Beijing sucks
Trip Start
May 17, 2007
1
22
37
Trip End
Jun 30, 2007
Beijing, China
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Kinda disappointing that it wasn't some weirdass Panda brand plane, but a Boeing 737-200 on China Southern Airlines.
The only way to describe the inflight food -- "Grease is the word".
Chose beef (yak?) noodles over rice, and it was basically floating in grease. eurgh.
Should've put in the chilli sauce huh (see pix).
Arrived to find Beijing covered in a horrid smog, eurgh.
Rob thinks the athletes are all gonna drop dead and die next year at the Olympics.
Things haven't been going well since we arrived:
Rob's having a horrible horrible eye infection, leaving his left eye inflamed and very red.
I.... suddenly had my period, WTF.
It sucks big time cos i'll be stuck on a train for 30 freakin' hours!!! aarrrgghhh!!!
Walked around lots today to try to get several things settled:
1) Train tickets: The map provided by the travel agent is TOTALLY not to scale. Not to China scale at least.
Rob and i walked our asses off in the Beijing smog trying to find the damn place.
But well, at least we have our tickets.
2) My plane ticket: Spent S$70 for 20min on my cellphone with Zuji Singapore.
They put me on hold for 16 minutes, damn fuckers.
End result: No go for my air ticket extension, although open jaw is permissible.
Had to find a travel agent (which I did), and promptly bought a one-way ticket back on China Airlines. SIGHHHHH
3) Had to get USD for use in Mongolia, so it was a mad hunt for money-changers.
Evidently, they don't exist in China. You need to use a bank.
Went to 3 banks, which either demanded I provide ID (I am not China Chinese), fill up a tonne of paperwork or don't have USD (wtfness).
Finally, after nearly 3hours, I managed to get US$500, which i think may last me.... all of 1 week?
I hope with all my heart that Ulaan Bataar has better ATM facilities than these fuckin' communists. rawrrrrr!!!!!!
Having walked around town for so long, my throat is now hurting really badly.
This smog really is dangerous, trust me.
Gonna update this quickly before I go wash up, pack, and get ready for the 30hour train ride tmrrw.
I hear that they will lift the entire train off (or onto?) bogeys at the border town as they change tracks. oooooh exciting!
Really hope Mongolia's not too expensive, and that all goes well....
I guess I would be kinda uncertain if Rob and I do part ways, since he's the one with the Lonely Planet, and I don't speak Russian nor Mongolian (neither does he, btw).
I wish Alex were here if/when Rob abandons me, since he speaks Russian / reads Cyrillic :P
So yeah, I am NOT enjoying Beijing, cos it's polluted and everything's easily double the price than where I've been for the past 2 weeks.
But well... thankfully I'm leaving tmrrw.
I hope all the weird things happening will stop soon.
Sigh!
Will update in UB once I can.
Cheers,
Feli "Pissed-off" Wong
