Please Get Off!

Trip Start Oct 22, 2005

224

Trip End Ongoing

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Where I stayed

Leo Hostel Beijing

Flag of China Beijing, China
Tuesday, January 3, 2006

With some time to spare in Xi'an before we caught our train we decided to grab a taxi to the Big Goose Pagoda, located south of town. We paid the 25 Yen entry fee only to find out you had to pay another 10 yen to climb the pagoda. Considering it's so overcast and misty in Xi'an we decided to pass on the climb. Leaving the pagoda complex we decided to walk back into town (after walking for miles we realized the map was not to scale) but did get to see the synchronized water fountain. We did find it funny that you could stand on and in the fountain, but when we stood on the concrete bench a guard lady dressed completely in red asked us to "Please get off!" Strange as no one was using the benches as they were wet and cold. The water was synchronized to dance around with classical music. We stayed for a while until we got too wet and decided to move on.

Walking to the South Gate and the Drum Tower, to see them in the daylight we also had a look at the Muslim district to see the food and goods markets

01 -Big Goose Pagoda

. With our train leaving soon we headed to the station only to find out it had been delayed 2 hours. We decided to grab a seat on the tiled floor, in a warm spot near the heating outlet. After a while we ended up being surrounded by three Intrepid tour groups on their trip. The amount of stuff some of the people had amazed us. They are away for maybe a month and had so much stuff compared to our small packs.

Now after 2 hours passed and the arrival clock didn't change our train got delayed a further 3 hours. We cracked out the beer and pistachios for dinner and kicked back in the "hot spot" before some crazy rail worker asked us to move. Well we think she asked us to move. Who knows? We moved.

When the train arrived we had to wait on the platform for them to unlock the doors. With the lights continually going out we figured this was one sick train that may not get there. Speaking of sick, we swapped our hard sleeper beds with one sick looking girl. She had a bandage around her head and with sign signals we swapped with her mother and father so they could be closer to her during the voyage. Rick had the best bunk, being above a guy that had swallowed a beaver and was trying to choke it back up all night. He now sits in a close number 2 on Rick's list of The World's Top 10 Snorers.

Finally arriving in Beijing we got a taxi driver that had no idea. Initially he tried to drop us off at a Police station somewhere in the back blocks, but finally we got him to drop us at Tiananmen Square. When he finally stopped we only gave him part of the fare, as he drove us around for half an hour and had to stop 3 times to ask locals for directions

02 - Locals paying Homage

. After looking at our map we then saw the taxi driver talking to a police officer. We though sh_t we're going to get in trouble. Ended up he was being told off for stopping in a no standing zone. Lucky. We were heading for the Far East International Hostel, but in the back blocks and with the LP (read incomplete) map we stumbled across the Leo Hostel. It was pretty good with a large backpacker fraternity so we decided to stay here instead.

Finally we managed to find an Internet caf� where they had about 200 computers all using the Chinese version of Windows. Luckily we got online and managed to wish Jim a Happy 51st Birthday. With our booked hour up the PC automatically shut time. We took this as a sign to head back to the hostel and get some sleep.

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