Wanderlust

(still in) Beijing, China.

So, we missed our train. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I think a combination of too much experience and too little information was our downfall.  We left our hostel an hour before our train was scheduled to leav. It was supposed to take 25 minutes by taxi to get there. We figured a half an hour of wiggle room would be more than adequate to get to our platform and get on our train. But oh how we (and our hostel) underestimated Beijing traffic. I’ve noticed that the last few days have seemed more hectic and congested than before. I wonder if this is due to the fact that their big holiday is next week, that the Olympics are over so maybe they’ve let a lot of cars back in, or just a weird coincidence. But instead of taking 25 minutes, our taxi took about 50 minutes. We were sitting in the taxi, watching the time tick away and literally helpless to do anything. We couldn’t communicate with the tax driver to see if maybe we were close and could just run the rest of the way (we were in deadlock traffic), if maybe we could get out and try to take the subway (our hostel had told us that you couldn’t get there directly on the subway but would have to transfer to a bus and that it was a big pain). So we just sat and were sad. When we finally got to the train station we had ten minutes to get to our platform, but the taxi driver dropped us off pretty far away from the main doors. We had to cross a very busy highway over a pedestrain overpass, then figure out which door to go in, go through the pretty minimalistic security and then look at the board to find which platform and run like hell. According to the train station’s clock we had three minutes to spare when we got to the ticket taker, but when we handed her our tickets she shook her head ‘no’ and said ‘you are late.’ How sad! The train had already left without us and some lucky buggers with standing room only tickets were probably upgrading to our seats as we were standing defeated at the platform. The ticket lady told us to go to window 16 at the ticket office where there was an English speaking person who could help us.

We stood in line sad and angry and waited with claws out to make sure no one tried to jump in front of us (I actually saw someone jump in front of a Westerner at the very front of the line and apparently got chewed out by the ticket woman! Yay!). When it was finally our turn we told her we had missed our train and she told us that there were no seats on any of the trains to Pingyao as far as the reservation system worked. So she took our tickets away, stamped the back, and scribbled on them standing room only for the next day and sent us on our way. We hung our heads in shame and went back to our hostel which we had left a few hours earlier thinking we’d never see it again. I’ve had a sore throat for the past two days and just feel generally a little tired with a mild cold, and the day’s excitement had warped all of my energy. I just wanted to lie down and pretend none of this had happened. It was too much for us to try to figure out what to do next. We ended up taking a bus and then the subway back to our hostel (which was quick and very easy, unlike what we had been led to believe) because none of the taxis at the train station new where our hostel was (even after I showed them the little hostel card that had in Chinese “please take me to my hostel” and the address).

After sleeping for about thirteen hours and having a giant bowl of soup, I’m feeling a little better day but just frustrated and angry (at myself) for missing our train. We treated the trains in China like the buses in South America which was a big mistake. But at least now we know that the trains in China should be treated more like airplanes in the U.S. Lesson very much learned. So today we had the fun task of trying to figure out if we could get a train from Beijing to anywhere. The hostel girl who had helped us so much in the past was still very helpful and patient. She called and enquired about destination after destination (getting more far out and outlandish all the time)  until we were all sad and disappointed. Somewhere in here our friend Nicole who we had gone to the music performance with on Sunday showed up and invited us to come with her in the morning to try to get a ticket to Mongolia! She’s going back to Germany on the tranSiberian railway, but she is going to stay in Mongolia for about a week before hand, taking a bus from Beijing to the border and then transferring to a train to the Mongolian capital. We know pretty much nothing about Mongolia except that U.S. citizens don’t need a visa, so we could actually go with her to Mongolia. We’ve pretty much decided to give it a go. At least we’ll go to the bus station with her in the morning to see if we can get tickets. The buses don’t book seats in advance, so you have to go the day you want to leave in order to try to get a seat. We would leave tomorrow night if it all worked out and would travel with her and basically just tag along. It would be nice to get out of China for the week to avoid the whole national day stuff and not have to worry about getting stuck somewhere or getting desperate and buying a plane ticket out of Beijing. It sounds like quite an adventure, and why not?!

I’ll know by tomorrow morning what our next steps are and I’ll try to post something of our plans. At this point it’s either Mongolia for a week, get stuck in Beijing for another week or so (which just sounds awful at this point. Not that we dislike Beijing, but we’ve been here for almost three weeks now and we’re just ready to move on. There’s also something upsetting about being stuck somewhere, no matter where it is), or I don’t know what, really. Maybe try to get a bus somewhere else nearby and then be stuck there and have to go through this all again! Mongolia seems like the most exciting option. I’ll keep you posted.

