Back Log Blog!

Obviously I haven’t been posting any of my blog while I’ve been out here, but I have been intermittently writing it. So here’s the writing from Beijing:

Hey everyone. Sorry about my silence since leaving on Friday. Working internet has been difficult in my hostel (I can get on Skype but no websites; God knows why). Anyway; my first day in China was a disaster. The taxi I booked never showed up, so I had to make my way to the hostel myself. I got a bus into central Beijing, which went fine. Then I got a “taxi” to my hostel. NEVER get a taxi in Beijing. He took me somewhere completely wrong and then MASSIVELY over charged me. Thankfully I found my way thanks to some locals and some foreigners; it only took me 5 hours…

Anyway, after that, I was stressed, hungry and tired. So what’s the first thing someone in my position does? DRINK! I went to a foreigners bar only 3 minutes from my hostel, started on my drink (10¥CN for a 66o bottle :D), then a guy I’d asked for directions from saw me and invited me to join. He was with a New Zealander (called himself a Kiwi); a nice guy into good  music and a bit of a pot-head; and an Irishman; a 41 year old that’d been cycling the world for 3 years; so I chatted with the guy who id gotten directions off of. Turns out him and his group of four were from Finland, 2 couples but I haven’t spoken to the others much. After that guy left, I spoke to the Kiwi and the Irishman, then the 3 of us got talking to 2 Swiss girls, then the Kiwi left (he went to Shanxi province today, so early night for him), and the Irishman, the Swiss girls and I got talking to a Scot, a Swede and a American. I hung around drinking until 3AM. That was all last night (Saturday 38^th).

Today was a bit of a write off. A mixture of jet –lag and a hangover meant I stayed in bed until 4PM local time (only around 9AM GMT). Obviously it was a waste of a day, but it couldn’t be helped. I got up around 1PM (maybe) and got two bottles of water (550ml each as I can tell) then went back to bed in my room 130. Eventually I got up and had some breakfast/lunch. The food arrived to me in the bar at around 6PM (maybe), and I ate while watching 50 First Dates, which was nice for a hangover. A few other Europeans watched too, but I think it was more for the bar maid person. She’s a nice girl, doesn’t speak a lot of English but she gets very giggly when she tries. I don’t mindJ.  I had “noodles with chicken” for breakfast, strange for the first thing to eat in a day, but I’m used to it now (I had rice with something for dinner on the plane and noodles with something for breakfast on the plane [check me out going native!]). It was pretty nice. Around 6PM I went for walk (unfortunately in flip-flips which hurt like a bitch; shoes tomorrow!!). I walked along the main street that I’m living on, a kept walking for around 30 minutes. It seems I’m in a very touristy area, just south of Tiananmen Square, but I was surprised at how many Chinese tourists there are around here (I’ll get back to the Chinese later).  I just walked up through a shopping/restaurant district for a while, before having to go home in time for a Skype call with my family. So I went back, had a coke and called my family. After that, I went for a drink where I went last night, a cool foreigner bar called Helen’s (despite seeing no one called Helen). It was early and pretty quiet, so I finished my Tsingtao and when back home.

When I got home, a dumpling party had just started (I know they are gyoza in Japanese, but I don’t know what they are in Chinese). I went upstairs and made one, poorly. The staff; who seem to live/eat/drink here, did most of them. I got talking to an Irishman, an Israeli and an American with a French (?) girlfriend. After a while, a few beers and dozens of Avril Lavigne songs, the staff had prepared loads of dumplings and had cooked them, so I ate a plate full of them. They were a really good snack, but I should have something bigger! The Irishman and I headed off to Helen’s for a few, and once there got talking to the Fin from Saturday night, then a group of Swedes on a group trip (I spoke to four of them out of around 30) , and they were a nice bunch.

Oh, just remembered; as we left my hostel, a storm had started. Lots of rain at first, nd even more thunder and lightning. But by the time we reached Helen’s, it had finished. So we talked and drank with the Swedes for few hours, until I left around 2AM. I tried Swedish snuff, sort of a black lump you suck on, tastes like liquorice or sambuca. It was alright, but after a while made me start hiccupping and then feel really sick. Got over that and now I’m back in my hostel, in bed typing away. So I’ve met people from 12 different countries in less than 72 hours (England, Japan, America, China, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, Finland, Scotland, Switzerland, Israel and New Zealand). This travelling alone thing is pretty cool. Also, I’ve out drunk an Irishman tonight, which I’m pretty proud of.

I tried to help a Japanese woman use a pay phone at Heathrow, turns out the phone was out of order though. This woman decided to sit with me and talk before we boarded anyway. She was a strange looking woman, in her 30-40s, really pale; grey even; make-up, stupidly skinny and with glasses. She’d been to a lecture at Canterbury University and was headed home. Her father was Chinese and her mother Dutch, but both moved to Japan. Her Japanese name was 実花 or Mika in Japanese, but went by Alice by Dutch. She’s given me her phone number (both home and mobile), and said to visit her in Nagoya as she lives alone. I think it’s a bit weird, but people say it’s just being friendly Japanese. Either way, I’m not going to Nagoya.

So that’s what’s happened on my trip so far, definitely too much drinking and sleeping, and I’ll cut down on both tomorrow. 9AM start to go to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City tomorrow.

Day 3 in Beijing. Today I finally got over the jet lag and managed to get up reasonably early. I headed up to Tiananmen Square. The gate itself is impressive, but apart from that it is quite underwhelming. Thousands and thousands of tourists, mostly Chinese, funnelling through thin gateways and over bridges. Once inside, the walls are dilapidated, with huge bits of the paint falling away. Add to that the constant Beijing smell of a hundred cigarettes, and it definitely kills off the glory that you see in the photos. After Tiananmen Square, I carried on heading up into the Forbidden City. The entrance fee is ¥60 Chinese, so around £6. It was a bit more interesting, but again it was full of tourists. At least this time there was no smoke though. I can’t remember looking back now, but I can almost guarantee that I spent another night at Helen’s. I think this was the night that I ended up staying awake drinking until 8am with Hannah, a Canadian girl, and Linus, a Finnish guy. Both really cool, but that long drinking hurts. Some of the staff from the bar were hanging around as well, long after it had closed. We started playing a game of how many Chinese people would respond when we shouted “Nihao!” (hello). I think I won. This part was technically day 4 now. Oh and that night, I met about 20 Canadians, some French-Canadians, the rest normal. Played a weird card game with the French-Canadians, something to do with werewolves and peasants… I don’t know.

Day 4 in Beijing.

This day I was invited by Hannah to hang with her and the Canadians, and a guy from Manchester as well. We went to a much more modern part of Beijing and looked around there, had a few beers. There’s not a lot I can say about that day, I didn’t see anything worth saying, just hung out with some really cool people. That night we went to a Pizza place near a stadium in Beijing, I forget the names of both. But these pizzas were huge, 18 inches I think. I ate so much pizza, and it was so good! And for very little money too. On the way back some Chinese street kid tried to mug us of our leftover food, and he nearly got smacked in the face by a couple of the Canadians. Damn urchins! After that, I think I must have gone to Helen’s again. It was really quiet that night, I have no idea why, so I drank with John, a very loud man from Georgia in the States. Loud and a bit annoying, but a good guy. While there I got chatting to some Mexican girls. Very nice Mexican girls. ¡Muy guapa!

These girls were travelling in China for 3 weeks, an were the only girls I had met so far close to my age (two were 19, and the other 20). And that was my last night in China. I drank with the Canadians some more and got some really good Chinese street food. Until then, I didn’t trust the Chinese street food, in case I got ill. These kebabs were supposedly mutton, but I am a bit sceptical about that! Either way it tasted great and like everything else in China, it was dirt cheap. I probably went home about 4am, despite needing to get up at 5 to leave for the airport. Needless to say I overslept, and had to rush and get a taxi to the airport. But all in all it worked out fine. China is an amazing place once you get into the flow of things. Obviously I had a bad first day, but after that things really got better. I met a huge amount of really amazing people out there, and I am definitely going back someday.