In the fifth of our series of stories from Irish men sharing the craic with the rest of the world, we join intrepid travellers Simon and Tom as they leave South Korea and fly off to China.
Diary by Simon McKnight
Day 17: Touchdown in Beijing
The flight from Incheon in South Korea was uneventful. I have to say, though, I was a little anxious using a domestic Chinese airline, but it was all just my imagination. As we started boarding I couldn’t help feeling like I did during an internal Russian flight a few years ago. We were flying a domestic airline from St. Petersburg to Moscow. I was expecting to see chickens and overweight babushkas running around a dimly lit interior. No such luck… just my own ignorance.
But anyway, back to our trip to China, one piece of good timing we had was that Tom and I ended up arriving in Beijing just a few days before the national holiday started, basically China’s 60th birthday. I was later to learn that this was the reason why the Chinese Visa debacle in Seoul was as fucked up as it was. They had apparently changed all the rules due to security concerns.
Tom and I got the bus down to where we think our hostel is. We figured we’d scratch around a bit for it, but to get a taxi if we’re not getting anywhere. We get off the bus with another group of backpackers who are looking equally perplexed. They go right, we go left and… well, we go left and get no results. English is at a bare minimum in the area of Beijing we’ve ended up in, our map is not working out all that well and no one seems to know the place we’re after. So it’s Plan B time, let a taxi driver figure it out for us.
But guess what? Not one fucking taxi driver will take us. Since my trip began I’ve learned to spot that moment of recognition when a taxi driver knows where we want to go. It doesn’t matter what language they speak and I don’t, it’s all in facial expressions and body language. I also add study time as a factor and I know what taxi to get into and which guy is going to take us all over the place.
And I swear I saw it with a few of the taxi drivers, that moment where they recognize our destination… I saw it damn you! But no luck, they still wouldn’t take us. So we go full circle back to Plan A, and hoof it to the hostel. We stopped about 10 different people, went into some creepy dormitory for factory workers, but finally made it the hostel. Sanlitun Road Hostel. Nice enough, big common room. One thing that I find to be missing… FACEBOOK!
I’ll admit it, my Facebook use sky rocketed since I started travelling. It turned into a great way to keep in touch with my mates at home, and to not feel completely outside of their lives. I’d get little tidbits of what was happening, and helped keep home a little bit closer. But in China, Facebook is blocked, thanks to the Great Firewall of China.
Of course, it’s nothing that a little proxy server action couldn’t take care of, but when we tried, the proxy server turned out to be slow and the full version never really worked all that well. So I went on a Facebook diet for my time in China, only using the the Lite version from time to time and it did the bare minimum. Suppose it’s a good thing, helps to actually SEE the country instead of rambling on about it on Facebook.
So that night we met two American guys, both from the mid-West. Since we all wanted to see the Olympic buildings, we decided to rent some bikes the next day and do a bit of a tour, with the goal of ending up at the Olympic site.
That place has to be seen to be truly appreciated. I’ve seen it on TV and thought, ‘Wow, that’s cool looking’. But man, it’s nothing compared to seeing it with your own eyes. The Bird’s Nest is an amazing building and definitely worth a look. We all decided not to bother going in, the price was on the high side (for backpackers that is) and instead we just did the nice and free outside tour.
The Bubble Building, which houses the main swimming pool was pretty crazy to look at too, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the Bird’s Nest. In fact it pretty much overshadows everything in the area. It’s not all grandiose or anything like that, it just kicks ass in the way good architecture does… whatever that is of course.
Day 18: China’s National Day
Next night was like a pre-school daytrip, but for drunken backpackers. It was evening time after of the big parade (that no one got to go to) and there were fireworks planned all over the city. So in a typical last minute way, that I know so well and I’m strangely comfortable with, a group of about 20 of us got out of the hostel to see the fireworks.
It was a typical situation of a few people going and then everyone else just latching on. It’s one of these uniquely backpacker/hostel situations. No one knows what’s happening except for a core group who want to do something. Suddenly everybody is asking to join it turns into a big crazy group.
The fact that it’s big means it’s impossible to get everyone out the door. Fireworks start at 8pm and we need to get there. So picture 20 people wanting to go but everyone leaving the hostel in dribs and drabs, and myself and the American guys running between them to get them to hurry to the bus stop. But really, it was all just a cover to get the hot girls in our room to come out, who were some of the last to leave of course.
We pulled it off in style, and picture 20 backpackers on a local bus, all carrying beer, half in the bag, and carrying on like idiots (aka tourists). If I was a some guy tired and coming home from work on that bus, I’d have given us all a slap. It turned out to be a night of drunken fun, progress made with the girls, and a little bit of fireworks in there somewhere.
If you’re an Irishman abroad (travelling the globe, on a year out or resettled in some far off land) and you’re interested in sharing your Backpacker Diary write to [email protected]
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