Beijing, China.

Today Steve and I had a very nice day. I went to bed pretty early last night since I was so exhausted after all of our late-night fun. We did go to see the Olympic Green all lit up with a guy from our hostel. That was an adventure all in itself since we our attempts to get close were thwarted at every turn! First the special Olympic Stadium metro line was blocked off so we couldn’t take the metro in. Then we tried to walk in through the big park in front, but that was eventually blocked as well. We followed a road to get closer and take some photos, and then tried to walk down another road. Eventually we got pretty close, but were still behind a fence so we didn’t take any photos of us doing silly things (like pretending to swim in front of the Water Cube or speed walking around the Bird’s Nest. But it was fun trying to figure out where to go and we were proud we got as close as we did.

But today we decided to sleep in and spend the afternoon at the Summer Palace. I was a little hesitant about visiting yet another palace place since I had been so overwhelmed by the Forbidden Palace. But the description in the book made it sound so nice and it is pretty far North of the city center so away from some of the busyness down here. Today was really pleasant weather-wise with it staying pretty cool out all day long. It was nice to have a break from the heat and humidity.

Our first run-in with fame in China was while we were sitting outside a McDonald’s drinking a coke. We shamefully bought the coke from McDonald’s because my throat really hurts and I just needed either something really cold or really hot to make it feel better and the only thing outside of the Summer Palace was a McDonald’s (with tons of tour buses parked in the parking lot!). We were just sitting outside on a little bench by the door talking and drinking our coke, and all the sudden I looked up and this man was taking our photo! It was so funny! I’m not sure if I smiled or just looked puzzled, but he seemed very pleased that we noticed him and happily waved when he was done. We’ve heard a lot about white people (especially blondies like Steve) being very popular in China, but so far in Beijing we haven’t really experienced it. Steve was stared and giggled out pretty often in Peru, but this was the first time anyone took our picture, at least that we were aware of.

When we finished our drink and went into the palace I was very surprised with how lovely and peaceful it was. The buildings were in the same style but they were mostly all falling a little into disrepair and it added to their charm. Most of the other classic styled buildings we’ve seen in Beijing have been repainted and refurbished so they look a little fake and just too clean. But these were nice and I had fun taking a few photos of some details in the architecture. There were trees everywhere which made it in even more drastic contrast from the Forbidden City. I could spend days there just relaxing and walking around and I can definitely see the appeal for it as a summer getaway. One of the big attractions was also a giant lake that took up about two thirds of the whole area. You could rent boats and paddle around and we even saw people fishing and catching crabs. We wandered around for hours just talking and enjoying the day. At one point I was posing on a pretty bridge with another bridge in the background. Steve had just finished taking my picture and was showing me the shots when a teenage or early 20s girl came up to me all bouncy and asked if I would be in a picture. At first I thought she wanted me to take her picture with her friends (we’d taken photos for people earlier in the day), but it turned out that her and her friends wanted to pose in a picture with me and Steve! It was hilarious! I couldn’t stop giggling the whole time! I wish I could see the photos! The best part was maybe that they took quite a few photos and people kept jumping into the photo from everywhere! It was a very large group of friends. We tried to talk to them a little afterwards, but all we could really think to say in Chinese was where we were from. The whole thing was just so funny! And to think that we were still in Beijing when it happened! I can’t wait to see how much attention we get when we travel to Pingyao tomorrow night and later on in our trip when we go to some pretty remote places. I wanted to give them my camera to take a photo for us, too, but it made me a little nervous to hand it over. They were very friendly, but they could have very easily been very friendly thieves. Sad that we have to think that way.

All-in-all we had a pretty good day. Tomorrow we plan to go to a museum and maybe walk around some more. Our train isn’t until 7 pm, so we have all day to kill. Hopefully we’ll also eat Peking duck. We keep putting it off (we were going to go tonight, but there was so much traffic that our bus ride was painfully slow and Steve is pretty exhausted from staying up late last night, so we just got off at our hostel and grabbed some food) . I really want to shop, but I’m trying to resist the urge since I’d have to carry it for a long time! I’ll shop just shop in Guilin and ship things back!

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