Its 2:30 on a Saturday morning in the suburbs of Beijing and now that the worst of the post flight tiredness has faded – went to bed at 8pm, dead on our feet… I cant sleep. Sitting on the floor in the bathrooom with a coke zero, so that Rhodene can at least sleep in peace.
Somehow travelling east does this to me and I get to know 3am very well in this time period.
Sooo yeah, on the road again. We departed Cape Town to Beijing via Dubai on Wednesday early evening. The flight was uneventful and thank heaven the first leg I had my back of the plane two-seater for myself. Thanks to this and flight socks I dont have the usual post-flight swollen lower legs that was the bain of my first days in India and Cambodia. A blessing, because day one was (abeit, self-imposed) eventful and 14 000 steps later – my little fitbit dont know what hit it.
Dubai had us hunting for Tiger Balm – a special request from someone Rhodene knows, consulting tech resources at the duty free tech shop – her Vivofit wouldnt sync to her phone’s new time zone. My fitbit needs internet connection to sync the phone’s new time zone via the app – huh? It syncs via Bluetooth and the phone knows what time it has… I dont understand the need for ‘external internet services’ in that transaction, but anyways, perhaps thats why other people develop the apps hey! Lessons learned and with a new appreciation for ever present wifi at home – all wrist devices are now in the same timezone as their respective owners.
A voucher from Emirates had us visiting Ocean basket for Fish and chips for breakfast and a non-sponsered coffee fix at starbucks. We trekked through the shops to kill some time, drooled over the new technology – in my case a purple strapped fitbit charge 2 (only black available in RSA yet) and the latest upgrade in my Sony compact camera’s range – but at 1200 USD (yeah, we asked to confirm and did the USD to ZAR math) its a mere pipedream at this point. Pity, cause with Sony no longer in RSA this is propably the route I’ll have to go. I just love that camera range.
Rhodene indulged her chocolate fix, we tried some perfumes and it was time to board the flight. This time it was choc-a-bloc. Someone hijacked Rhodene’s special meal (how does that happen, they always confirm if you are the person and what kind of meal it is – I’ve been doing diabetic meals and the routine is always the same, no matter what airline) But yeah – the “madame” then got compensated with business class meal instead. The whole nine yards – she was delighted, could get used to all the faffing and the experience upgrade.
Had a giggle – the chinese airhostess yelled at the chinese passenger that ignored the “stay seated, safety belt on, untill plane comes to a halt and sign switched off” – thing. TWICE!!! Never seen anyone sit down and stay put untill after the sign was switched off, but that evening that was the case. Always a first for everything.
Our ride was waiting for us, despite some earlier confusion around our first night’s booking at the hotel – the hotel could not confirm the agency booked us the extra night, right up until before we left home. I could just see us squatting in the lobby last night 😛 But almost everything went well. My SIMcard did not seem too have arrived as ordered, so we were at the mercy of hotel wifi and trying to negotiate the great china firewall.
My Vodacom SMS roamer activation seems to have been a bust – no sms’s go through, although I can connect to a local service provider – so something must be active, else it would have said “no service”. This afternoon we got WhatsApp and Skype to work and my email seem to be up again – yay. No Facebook though, but the odd notification comes through, weird. Could at least via W/App get the message home that we’re safe and sound and technologically challenged – even if it is a day late.
Got about 3.5 hours sleep last night and had to go on faith that 8:30 was my Temple tour pickup time, as I could not connect to receive the promised confirmation email.
Rhodene joined me for breakfast and then took a complimentary shuttle to a high-end mall close by to see how the ‘other-half’ lives. Lunch was a french chocolate pastry and a diet coke – go figure! The balance of her day was dodging scooters on her short stroll back, lounging in the room and figuring out the TV service.
I travelled to six temples with Leo, my guide and our driver. It was interesting and insightful and a peaceful haven away from the chaos that is Bejing traffic – shudder.
We started at the Lama Temple in the hutongs. Wish I could take a pic of the the massive Sandalwood budda, which is the main attraction – all carved from a single tree. Not to be disrepectful, but to share the experience. The roots to the other buddist areas I’ve visited is very visible and some statues reminds me of Thai/Cambodian features and even some Hindu symbols/characteristics. There was a statue in the chinese buddist temple (The Lama Temple has its roots in Tibetian buddism) that reminded a lot of a catholic madonna type statue – the features was more western/european, wonder what that was about?
