They love their singing bars here!
Trip Start
Nov 13, 2008
1
4
14
Trip End
Dec 01, 2008
Beijing,
China
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Well last night we checked out some local bars within walking distance from our hostel to see what the locals were like. They love their singing karaoke bars here a lot!!! In the section we were in they were all close to each other and have people outside that try to get you in their bars. We went in one but Frank was afraid they were "working women" in there and wanted to go before he found out if he was right. Next bar we went to Denise just got pushed pretty much into the bar so we followed. It wasn't too bad their was live music, we believe they were singing Chinese covers of American songs. They did sing some Bon Jovi so that made us happy so we could sing along. Nothing to crazy we were home before midnight still adjusting to this time change.
We finally got our heating working in our room 3 hotel workers later. We turned it on and got snug in our hard uncomfortable beds and fell asleep. Well I woke up in the middle of the night and was freezing... seems miss Denise got hot from the heat blowing directly down on here and she turned it off. I will hide the remote from her tonight :)
Woke up this morning (a little stiff from climbing the great wall) and cooked our breakfast (we have developed a game plan since last time some other people hogged the one pan they have to cook your eggs in) and started are day. We went to the Lama Temple today. It is the largets active temple in Beijing and was pretty cool. Everyone was buring incense and praying in all of the temples (there were a lot of temples). The Dali Lama had studied there and it looked like people come from all over to pray there and give gifts to the gods.
Next stop, the train station to get our tickets. I had wanted to book a package that would get us from Beijing to Xian then from Xian to Shanghai. It included everything, tickets to the place we want to go there and an English Guide. Denise thought it would was too expensive and wanted to have the hostel book it for us. That didn't work out so well. We still had no ticket to either place and the hotel people worried us that we could not buy our ticket to Xian to Shanghai until we got there and that it might be sold out. This train station was crazy.. Tons of people and they just cut you off in line and then smile back at you after they have. We are getting better though about being more aggressive here though so Chicagoians watch out! We did get our train ticket to Xian on a hard sleeper with no toilet and no lockable door... (my package had a soft sleeper and a toilet AND a lockable door). They told us that we could not get our ticket from Xian to Shanghai though (we are not sure if she was telling us they were sold out or we could not buy the tickets from her, the language thing kinda becomes difficult)... Me and Frank were not happy campers about this at all..... I think even Denise is wishing we had booked this stuff already and was trying to figure out other ways of getting to Shanghai.
We ran into a local on the train (he was a very nice man he did his post graduate at LSU. He said he like Chicago a lot but that our subway system needed some work) and he helped us get to the Summer Palace (This place is huge and apparently where the emperor would go and relax) and told us that we could be in trouble getting a ticket out of Xian. This added to my worry as you can imagine. He said he would make some calls and email us if he could get us tickets or at least what we should do. A student heard us on the train and told us we would have no problem So now I don't know what to think (everyone keeps telling us a different story) and Frank keeps saying how he just wanted that package and that Denise was going to pay lol. The Chinese guy (also named Frank) though did email Frank while we are in here now and said we could get a flight for around 500 yuan (about $75 to get us from Xian to Shanghai so I think we will book that tonight).
We get off at our train stop and decided to take a taxi to the Palace. Well this guy came up and said he would drive us for 10 yuan (roughly about $1.50). This was not a real taxi driver and all my readings and travel books said this is a no no, but we did anyways (mom ignore that part). It worked out though he got us there and we walked around. I am still having trouble uploading pics on this computer but it was pretty cool stuff with the fall leaves and will upload as soon as I get a computer that will let me.
We took another questionable taxi to our hostel. He took the taxi sign off the car once we got in which made us think it wasn't legit, but too late we were in for a ride to find out! I believe it was just his own personal family car and that the meter was fake. He said there may be traffic and it could cost more. Frank kept telling him we wanted no traffic and cheap as Denise kept saying 40 yuan... It ended up costing us 110 yuan but that is only around $5 a person.
Oh we found a little store and I use store loosely that sells a liter of beer for 4 yuan which is like 50 cents!!! Things are so cheap here! I will have to say that so far the weather has been sunny and not too cold (except for this room the computers are in).
Not sure what kind of trouble we can get into tonight, but will keep you posted!
Well until my next entry!
Nathan
