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Beijing, China
39° 55' N 116° 23' E
Sep 04, 2005 15:03
Distance 1168km

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Other entries in Beijing

Beer, strawpedos and chinese prozzies

Text written in: English

I boarded the train for what was to be my last stage of the trans-siberian at 8.10am and had to share my cabin with a mongolian woman wo couldn't speak any english, so I had to resort to reading and listening to music for the entire day, which was thrilling.  The Mongolian woman turned out to be pretty amazing.  She slept for the entire 30 hours on the train apart from the border crossing which in my opinion puts her up there with Bunting in the most lazy people awards!

The border crossing should have been a doddle compared to the last one, but it still lasted about 6 hours as the bogies (wheels) on the train need to be changed due to different width tracks in Mongolia and China.  This process takes two hours on its own.  I say it should have been a doddle, but it wasn't, as i was dying for a piss for the whole 6 hours, when i had to stay on the train with the toilet doors locked as they just open onto the tracks.

Welcome to China, land of little people, big walls and Chairman Mao!

After that ordeal, i managed to get some kip in on the not so 'luxury' beds and awoke the next day to very impressive mountains and fields full of sunflowers.  I even got some pretty good viewing of a few sections of the great wall in as well which was nice.  I got a few pictures, but as they were taken out of the train window, they are probably absolute shite!

After an extremely boring 30 hours, I arrived in Beijing to be met by Ackroyd and Alex (who were late as per usual) and a girl they had met in their dorm called Lily from France.  Turns out she is very helpful to have around as she can speak French, English, Italian, Spanish, German, Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese, and she is only 21!!  This in turn means that us boys have to do absolutely nothing in the way of communicating in chinese, which is sometimes good, but sometimes it is half the fun.

Not surprisingly, after i had dropped my bags off at my hostel and had a quick shower, we decided to have a few beers on the terrace bar of my hostel.  I think most of you lot know where this is going!  We then went for a Korean meal, which was awesome and cost us about 2 quid each including a bottle of some spirit or another which left us suitably oiled by the time we left.

We then had a few more beers and decided to head for a club, which was pretty crap, apart from the copious amounts of rediculous dancing from us guys, and me wowing the crowds of chinese with a series of strawpedos.  Unfortunately, in this club i started to get the feeling i needed a dump, only to find out that they have squat toilets (which are not a very good idea if you have been drinking), so i decided to put the clamps in place and leave it until tomorrow.  We decided to move onto another club that the lads had been to the previous two nights as well in search of some chinese talent (which alex sampled last night). 

Virtually as soon as we entered the place, Alex started getting stuck into some Swedish girl, as me and Ack performed some of our most hideous dancing for the startled Chinese crowds.  Shortly after, a super hot Chinese bird came over and started talking to me, even though i couldnt understand a word she was saying (a mixture of accent, high pitched voice and speaking at the speed of light), but nevertheless i was happy with the prospects that lay infront of me.  After aout half an hour of playing some crap game with her, she said something i definately did understand, "shall we go back to your hotel now?"  Well, absolutely chuffed with the ease of proceedings, i agreed.  And then the bomb dropped, she said i had to pay her first!!!!  ha ha ha, gutted.  In a mixture of dissapointment, disgust and tightness, i turned on a six pence and headed back to Ack on the dance floor.

After this huge setback, we decided it was probably time to leave to get some food as it was 4.30am.  As we left the club, we watched in amusement as Al staggerred into a taxi with his swedish piece and we headed off for some food.  I ended up with some sort of dumpling soup (with what looked remarkably similar to brain inside) and then managed to get into Ack's hostel to kip in Alex's bed which was a nice little bonus.  Turns out Alex got back to the hostel at 7am after walking around Beijing for a few hours completely lost, which resulted in me waking up with Ack!!  Great