Travelling

---

So at 6 am on Thursday I set off to China. So far this has involved a 3 hour car drive, a 5 hour wait at Heathrow, a 6 hour flight to Doha, a 10 minute wait at Doha, an 8 hour flight to Beijing, an hour long wait at Beijing, an hour bus journey and an hour's walking. I'm not entirely sure if I'm tired or not, but at the moment the room seems to be rocking ever so slightly and I must have had a maximum of 4 hours sleep since I woke up at 5 yesterday. It's about 10 in the morning for you, so that's 29 hours...

Getting on the plane I found my window seat was on the wing, which, whilst being probably the safest place does mean dull views. A man came to sit next to me who ended up being quite an interesting person to talk to - he was heading to Hong Kong on business and had been to China many times before, so we ended up discussing it, which was nice. Because neither of our TVs were working, we also ended up debating religion (me taking my usual devil's advocate position, him taking the disappointing atheist line of "you're stupid!") - in retrospect this debate probably wasn't a good idea considering we were headed for a Middle Eastern country on a plane that told you which way Mecca was...but never mind.

Having wrapped up warmly for the cold weather in England and Beijing, I'd forgotten the stop over in Doha. Getting off the plane it was a humid 20 degrees celcius, which doesn't sound too bad but for the fact that it was midnight!!! Fortunately it was only a quick change over - no sooner had my passport been checked than I was off to the plane to Beijing. This was the first time I actually felt foreign. Probably the first time I've EVER actually felt foreign, as I've only ever been to Europe or America, where people don't notice you're different until you open your mouth. I was suddenly very conscious of my whiter than white skin.

The trip to Beijing was interesting - my TV was working, and I was sat next to an elderly Chinese man. Despite the fact that we spoke none of each others languages, we managed to communicate quite well. He spent quite a lot of the trip talking out loud in Chinese (could have been Cantonese or Mandarin, I don't know...), and I'm hoping the conversation wasn't aimed at me; as if my appearance didn't give my lack of understanding away, my bemused smiles and embarassed demeanour should have done.

Getting to Beijing airport, after going through long security checks (the checks weren't really as long as the queues, but still), I went to the baggage collection area (by these tram/train things that connect the gates to the terminals - Beijing airport is awesome). Going to one of the carousels that a board told me bags from my flight would be on, I saw only 2 black suitcases - no bright red rucksack. My heart sank. Until I realised that I was an idiot, and was at the carousel for flights from Dubai instead of flights from Doha.
Beijing is interesting. The airport is hideously overpriced (I paid 20RMB for a cup of bitter lemon tea because I was parched - when you consider that my bus from the airport to the train station cost 16RMB). I'm stared at a lot, I don't know whether it's because I'm a westerner or because of my cowboy hat, but a number of people have stared at me approaching and then turned round to keep watching me when I pass them...it's quite weird. Most are very nice though, in particular a girl I sat next to on the bus who laughed when an announcement made me jump out of my sleep and then spent the rest of the journey marvelling at the size of my hands compared to hers. She can't get out much.

Beijing train station was a nightmare though. I couldn't find anyone who spoke English, and Chinese people kept pushing me out of the way so they could speak to the person behind the desk. I eventually gave up due to feeling tired and a little overwhelmed and will get my train ticket tomorrow.

Final bit of travel was my epic walk from the train station to the hotel. Arrogantly pushing aside the taxi touts (who try to force you to take their taxis, I had to keep saying no until they stopped following me) I decided that from my map of Google earth I'd printed off before i left, I could easily find the hotel. An hour after i set off I was depressed and confused, my feet hurt, my back hurt and I was about to turn around and go back to the train station (an hour walk the other way) to find a taxi, when a sign appeared saying "Beijing Saga Hostel". I could have cheered. In fact, I think I did a little bit. So now I'm on a computer that's as slow as molasses up a hill but happy that I can now relax for tonight!

No photos or videos yet, I've just been too tired to take any, but they're coming.

---