Paid my respects in Lama Temple with the three sticks of insense and got to turn my favourite tibetian buddist items – the prayerwheels again. Maybe some day I’ll get to do it in Tibet. Left with a pink stone bracelet as a reminder of the experience.
Next was the Temple of Confusious a few Hutong blocks down… different atmosphere, similar architecture.
We then drove to the Temple of Heaven Complex. It is beautiful, abeit quite busy. With all the people around it looses a bit of its awe. The air was very smoggy yesterday and hopefully when we visit there later the week – this one is part of our Merry Travel tour – the sky will be less grey and the colours will glow more.
Next was lunch at a local restaurant in the muslim area. Leo frequented this area as a student and this is his favourite place to eat. It is small, nondescript and very busy. The food was very good – no english, picture based menu. I declined the weird stuff – had experienced that in Cambodia – abeit not exactly on purpose. We had chicken screwers – spicy – Stirfried beef with green peppers and onions – spicy and prawns with peanuts and vegetables – spicy. Plain sticky rice provided the starch. As there was no diet soda’s we shared a 600ml light beer. It was a really recommended experience.
From here we walked to the oldest mosque in Beijing and it being Friday and with our luck a local muslim festival honouring the ancestors we gatecrashed a ceremony. I was quite surprised they let us in at all. The police presense outside had me a little worried, but all was calm. I felt a little out of place, like I always do when I visit a active place of worship mid-ceremony, I know I’m intruding on someone’s private experience. We walked through quietly and then left.
Next was White Cloud temple – not on the tourist route. Very quiet, very peaceful and loads of cats.
Then onto the final temple – the Toaist temple. Again a different experience – we witnessed a ceremony, possibly a funaral service? It is not as quiet as the buddist sanctuaries and the monks look like professors in graduation robes.
We dropped Leo off at a metro station as he hosted another walking tour that evening and the driver took me back to my hotel – stopping at a catholic church built in 1905 for me to purchase my rosary. I was so glad to find it open at 5pm, but had to search for someone to assist me with the purchase as the shop was empty. Eventually someone was found and I got a red and gold enamel rosary that reminds me of the red/gold hanging lanterns I saw all over the places I visited today – iconic of china.
Traffic was crazy en route to our hotel – around 20km outside the city centre. Again I have new respect for our drivers patience, courage and spatial skills. I think even as passenger I aged a few years, and not due to his driving, but the other road users… expect anything.
Once home they still could not locate my SIM card delivery and I managed to send a mail off to the company requesting a status update. Just after six we decided against room service and went down to have supper. Some Peking prawn noodle stirfry for me and sticky rice with pork sausage for Rhodene. We almost fell asleep at the table – maybe room service would have been a better call – on hindsight. Used the teller Forex exchange machine in the lobby to get more Yuan and now we’re ready for the Merry Travel part of our tour.
We have no idea what time to meet up later today – will go for a safe 8am. The promised 9pm confirmation call never happened. Today it will be rainy and we’ll be visiting Forbidden city and hutongs (local lunch included) and tonight a Kungfu themed show – Riverdance – Kung fu style? That’s the impression I got when I googled the show anyways… and supper included. Watch this space.
Got a email that my SIM card was delivered at the hotel on Thursday at 10:30 the morning and now I have a tracking number (YAY!) Will try to locate the elusive package again in the morning, armed with my new found knowlegde.
Okay – its 3:30 and I’m gonna see if this posts and try to sleep again.
Pic is Cape Town in Chinese – as per my visa. You have to indicate the place of Visa issue on the immigration card when you enter the country. That is all thats on the visa and had to google translate via pic feature to find out if they issued at Cape Town or Pretoria – heaven forbid you get it wrong on a doc like that. Tricky – we submitted to a office in Cape Town, but they send it to be processed at the actual embassy in Pretoria – this one could have gone either way.
I have no way to upload pics to the tablet from my phone just yet.One technical challenge at a time, ok?
Beijing Blessings
L ….
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