Beijing Part One: The Fellowship of the Train

Because we are a bunch of crazy people, we decided to do our Beijing vacation in 4 days.  Whew!  Every day was jam packed and filled with adventure upon adventure.

Getting there was one of the most pleasant travel experiences I've had in China.  Although it cost us about 450 yuan, we took a high speed train from Nanjing to Beijing.  It got us there in a cozy four hours.  I didn't even have time to get board.  The only problem with the train ride was that we didn't arrive in Beijing until after 11 pm.  My directions to our hostel were by metro, but the metro in Beijing closes down around 10:30 pm.  So we had to get in a huge line to wait for a taxi.  We had to take two taxis and I showed the hostel address to both drivers but neither of them seemed to have any idea how to get there.  The guy in charge didn't seem to care, so he hurried us into our separate taxis and we sped off to somewhere.

I've been really fortunate to have a cell phone here in China (courtesy of Nanjing Foreign Language School) and as it turns out, we might've been in some serious trouble if I hadn't had it.  I had emailed our hostel a few days before to let them know that we'd be checking in really late.  They had emailed me back the day we left to let me know that they wouldn't be able to accommodate us, but that their "sister hostel" on the other side of Beijing would.  The email also said that when we arrived at the hostel, they would drive us over to the sister hostel.  As long as we had somewhere to sleep, I didn't really care. 

So there we were in the taxis.  It was getting close to 1 am--our check in time.  Suddenly, my phone started to ring.  It was the hostel, checking to make sure we were still coming.  I assured them that we were on our way, but that the taxi driver seemed to be having a hard time finding the hostel.  I handed the phone to the driver and pretty soon, we were driving in a new direction.  Before too long the taxi driver asked to see my phone again, but after that call we made it.

The hostel felt really bad because of what had happened, but as it turned out, they had a good reason. The pipes in our room had broken and they hadn't been able to get them repaired in time.  The receptionist took good care of us while we waited for a new driver to come get us.  She gave us free water and offered to give us free beer (which we refused).  The new driver arrived, helped us into a van, and got us to our new hostel.

The hostel were we ended up staying

At last, we were all set...except OH WAIT, our door was busted.  That's right.  The door to our room wouldn't shut or lock.  I guess I shouldn't say the "door," it was the frame that was broken.  It looked like somebody had kicked the door in.  I was super tired and annoyed at this point.  The hostel promised that they'd fix it the next day...but they didn't and Krista ended up taping the frame together so that we could get in and out without causing more damage.

Krista to the rescue

So it wasn't the most secure hostel we've stayed in, but we put a suitcase in front of the door by night, and we stored all of our things in the hostel luggage room by day.  Poor Soren was in another room with complete strangers (just like in Shanghai), but our last night there he had the room all to himself.   My complaints with the hostel also include the series of bug bites I seemed to mysteriously get at night.  Altogether I think I had over 32 bites by the end of the trip.  Super weird and not fun.  But I digress. 

A small sample

Another small sample

These ones were the worst.  They don't look as bad because I have make up on them.

And that's it for now.  To find out what happens to Soren, Emily, and the ILP gang, tune in next time!