we don’t backpack

we’ve only really spent an afternoon and evening out in bangkok but so far so good

after moving hotels this morning, we’re back inside my comfort zone at a place with a doorman, concierge, a separate toilet and shower, pool, spa and gym.

this afternoon we did a lot of walking and perused the street markets that seem to spring up along every major thoroughfare.

we then went to the famous hipster hangout, bed supper club. after hearing about this place over a year ago, i’ve been dying to go. it’s only a block from our hotel and i was NOT disappointed.

pictures and more to come

I’ve had a long time to think about this, and some of the other titles i came up for for this blog would be:
1. Lost: The train version
2. The worst three days of my life
3. “It took a train to show you how privileged you really are”

So, as I mentioned, what started out as an overnight, 24 hour train ride back to HK turned into one of the worst experiences of my life. Yes, it may sound melodramatic but i can say this with some certainty; one of the games ryan and i played to pass the time in hell’s waiting room, was to list off experiences that were worse than the train ordeal. of course, i came up with a few but this one was definitely at the top of my list. (That’s when ryan said statement #3 above.)

While we were trying not to go crazy from boredom, little did we know our snowed-in train experience was making international headlines. This was probably the worse of it. The waiting was absolutely excruciating, but we had absolutely NO IDEA what was going on. First we heard we were delayed for ten hours due to weather. (if only that had been the case!) then we heard that because we were so delayed, the tracks were incorrectly “switched” and we had to wait for them to switch back. Then we heard there were bad power outages. keep in mind all this information was gleaned from people we ran into who spoke both english and chinese. no announcements were made or instructions ever given in english. in the crew’s defense, i don’t think THEY really knew what was going on, but they were less than nice about it.

here’s a post i wrote early on, following our first delay, which was only eight short hours:

“After eight hours of sitting still on the train, we’re finally moving. There is apparently supposed to be a 10-hour delay due to ice on the tracks – but who knows if it’ll be more, less, or if we’ll ever get off this train! We only found this out when we went to the dining car to eat, and a Scottish guy we’d made friends with in line while waiting to get on the train, told us he’d found out from a guy he met who spoke Cantonese, Mandarin and English. A ten hour delay is more of an annoyance than a huge inconvenience. Yes, we’re in a first-class cabin so we have pretty lush compared to most people, but

a.) we’re incredibly bored

c.) if they delay for ten hours, who’s to say they won’t delay for more, and

d). we have a flight to thailand to catch tomorrow night and if we’re “only” delayed by ten hours we should be fine, but if it’s much  more, we’re going to have to go through the hassle of re-scheduling.

there IS no such thing as customer service in a situation like this (communism) because there doesn’t HAVE to be. there is no competition, since so many things – including the train system – are state-run. They can be as crabby as they want, because they don’t have any incentive to do otherwise. “

Let me tell you, the over-all bitterness and annoyance just got worse from there. our second major delay was a full 24 hours. once we got past that, we stopped and started – an hour going, an hour stopping – for about eight hours. at this point – although the dining car was still open –  they were handing out ramen cups for lunch and dinner and fried rice for breakfast. the second day i had fried rice for breakfast but could not bring myself to choke down another ramen cup. i had an orange for dinner and called it good. (needless to say – although i am not calling myself a refugee - by the time we got off the train, got things squared away, and got to hard rock cafe – 36 hours after my fried rice breakfast – i ate like a refugee.)

so back to the train. i think we went pretty steadily through the third night, and pretty steadily until we got to hong kong – around 12:30 pm wednesday afternoon. exactly three full days since we’d boarded the train in beijing.

when we got off, we were met with people offering us water, and DOZENS of camera crews. i guess it was then that we kind of started to piece together what was going on. ryan and i were interviewed by one station – and i was more than happy to tell my story.

i’m still kind of bitter – and it will be a cold day in hell before i get on a long-distance train.

we arrived in HK - after the whole train debacle - around noon yesterday (wednesday). we’d missed our flight to thailand that was scheduled the night before. our plan was to get a room, shower, eat some *real* food, regroup with our clients and decide what we were going to do. when ryan checked on re-scheduling our flight to bangkok, he discovered that - because of the chinese new year, everything was booked, and we either had to go last night, or in a week.

as much as we love hong kong, we decided to go for it, and took a flight to bangkok at 10 pm. we got here around 1am, went to the hotel that we’d originally booked but because we didn’t show up yesterday they cancelled our reservation and were fully booked. they referred us to another hotel which DID have a room (and a pool!), which is where we are now. we’re moving hotels in a bit to get one that has better amenities (gym, in-room wi-fi, etc.) and then we’ll figure out where to go from there.

i’m getting ready to post the full expose of our train trip as well.

we got stranded on a train between beijing and HK and what should have been a 24 hour ride became a three-day nightmare. just wanted to let everyone know we’re ok and will update more later when we figure out what we’re doing next.

so here are some things i’ve noticed while in beijing that kind of surprised me:

1. it’s dirty and kind of gross

I was warned about it being dirty, but the spitting and littering really caught me by surprise. i guess i figured in a communist country, people would toe the line a little more.

