Around the World – Vietnam can be found here.
After clearing a very long line at customs – and thankfully this was the last country for which we’d gotten a visa in advance, but that saga is worthy of it’s own blog post – we were relieved to finally make it to our hotel. We stayed at Hotel G which is a boutique hotel in North Chaoyang, Beijing’s entertainment district. In many ways, I think G is perhaps the nicest hotel we’ve ever stayed at during this trip so far – although Hotel Josef in Prague will long hold the honour of being our favourite hotel. The rooms are equipped with a rain shower, bathtub, plasma TV, iPod dock, Nintendo Wii and, of course, a pillow menu.
We spent much of our first day dealing with the usual travel necessities, such as tracking down a working ATM and purchasing water and snacks at a nearby grocery store. Later that day, we made a trip to Confucius’ Temple and then the Lama Temple, a sprawling Buddhist temple. We happened to be there for a visit by Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, and I was photographed by his security detail for displaying too much curiosity. Perhaps it was because I look large and scary, but I don’t think that’s the case. I was wearing a sweater. Who looks scary when they’re wearing a sweater?
Confucius Temple
Lama Temple
We were grateful that we had splurged on a fine hotel, as we took a few ‘snow days’ (as our globetrotter friend dubs them), watching bad television and ordering good room service. (Front Desk: “You want more room service? You already ordered twice!”) For those of you who have not seen it, the movie “Greedy” with a very young Michael J. Fox it is hilarious. We also watched “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”, which represents two and a half hours of our lives that we will never get back.
Laundry continues to be the bane of our travels, but I managed to find a laundromat tucked away in a nearby mini-mall after about an hour’s search. The prices here are surprisingly more expensive than those in Vietnam, but even the $45 I had to pay for a week’s worth of laundry pales in comparison to the $10 / shirt I would have to pay at our hotel. Unfortunately, I think I may have accidentally asked them to dry clean everything: two loads of laundry were returned on hangers, and we must have spent a half hour peeling the paper tags from the labels.
The week flew by and we spent our last day at the Great Wall, and had a wonderful hike along one of the least-visited sections. It was not what I expected, but we thoroughly enjoyed scrambling up half-crumbled ruins, enjoying the view of rugged cliffs and sprawling valleys filled with the colours of fall. The wall seems to stretch out to infinity, and I can scarcely imagine what it must have looked like in its prime. Words fail me, and so I have included quite a few photos.
I fear the next part of our trip will be quite a whirlwind, as we will be in Tokyo for only one full day before departing for Kyoto. Upon our return to Tokyo, we will be spending two days at Tokyo Disney. This was my wife’s suggestion, and I think it will be absolutely hilarious.
Continue reading Around The World – Japan.