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Published: October 9th 2008
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Goodness, Beijing is busy! We were very lucky in SE China with it not being crowded but it is def the opposite here. Apparently it is a public holiday in China and everyone has come to Beijing! It is quite a change from the nice countryside--an absolute madhouse!!!
We arrived around midnight so didn't make it to our hostel until around 1am to learn that the hostel didn't pay attention to our reservations and we did not have a room. They were nice enough about it and put us in a more expensive hostel and paid the difference and then we got the one we booked the next day. Still, a little annoying when it is so late at night and we just wanted to go to bed!
On our first day we went to the forbidden city which was amazing but crazy busy with tourists! So many people. And so few westerners. In the evening we went out for roast duck which is supposed to be the speciality in beijing. It was fantastic but pretty similar to what we got in the Sydney China town. Still fun to get the real thing though.
On day 2 we
decided to go to the olympic stadium. We knew we had to go to one subway stop to pick up the tickets but the tickets were sold out until 4 October (day we leave) so we decided to go to stadium and hope we could buy from people outside at an inflated price. I was quite proud of myself when I got two tickets for 100 Y (about $15 USD) as most people seemed to be paying twice that. But I think in reality the tickets would have been free if I knew where to get them. The stadium was fantastic though. We could not get inside the birds nest but it was still impressive from the outside. We felt like minor celebrities there (well, maybe just odd looking people) as a few people thought we were so interesting that they asked to take our picture with them. I can just see them going though their photos with friends---"And then we saw these really funny looking people and got our picture with them".
The next day we went to see the Great Wall which was fantastic. We took a chance and booked it up with a random company and
negotiated a huge discount--Y100 each instead of Y250 each. Very funny actually, before we got in the van the driver handed us Y300 and told us to pay in Y500 later so that the other passengers would not be angry that we paid less. We were very pleased with our negotiation skills. We were supposed to go to a peaceful part of the wall where there were less tourists and we got exactly what we wanted. Our group had 6 people including us and we only saw a few other people when we were at the wall. I am sure that at the major tourist parts it was very busy like the rest of Beijing. It was fantastic, we walked for a few hours along the wall and really enjoyed ourselves. Def recommend the company to others...www.tingstours.com is their website. We met a nice couple who were doing the opposite trip of us--they used to live in London and were going back to Sydney and they had just come from South America. That evening the four of us went out to a really nice duck restaurant which was a little pricey for us--but very good. They gave us loads of
Birds Nest
After the lady took this picture of us, she asked if she could jump in and had someone else take a picture with us and her. tips on S. America and went on and on about how much they loved it. Apparantly noone speaks english in Peru or Bolivia which is a worry---anyone that was in my Spanish class in high school will understand what I'm talking about. They also said the food was not fantastic but overall it was a fantastic place and they prefered it to Asia even though it was a lot harder travelling. So, hopefully it will all work out---I'm practicing spanish!!
Next day we went to the Summer Palace which we really enjoyed once we got away from the crowds. We spent the afternoon taking it easy and going for a nice walk around the lake where there were less people. That evening we went out for market food for dinner and had a really nice time eating all kinds of things including meat on a stick, melon on a stick and corn on the cobb.
Overall Beijing was a fantastic place. We had such a long time there that it was a bit of a chill out even though we were busy everyday. The crowds were crazy though and some of the chinese idiosyncries were driving us crazy
by the time we left. They are not much for queueing up and like to push and shove to the front of the line instead of waiting--and dont let people off the subway before pushing on which can be very diffifcult when there are huge crowds. But, the most annoying thing would have to be the spitting. Everyone spits ALL THE TIME! And, I'm not talking about a little spit, but a very long drawn out noisy one coming from the gut of the offending persons throat---really quite horrid!
So, when we got to Hong Kong it was quite a refreshing feeling as it was so western and really easy to get around. If we were ever to live in Asia it would be in Hong Kong. We were quite excited to be there and actually leave the airport--over the past few years we have been to the airport a half dozen times to catch connecting flights. All of the skyscrappers remind you of New York but the Bay reminds you of Sydney. They have a fantastic ferry system (loads better than sydney and about 1/10 the cost!) which we used all the time, the subway is much more expensive. We met up with one of robs coworkers for one afternoon and took the cable car to top of the mountain which was very nice. The rest of the time was spent just walking around the city. We only had 2.5 day and the weather was not perfect the whole time but we really enjoyed it. Rob got 2 tailored suits which are being sent to the UK so hopefully they will work out well. Overall a very well spent couple of days.
After Hong Kong we had an awful 63 hour journey to S. America. Due to bad weather we got stuck in Christchurch--of all places--and for various reasons had to spend the night there which put us a full day behind schdule. Currently we are in Guayaquil Ecuador and I'm jetlegged so decided to update the blog. Rob is sleeping so I can't go through the bags to get the memory card for uploading pictuures from Great Wall and Hong Kong but we'll hopefully do that in a week or so. Looking forward to the galapagos!!!
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