2. when they say “developing nation,” they mean “developing nation.”

ryan says i’m just naive and spoiled but i guess i thought china would be a lot further along in terms of development since they’re known for a lot of manufacturing, etc. i think i mentioned earlier, half of china’s population lives on about $1 USD / day. when we rode the train through the cities outside beijing, it looked VERY third world. although there are many more “modern conveniences” in beijing (like the subway), it’s much more lower-middle-working-class. you don’t see people playing on their DS’s while talking on the latest cell phones like you do in tokyo, for instance.

3. when driving and walking, it’s a free-for-all.

i come from “pedestrian is king” california, so it’s not completely unusual for people to walk out in traffic. here, pedestrians completely dis-regard the “walk/don’t walk” signs - but the traffic doesn’t really stop for them! even when you’re walking on the “walk” sign, it’s still super-easy to get clipped.

as far as driving goes, lanes are only guidelines, and can someone tell me what the deal is with the lane dividers on the freeway that say “parking?” why do people park in a line in the right-hand lane on the freeway?

that’s it for now - i’ve gotta get ready to leave for the train station!

sometimes i forget to include things when i write up our day because so much happens in one day when you’re traveling! so i decided to do a timeline tonight:

8:30-9:30 am: take the train to catch a bus to go up to the Badaling section of the wall. thanks to our books, some research and ryan’s savvy, we took the (still surprisingly comfortable) city bus up to the wall, for a grand total of $4USD round trip, as opposed to many tour buses that cost anywhere from $30USD and up!

(we’re so legit - waiting in line with all the chinese)

9:30am-1pm: ride the bus to the wall, realize that just when we thought it couldn’t get colder it could! we took what they call a “pulley” from the base of the wall to the higher sections. it looks like you’re strapping in for some roller coaster, only you’re barely strapped in!

(slightly freaked out at the incline of the hill!)

we walked around the wall for about an hour, and - in that weather - i was pretty impressed with myself!

(here we are, standing by the bathroom, apparently, and looking russian. ryan wanted me to be sure and include that he loves his hat. he didn’t have a beanie with him, so he just bought the first hat he saw- which had like the most awfully-faked nike “swoosh” i’ve ever seen. he calls it his fisherman’s hook hat.)

(ryan took some really good wall pics!)

2-3:30pm: rode the same bus back and took the train back to our hotel. since we manage to speed through everything we do, we came back to re-group and find somewhere to go to dinner.

6-9:30pm - after a nap and some research, we decided to seek out a middle eastern restaurant called 1001 nights. in keeping with the “sometimes when your traveling, things just aren’t easy” theme, the ATM by our hotel doesn’t take any of our cards and we didn’t have enough cash for a cab. so we took the subway and got as close as we could to the restaurant. we found an ATM, got some food for tomorrow’s train journey (they serve the same five things for breakfast, lunch and dinner and last time we were SORELY disappointed! we also found out that we should smuggle toiletries out of the country and sell them in the US - Crest toothpaste was about $1 USD!) and walked quite a ways but finally found the restaurant.

it was a GREAT experience, complete with yummy middle-eastern food - which is some of my favorite, and i miss our middle-eastern deli in SF! - belly dancing, tea, hookah, and baklava.

we then took a cab back, which was NOT a great experience! we told the driver where we wanted to go, but when we got to a point he apparently thought was far enough, he made us get out and told us to walk the rest of the way! luckily, ryan got his bearings off our map and we were only a few blocks away from our hotel.

9:30pm-11pm: work, blog - now bed time!

well, one more night after this one, but who’s counting and i wanted to use the Stone Temple Pilots for my title.

we got too late of a start today to head to the wall, so we decided to seek out the pearl market my friend kim recommended. before we could do this, we wanted to secure our tickets for the train ride back to Hong Kong on Sunday. it took us no fewer than two hours to do this! the first travel office we went to said they didn’t have any, the second office said that the entire train was sold out - and the girl was trying to talk us into flying back! once we were finally able to (sort of) explain we wanted to highest-end private rooms, NOT the dorm-style sleeper cars, she was able to call around and find a place that supposedly had tickets left. we got to this office, they did have two tickets and we were able to purchase them - well, after ryan ran to the ATM, had the machine eat his card, had to explain this to the teller (who fortunately spoke english!), give the teller his only two forms of ID (since our passports were back in our room), wait for the teller to retrieve the card, confirm that the card was in fact his, and help him successfully withdraw cash. traveling is an overall enriching and rewarding experience, but it is often NOT EASY!!

