Arrived
Trip Start
Nov 03, 2008
1
4
65
Trip End
May 2009
Beijing,
China
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
First opportinity for my Spanish to come in handy and it was found sadly wanting. Went for a walk around a local supermarket and thought we were never going to get out!
Need some food and a beer, niether seem easy to find. BM
Thursday 6th: went to the forbidden city and had a chuckle at the locals on their group tours...100 little chineese in red baseball hats following another little person holding a large flag....one thing you notice quickly is that you are a freak
a = your taller
b = your hair is lighter
The other thing you notice is the 3 x S's and thats no relevence to spanish holidays
1 = staring ( as you are the freak )
2 =spitting ( its a national sport)
3 = smoking ( as it's so cheap)
if you ever go, take plenty of water , a bag of snacks and wear real comfy shoes it's not called a city for nuffin....its huge, take your time and enjoy it all
Bri and Mr Mao Beijing
. You can pay for those translator things, but we are too tight ( well he is) and we managed without, use the maps and work top to bottom. MableMack = what a fab day, two things you MUST know about the Forbidden City. 1/ It's a city and 2/ It's forbidden, whatever that is.
Top tip. If you wear a red baseball hat you can join a tour of the city for free as long as you can talk Cantonese and are wrinkley.
About the people trying to blag money out of you, they pretend to be art students and ask if you want to see their paintings at an exhibition, then keep you there for a hundred years until you buy one. So here was my cunning plan, to Mable, " Let's pretend were are Spanish"
Mable, "It will never work I bet they can speak spanish"
Mack " Rubbish, trust me"
Girl to Mack " Hello English man"
Mack " Hable Espanole?"
Girl " Si, buenos dias"
Mack " Shit run"
Mable " Told you so"......
Nothing else to say eh! Mack
Worked out that you can pick up free wi-fi connection from Starbucks....
Chinese " organised" tour party
. he he. am able to send pics to the blog for free. Had a nice meal, ordered using at the poining at the picture mrthod.Friday 7/11
Woken up early by some shouty woman on a tannoy encouraging workers to work harder, what is Chinese for shut the fu!k up ! !
Went to the Summer Palace, tuube system good, even if it shows lines that are not built yet...... got lost...... Beijing taxis are very easy to find and cheap, we used the pointing at the map system.
Pandas at the zoo fun but the rest a bit depressing.
Had a rubbish meal, should have stuck to fire noodles. BM
Comments
Beige ing
Hi all, so the epic journey is underway. Saw someone once explaining that their way around the language barrier in any foreign country was to use their phone to take photos of everything they might need before they went and then show the relevant one e.g beer, toilet, taxi, hotel paradiso to people until one went aha, second at the lights and first on the left. Course it must help if you can understand their reply?!
If you bought a big flag you could probably pick up loads of tourists in red hats and use these as a diversionary tactic to sneak away from the 'artists'. Love N C and E xxx
pixs and comments
Keep posting them please. Dad is in stitches here - Bri TRUST Carol - she more worldly than you AND more sensible.
Have fun
loves ya both
Mum xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx