Sunday, June 12, 2011

En route to Beijing



My flight to Kunming was delayed by about half and hour to forty-five minutes. When I arrived, I was glad to see a familiar face. Vikki greeted me there. We had last seen each other about three weeks ago. She was my guide in Kunming. I looked at her and she looked different. She got her haircut into bangs. It looked very nice and I told her so. She said she had a large face and forehead so that she needed some bangs to cover that.

She told me I should make sure I ate some food when we arrived at the hotel. She said she thought I had lost some weight in the last month. We talked about pick-up tomorrow. My flight to Beijing was at 8 am but I wanted to be sure I didn't miss it. So she said she would be there at 6:15. Vikki said she would have the hotel pack me a small breakfast. That would be perfect.

I had my customary tea when I arrived in Kunming and finally finished the Makaibari. I can't wait to drink all my new teas when I get back too!

I headed out towards the Green Lake area. I was thinking about eating at the veggie restaurant I tried three weeks ago. But when I walked by, the entire restaurant staff was in a meeting. I kept walking and got a piece of the green onion pancake at a tiny street vendor. That should hold me over until I can get more food.

I walked a different way to Green Lake. It was dark by now. The lake looked pretty with the lights. It had rained a lot during the day, but now it had stopped and the temperatures were cool. It was quite a difference from the weather in Xishuangbanna.

I couldn't decide where to eat as there are so many places around the university area. At first a small cafe looked interesting, then Salvador's, then I past Ganesh's Indian cuisine. That was the spot. They had veggie samosas then I ordered aloo mateer with naan.

I headed to Salvador's for a beer afterwards. There is always an ex-pat crowd there. I sat outside. I just typed away in my journal. I felt socially unsocial if that's possible. I wanted to be out and about but didn't necessarily want to talk to anyone. I just didn't want to be locked up in my room. I hung out there until I finished about 2/3 of the beer then left. It must have been close to 11 when I reached the hotel. I went to bed shortly since I had to get up so early for my flight to Beijing.

Vikki was waiting for me when I got downstairs at just before 6:15 am. She got my breakfast, she got the deposit back, and we were off.

The airport was close by but it was crowded. We got there and waited in line about 15 minutes. Then when I got up to the counter the woman didn't know what to do with the paper ticket. She sent us to another line.

That line was shorter and the man knew exactly what to do. This is a heads up to Travelocity. Why are you issuing paper tickets in 2011? Just because the flight was outside the US? There was an additional cost for you to fedex the tickets to me, plus in both India and China, no one at the airline knows what to do with them anymore. Other tickets I booked for travel within India on the airline website or through my travel coordinator in China were etickets.

So we got to security and then as is customary, I have to fill out the survey for the guide with my hands full of luggage and in front of them. I'm glad I built in extra time today. I really liked Vikki and she wished me well when I returned home.

We were delayed about 30-45 minutes to Beijing. I had a lot of clothes on as has been my regular travel outfit. I have to wear the hiking boots each time I get on a plane or train because there's no room in my luggage for them. Of course, today it was warm in Kunming.

They started boarding and got us all in the bus that takes you to the plane. They packed us in like sardines. Then they didn't have air conditioning, and made us wait about 20 minutes on the bus. The combination of the warm clothes, carrying my heavy bags, and the heat, almost made me faint. I was really close. I was leaning my head in my arms bent over. At one point, I even bent down. I figured if I really did faint, I would be closer to the ground this way. Eventually we started moving and maybe the a/c kicked in. I was ok, temporarily.

As soon as we got to the plane, we would have to wait in line and climb up the stairs and onto the plane. I was on the opposite side of the bus where the plane was. So I would literally be the last one off. I took my time, because there would be less time holding the bags. I knew I could do this.

I was the last off, but people were sort of milling about, taking pictures, etc. I definitely maneuvered towards the front of the line here. I slowly handed my boarding pass to the attendant, then climbed the steps. The plane was cool and my seat was in the front, thank goodness. I threw my bag in the overhead. When I sat down I turned the vent on full blast. I made it! I was lucky. I hadn't memorized the words in Chinese for "Help, I feel sick and may faint!"

The flight was 2 1/2 hours and I was fine. Arriving in Beijing, the driver from 365 hostel was there and dragged my bags for me. The weather was warm here too. The drive was around 45-60 minutes. When we got close to the hostel we passed Tienanmen and the Forbidden City. It was a great location. The driver went as far as he could because the hostel was on a walking street. Then he called the hostel and someone came to help me the rest of the way. It took about 5 minutes.

