- so i can still calm manhood
We got hustled by a tuk tuk driver kinda of who pointed out a few famous landmarks
Tiananmen Square Guard
Tiananmen Square Guard on our ride home and then insisted on $40 dollars, i ended up giving me $2.50 but he should have gotten maybe $1
I met a Swedish couple that had been travelling around for 4 months. Whenever they would get home sick they'd take a trip to Ikea and eat meatballs. I got a good laugh out of that.
We don't see very many other western tourists...just other asian tourists
These peopel spit luggies like there is no tomorrow
We did the great wall today but I will write about that in the next blog.
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badass, man!
Dude, that looks awesome! I hope to have one of your crazy travel adventures someday!