Mainland China...

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Well, the reason we spent so much time docked in Hong Kong (5 days) was because there were multiple SAS trips traveling to mainland China. These were all “presale trips”, trips that you had to sign up for before the ship left back in june because they are all overnight trips. I didn’t sign up because all the China ones were just about, or over, $1000. And I just thought that was a little much. However, about a week or two before Hong Kong…I think I was in Singapore at the time, I got extremely upset that I wouldn’t be traveling to mainland China. How could I come this far and NOT see the Great Wall? I just thought it would be something I would regret forever. So I thought about it and thought about it, and finally decided that I had to go no matter how much it cost. So, I found this other girl who put a sign up around the ship saying she was going, so I wrote her a note and left it on her door and we started communicating through these notes because we always seemed to miss one another. Once I found out how much it was I almost changed my mind. But, in Vietnam, on the last day (this is two days before Hong Kong), I decided to book a flight to Beijing. So I booked it. Thank god they still had seats left on her flight. I had no idea where we’d stay or how we’d do it, but I booked it.

So, the day after we got to Hong Kong, at 4:45AM, I woke up and got dressed, and we walked to the train station in the POURING rain, and I mean pouring. We were completely soaked. We took the train to a little town right on border of China, called Lo Wu, and then after going through the process of crossing the border, we boarded on a bus to Shenzhen. That bus ride took about an hour, and it took us right to the Shenzhen airport. I was VERY nervous about flying. I had heard a lot of stories about flying in China, and I don’t usually get nervous about flying, but here I was. Anyway, we flew Air China, and it was actually a pretty nice plane, and they even gave us a meal. The flight was three hours long, I got some sleep in and some reading done. We arrived at the Beijing Airport at about 1 something I think, and then there was a bus that took us to downtown, where pretty much everything is. Once it dropped us off, we walked and walked until we found a hostel. I had done some research, along with the other girl, as to look for places to stay (we have a China guide book), and we found one that said it was pretty safe and cheap. However, after walking all the way there and it being such a long day already, the hostel was full. Luckily there was another one a little ways down the road. Thank god they had a room left. It was called New Dragon Hostel. And despite the 12 bug bites I have down my arm, the one on my ear, the no air-conditioning, and the shower that had no curtain and was just a nozzle on the ceiling, I’m really glad that I got to experience staying in a hostel. It was pretty cool. It was kind of like we were roughing it, buuuut not really. But it sure felt like it. I refused to take a shower in that thing. Well, we put our stuff down, and then headed out into the city of Beijing.

Ah, the city of Beijing. I don’t know what anyone knows about it, and I don’t want to form anyone’s opinion, but let’s just say I’m not a fan. It’s just extremely hard to get around, and some of the people were so rude and aggressive, and it was just so crowded. Granted, their population is like 1.3 billion people, plus all the tourists so I should have expected this, but I think the main problem was just getting around. Nothing is in English, obviously, so it was just difficult, and especially with only have three days. The 2008 Olympics will be in Beijing. Which, by the way, is really cool and I’m glad I was there now because I got to see them setting up some things for it, and they already have a bunch of stores open specifically for it, and all the Chinese are very excited about it. Anyway, we walked around trying to find this restaurant. We walked so far, and got to the Forbidden city walls, and figured out we couldn’t get to the restaurant because we were blocked by the Forbidden City. More about that in a bit. While we were figuring out what to do, a college student stopped us and was really excited to practice her English. Her name was Mai, and she was so cute. She walked around with us, and even went with us to dinner at the Peking Duck. We got a whole duck, and it was pretty good, I like duck, but the skin was not very good at all. Very oily and greasy, so later on I was feeling a bit nauseas. Anyhow, she took us by the snack market where they have a bunch of little stalls set up and raw food like octopus and other interesting things that they cook right there and put it on a stick so you can eat it. So, just imagine walking through here and seeing all these people chomping on these sticks with tentacles hanging down. Haha. Anyway, after dinner we were so wiped out from our long day (by this time, though it was like 9:30ish) so we went back to the hostel, and passed out. Without the air.

Which brings me to the next day. When I woke up with 12 bug bites on my arm, one on my ear, one on my other arm, and one on my leg. These bugs, mosquitos or bed bugs I don’t know, they are most likely full of my blood by now. We woke up at 7AM for our trip to the Great Wall. It is SO hard to get around Beijing it’s not even funny. We had to take a cab (another hard thing to do because of the language barrier) to a bus station, then walk to another bus station, then get on those for like a little less than 2 hours. We finally arrived at the Great Wall, and it was…great. Well, okay, I was a BIT disappointed, because there were a ridiculous amount of people and it was really foggy so we couldn’t see perfectly, but looking back I’m so glad I did it. If I didn’t I’d be kicking myself. So, we climbed the great wall. It was awesome. It is SO steep, and seems never-ending. I can’t wait to show pictures. Oh, and there is this huge sign on the mountains of the Wall for the Olympics, and that was cool.

After the bus ride back to downtown, we took a subway to Tiananmen Square, the largest public square on earth. It was really cool, and gina bought a kite and we flew it around because apparently that’s the cool thing to do in the square. Then we went over to Forbidden City. Forbidden City is the forbidden city because it is like an enclosed palace. The emperors used to live there, and would rarely leave it, and no one else was allowed in. So that was pretty cool. It was weird, there was actually a Starbucks inside. Ha. After that, we ate dinner. At McDonald’s. I know that’s pretty weird since I can get that anywhere, but seriously, I just totally needed a break from anything Asian smelling and tasting. So, McDonald’s it was. And it was delicious. Then, we went to an acrobatic show with three girls from our hostel who were from London. The hostel people drove us there and back, and it was such a cool show. All the tricks were amazing. And they were little kids which made it even cooler.

The next day was MY flight back to Shenzhen. Somewhere along the line, Gina and I mixed up our signals and booked different flights. She was flying the last day we were docked and I was flying the second to last. However, I made it to the airport all by myself. Even though the cab driver couldn’t speak English. Right before I got into the cab I said airport, and he just stared, and I refused to get in until I knew for sure he knew where to go, so then he started making these airplane noses and waving his arms like a plane, and pointing to the sky. So it was okay. And once I got to the airport, and checked in, I went to get a cup of coffee and took out my book to read, and all of a sudden I heard my name. So, apparently this OTHER girl, who was in Beijing independently as well, had changed her flight to an earlier one which turned out to be the same as mine. So, we found our way back to Hong Kong together. All in all, it was cool, and I am glad I did it I don’t regret it, but I was so glad to be back in Hong Kong. I really just wasn’t a huge fan of Beijing. But it was all a good experience…and now it’s dwindling down…

Next: South Korea…

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