A Journey to Well Known Places

So, I board the plane and I have been given the best seat in coach. The aisle seat next to the emergency exit. In a 747 there is a four foot by four foot area in front of the exit so I got to stretch out and sleep for hours on end.

I arrived in Beijing at 5Am, caught a cab and made my way to the hotel. The first thing I noticed was the that only the entrance way light came on….the rest of the switches did not work. And it was small. I wouldn’t give it three stars, but I am not complaining. The next thing I noticed was that they are a total tourist trap. They triple the prices of their water and internet (and likely everything else) so stupid tourists like me will buy them…which I did. I truth though, coming from the US, Beijing in relatively inexpensive. I bought some fresh fried bread and two pancake thingys with some spicy paste on them off the street for 3 yuan. There are 7.7 yaun to the dollar. An hour at the internet cafe is 20 yuan and this is the overpriced tourist one with a big sign outside that says INTERNET CAFE in neon across from Tianamen square. I went to super walmart to stock up on shampoo, sun screen, and other stuff I couldn’t take on the plane and I loved it. I wish I had a kitchen to make some of the stuff I saw in there or atleast how to order it at a restaurant. Tonight I am going to walk into a roadside dinner I saw and randomly point at a menu item. Wish me luck.

Tianamen square is big and very patriotic. I am going to explore more shortly. Having successfully figured out the subway system, tomorrow I am going to start sight seeing for reals. Mao’s memorial is closed for renovations though. Oh well. I might even include some pictures on my next posting. Cheers everyone.

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 27th, 2007 at 4:41 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.