This was a perfect place for me. Thanks Rob! I checked in and the room was simple and clean. The only problem was there was no a/c. Oh well, you can't have everything. I quickly changed and headed out. A new city excited me and my fainting bout was over. I had some fried rice at the restaurant in the hostel. I wanted some food in my stomach before heading out.

This restaurant/bar is quite the scene. People from this hostel and other travelers (mostly western) somehow find this place. It was rated at #8 best hostel in the world in April 2011! Wow, I felt honored to be a guest here. Had I not booked early, it would have been sold out.

However easy it would have been to just hang out, I had things to do. Tiananmen was on my list today. I only wanted to do four things while here. The others being the Summer Palace, Great Wall, and Forbidden City.

It was about a 1/2 hour walk although I thought Tienanmen Square seemed closer when driving from the airport and looking on the map. They have such long boulevards. Plus when you get to the corner, usually it's faster and safer to just cross underneath the street. But that involved walking down and up stairs. There is so much security here. This includes police, cameras, plain clothes officers, and police patrolling on bikes. Plus you must put your bags through xray to get to the square. Quite different than 1989 around this same time of the year.

From the square as you look at the Forbidden City, a huge portrait of Chairman Mao is on the building. It for me was quite fascinating to really be here. This is a place with such history.

The hostel gives you two great maps. One is the local neighborhood and highlights. The other is the subway map. Using their map I easily found an ATM. I also noticed two tea houses on the map. I went to the famous Laoshe Teahouse.

Wow is this place amazing! They have all sorts of performances here too. The 2nd floor of the building was just tea. There was a place to purchase tea and some amazing private rooms to go drink tea. I went in the tea shop. I hadn't tried any Lung Jing (dragonwell) yet this season. It's proabably the most well known Chinese green tea. I had visited the region where it is grown when I was in China 6 years ago. I asked one of the workers who spoke a tiny bit of English if I could try three teas around the same price. So he told the woman making the tea that is what I wanted to do and showed her the three teas.

The first two were nice. The first smelled really buttery. The second smelled more nutty. I liked the second one better. She didn't really seem to want to make me the third. But she did. It was a little higher quality. I had already explained to the first man that helped me, I only wanted to try the teas. So even though she was trying the hard sell with me, I asked the man to write the names down and I would come back later.

I really wanted to go in that fabulous tea room and have tea. But it was set up for groups. There were pictures of famous dignitaries that had visited China and come here. There were all sort of pictures of former president George Bush there. I didn't know if it was he or Barbara that liked tea, but they also have visited Ten Ren in San Francisco's Chinatown.

I left and went back to the hotel. I had done quite a bit of walking and the weather was hot just like Xishuangbanna. I had to take a nap.

When I woke up I was rejuvenated. It was getting dark but I walked down the main street by my hostel to a large tourist shopping area. There were silk stores, food stores, restaurants, tea shops, etc.

This area opened up to Qianmen Da Jie walking street. I got some bread with black sesame seeds. It was pretty sweet but I wanted a little snack. It was nice to be walking around. These shops were mostly clothing stores and it was a wide boulevard with many people. I walked for a little over an hour.

When I went back to the hostel, I asked if there was a community room where I could hang out. I didn't necessarily want to eat or drink. They said it was no problem to sit at the restaurant. If it got busy, maybe I should buy something but right now it was only half full. It was around 10pm on Friday night.

So I hung out. I chatted with a guy from the US that was working in Abu Dhabi. He said he lived in SF for a while. He went to graduate school at Berkeley. He is an urban planner and is working on the zero emission city. It was very cool to chat with him. He was really smart and we had similar views on politics and the environment. He said he was on a 10 day holiday. He was leaving for North Korea tomorrow for 4 days before heading back.

North Korea? Whoa, did I hear that right? Yes, he said the only way you can go there is if you have an organized tour booked. He said he was ready for all the propaganda. He was sure they would tell him about 5-10% true statements. The rest would be complete fiction.

He also explained that there is a/c in the rooms. He said there were two remotes when you walk in the room. One was for the tv and the other was for the a/c. I thanked him immensely for that tidbit!!!!

1 comment:

  1. Diane, sounds like you will soon be back in SF. I'll miss reading your blog posts, but look forward to catching up in the teahouse once you've recovered from jetlag! Have a safe trip home.
    --Virginia

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