after all that, we DID make it to the pearl market and were able to walk away with some wicked cheap souvenirs (after ryan bartered the heck out of the vendors, which he apparently REALLY enjoys doing).

we did see some of the nicer parts of beijing today, but it’s such a sprawling, poorly-planned city, it’s hard to get around - even with the subway! fortunately, taxis are extremely cheap, and they’re also a good way to see a lot, in a short amount of time!

tomorrow is our last full day, and we’re going to the Great Wall, then Sunday afternoon we head back to HK.

ok, like i said, i’m still really excited at the fact that i even get to be in beijing - whether i end up loving or hating it! here’s some catching up:

(our room and bathroom)

(temple where the emperor is embalmed)

(imperial palace)

our guide book suggested one day each for tianamen square and the imperial palace, but we’d managed to knock both out before 3 pm. maybe it was the crazy cold, maybe it’s our intense ADHD, but at least we have the same touring styles or we’d no doubt be at each other’s throats more often than we are!

we walked from tianamen through a local shopping alley, with everything from “antiques,” to food to grocery stores and business offices. then we walked up to a more main street and into this awesome underground shopping area. it was like an indoor, underground market.

(a “main” street)

we then had peking duck at a duck house. in spite of being a somewhat supposed tourist spot (it looked like a hotel and seats 2000 people!) they spoke very little english - but fortunately we were sitting next to a couple, originally from HK, now living in australia, who helped us order.

we ordered half a duck, which they slice up for you then serve with duck sauce and onions, which you wrap in a “pancake.” it was actually really good!

after taking the subway home and stopping for my evening snack of mochi … we’re back in our room … and i’m ready for bed!

Kim is my friend from high school - she spent a semester living in china and has been telling me she just wants me to love china as much as she does. i hate to disappoint, but so far, i’m less than impressed. i’m willing to admit that spending a few days here doesn’t hold a candle to living here for a few months, or that the freezing cold weather may have something to do with it, but sometimes you just *know* how you feel about a city. to help explain it, let’s take a look at the differences (some of them obvious) between HK and china:

HK is warmer, china is like russia (here’s pictures of us in tianamen square to help you understand - it’s hard to tell but yes, that IS us!)

most everyone we came across in HK spoke SOME english. but - WE WERE LIED TO ABOUT CHINA!! i hate to sound super anglo-centric, but everyone said people spoke decent english in china, especially in light of the up-coming olympics. but my ten minute conversation about how much my manicure was going to cost begs to differ.

It’s SO MUCH easier to get around in HK. this isn’t beijing’s fault - it’s just a big city. but even in tokyo - which is a HUGE city! - we had a much easier time finding our way.

HK doesn’t have communism. HK is “gritty” - the island is nice but i’ll admit the rest is by no means chi chi - but biejing is just … kind of depressing and oppressive feeling. it has a COMPLETELY different feel from anywhere i’ve been and i’m betting it has something to do with the fact that it’s still a developing nation living under communist rule. about half the population still lives on about $1 / day. and the rest aren’t doing too much better, apparently.

people don’t spit, litter, nearly run you over, or stare as much in HK. there may be signs that say don’t spit (seriously), and don’t litter, but that doesn’t stop people. i’ve missed a lot of the “scenery” b/c i was looking down trying to avoid TONS of globs of spit. gross. and i saw this girl inside a convenience store open the door JUST to throw a napkin outside on the ground. she was inside! i’m SURE there was a trashcan in there!

i have more pictures and better things to say about beijing, but i had to get that all off my chest. i don’t want to sound ungrateful, b/c of COURSE i’m SO glad i have the opportunity to travel and to be here, but i don’t think there’s anything wrong with learning which places you like and don’t like!

after a 24-hour train ride from Hong Kong - which was actually quite nice, we were in a delux soft sleeper, which meant we had our own room with beds and a bathroom - a three hour excursion around the train station to find an ATM and a taxi driver that knew where we were trying to go, a 45 minute taxi ride (for only about 7 bucks - heck yes!), and a five minute walk from the place we were actually dropped off, we’re safe, sound, and warm in our hotel.  The place we’re staying is definitely more of a hotel than a hostel, with a big enough bed, plenty of space, free in-room wifi, and free breakfast in the morning. you just never know what you’re going to get

it is, however, absolutely icy. i knew it was going to be cold, but this is unreal. i’ve never lived in this kind of cold so i don’t really have a vocabulary to describe it except that we’ll be taking a lot of taxis and riding the subway a lot as opposed to walking. but it’s me, so i’m sure no one is surprised at that.

we’re here for three full days then take the train back to hong kong on sunday. we leave from there to go to thailand where i’ll trade my complaining about the cold for complaining about the heat.

we’re off to dinner, but i’ll write more and post pics later!