(via misswhittington)
Source: sarahxmayIf you've not already had too much, you will now.
2 months ago
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Since being away I’ve had to take many long journeys and one of my favourite things to do has been to put my iPod on shuffle and just sit and listen to the songs that pop up.
It’s great what this can do. I go from feeling nostalgia to intrigue in the matter of minutes. Happiness to sorrow. I could go on listing superlatives but you get the picture.
It’s just a great thing to do. I recommend it to anyone with more than a couple hundred songs on their iPod. Wack it on shuffle, see what pops up and you could be surprised by what you may have downloaded.
Today I’ve gone from Marvin Gaye to Simian Mobile Disco to Broken Bells and next is… Notorious B.I.G - What can I say I have good taste.
2 months ago
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Both Lusy and I were fairly sombre after leaving Chendu. We had made some wonderful friends and we weren’t sure how Beijing could be anywhere near as enjoyable. It was but in a completely different way.
As we rolled into Beijing after another 28 hour train journey - this one was much better than the last one. We had a brilliant family in our compartment with the cutest child we’d met in all of China - we decided to get a taxi to our hostel. It can’t be that far away we thought… but as the meter kept on ticking over, Lusy and myself found ourselves counting every last Yuan in our pockets. Finally we arrived and just in time too as we were about almost at the point of not being able to pay him. This was just the start of our night of fun in Beijing.
As it turned out neither of us had had the foresight to put enough money onto our bank cards to pay for our accommodation. Cue a mad panic that involved trying to get Lusy’s mum to transfer some money over from her bank through to a Western Union (I can only imagine the panic on her end… We owe her BIG). Once we learned that the money was on, we go to the nearest WU to get the money… it’s closed. SHIT. We have 100 bucks left and haven’t eaten and need to pay for the hostel - just to be clear 100 in Chinese money is basically a tenner.
We get some food, explain to the hostel the situation and they let us stay for free on the condition we pay as soon as possible the next day and I hand over my driving license.
Next day we’re up early. We’re ready to get this cash and pay the hostel thus allowing us to relax and enjoy Beijing. Western Union then tell us that what we actually had was a Money Gram transfer, but not to worry as the nearest one wasn’t too far up the road. Off we trot… The bank then tell us they no longer do it and to walk a little further up the road to the next bank who DEFINITELY do it… they don’t. In fact it’s closed down. Cue a nice old lady showing us where the nearest bank is of the same name. Here no one speaks a word of English and it takes us a good 10 minutes for us to convey all we want is a place that does Money Gram… PLEASE SHOW US WHERE TO GO! They write down an address but tell us we need to get a taxi there. We’re down to our very last money and this is a do or live on the street in Beijing situation. We’re in luck! This next bank say they do it. They give us lots of forms to fill out and when we’re done the money is handed over in fresh notes. Oh the joy of those notes!
We decided that was the day to visit the Tienanmen Square. It was fun to ride the 20p underground and see one of the most famous and culturally significant areas of China if not a little underwhelming it was important to us to see it.
The hostel we were staying in was one of the best hostels of our trip; that night they offered free food to anyone who wanted it. This was a great chance for us to meet some amazing people who we might not have spoken to otherwise. I bonded immediately with a mancunian as soon as he said the words - I’ve missed football. Then an American over the qualities of all the Dr. Who companions. We also invited along a table full of Irish girls… They’ll be the source of another story in part three!
The night out was great. We didn’t find our karaoke bar but did find a great little bar that was able to comfortably house the 15/16 of us that were out.
Eventually all of us dispersed and I found myself walking home alone in the streets of Beijing. I had my headphones so I put on The Strokes and walked home full of cheer. Cue three large men walking towards me, telling me to take my headphones out. Shit. They wanted to sell me drugs. I explained that I didn’t want any drugs thank you. They asked me my name. I tell them it’s Tunde. This is where it gets fun. They immediately lose the tough guy “act” - I say act, they were the toughest guys I’d met in China - and start to get all chatty about where my name comes from and why I’m called Tunde… Never been so happy to have my name!
Next day we went to the exquisite and beautiful Summer Palace. The grounds were wonderful and we took many pictures. None of them will even begin to highlight the beauty of the place though.
That night a few of us went out for a meal to Hooters. None of us had been before (apart from Lusy who was our Hooters veteran having been a few times in England) and so we weren’t sure what to expect. What we got was cheap food and expensive beer! It was a fun meal, even if our food was undercooked at first and so had to be sent back. We did get some extra fries and a song and dance for one of our party whose birthday it was. Whilst eating our meal we all decided we wanted to get to the Birds Nest and Watercube to see them lit up at night. We left Hooters at about 9:30 and the trip across town took a lot longer than we expected. We arrived at the stadium at 10:40 knowing we only had ten minutes to take in the view before the last train back. We ran up the stairs anticipating the beautiful stadium we would see before us. The lights would surely be like nothing we’ve seen before… They were off. The lights were off. We’d traveled an hour across town for nothing and now had to get every last train back to get home. It was a race against time, full of running. We managed to get three trains until we arrived at the station we knew would have the train to get us home. Phew we thought. Then we found out that the train going in our direction had left already and that in fact we’d have to go in the opposite direction to loop around to our station. Adding a good hour or so to our journey home. The night was becoming a bit of a farce. We were in good spirits though as we hopped on the last train home…
We didn’t get there. Our train stopped four stops away and we were told to get off, there were no more trains. We were all desperately thirsty, in the middle of nowhere and all we could see was a KFC. We headed over to buy some bottled water. This was even harder than navigating the trains! In total we managed to buy, three diet cokes, six iced-teas, two cups of hot water, an orange juice and finally a HOT orange juice. Please note that there are no bottles of water in there. It just about tipped us over the edge and we left KFC in hysterics as our night had been an absolute failure but one filled with hilarity.
