So, four posts since I’ve been in Korea and two of them have been about trips out of the country. Does that tell you anything?? Well, it shouldn’t. I love Korea and living here has been awesome. It just seems as though all we do here is work. Until now, we hadn’t had more than two days off in a row since we started in March. I’m not complaining or anything (I am kind of I guess) we’re just really busy while we’re at home.
Our latest international adventure took Michelle and I to China!!
We spent our summer vacation (nine days off in a row!) in steamy Beijing. Things started off ominously to say the least. First, a stewardess spilled kimchi (spicy fermented cabbage dish with lots of red sauce) all over me on the plane. Second, a driver was not at the airport ready to pick us up upon our arrival (even though we booked, and confirmed an airport pickup through the hostel). Third, a cabbie was nice enough to call the hostel for us (even though we didn’t ask him to) and let me try to sort things out. After arguing with them for 10-15 minutes and them finally agreeing to come pick us up, the cabbie tries to tell me I owe him 50 Yuan for using his phone! Long story short, he didn’t get any of my money. Forth, when we finally got to the hostel, the guy at the desk tells us we don’t have a room. Here’s how I remember our conversation going:
Me: “but we have a reservation…”
Hostel Clerk (in broken English): “I know, but we don’t have a room for you”
Me: “do you know what a reservation is?”
Clerk: “yes”
Me: “I don’t think you do. You know how to take the reservation, you just don’t know how to hold the reservation.”
Ok, so maybe it didn’t go exactly like that, but that’s how I’m going to remember it. After arguing a little more, they said they’d set us up at the place across the street for one night. Here’s a pic of the bathroom.
Needless to say we didn’t shower here.
Thankfully, that is where our string of bad luck came to an end. The rest our trip was awesome!! We managed to see all the major sites while we were there; The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, The Summer Palace, The Lama Temple, etc.
Day 1 (Sunday, July 29th). Even though we got to Beijing on Saturday, I’m calling this day 1. By the time everything was sorted out at the hostel (checking in and such), more than half the day was shot. We spent the majority of our remaining time wandering around our hutong (Mandarin for ‘alleyway’) and checking out Tiananmen Square, the world’s largest public square. It was only about a 15 minute walk from our hostel but damn was it a hot walk. We were dripping with sweat after about 5 minutes being outside in the disgusting smogginess that is Beijing air. It has to be at least 10 times worse than any smog alert day in Toronto. The square was huge, obviously, and pretty cool considering its history, but overall, we were a little disappointed. Chairman Mao’s Mausoleum was closed for construction which was a shame because that would have been interesting to see. Here’s some pictures of the square and of our hostel.
More to come...
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