beijing or bust...

Wednesday, 12 November 2008
1:30, Business traveler lounge
Being only the 2nd Fitzhenry to go to Beijing, there is still a sense of adventure.
It is true than Father had the whole organized trip thing and I am more on the
Indiana johnes way of things. The sense of travelling ½ way around the world is not lost on me. This said, I will be well looked after over there and all has been well planned. I only hope I get time to visit the wonders of Beijing and do a lot of shopping. I have several long lists, but the naughtiest of them all is ME!
Gosh what a day, I got up early and started to panic. I do not need to bring much
But the fear of forgetting something important is always there. I suppose that if I forget all my pants then I can always buy some over there. Something about an Irishman complaining about the perfusion of pants comes to mind!
I packed off all the last bits and started to prepare the house for some alone time. Shane has promised to keep and eye on the house for me, so I am much more relived by this, thanks Shane.
I gave a quick call to Shane and it was decided to meet up at Schuman for lunch. PANIC, do I have time? We will see but as I had planed this to the extreme it should be ok time wise. We ate at the Fointaine in Schuman and I had the onion soup. Shane mentioned that in Business class you do not have to worry about evil smells so I will feel less embarrassed if anything happens =). Well I did have plenty of time as I am here in the business lounge (they have a special fast track passage through security for us snobs!!!!) with more than an hour to kill. So guess what?? I have just succeeded in hacking the internet connection in the lounge!! Now I am really happy!! It doesn’t take much to keep me happy and it took all of 2.12 minutes to do it. A time to beat in the future!
So here I am trying not to become too nervous or excited with this trip. I am really looking forward to it. Sitting here I feel special, a bit like the fridge full of Belgian beers. This will surprise, but I have not touched one of them. I was tempted to buy a 10 year glenfidish or bushmills but I think the duty free in Frankfurt will be cheaper. I will see it I have the time. I am also the only one here (probably in the whole airport) to own a Lightweight so I feel really special. I now have 2 things to look forward to on my return, Alba and Io and the Lightweight. What I am doing besides hacking the wifi and internet connection is eating a lot of cheese. I have been warned that there is a serious lack of decent cheese in China, so I am stocking up. That and the onion soup might make for an interesting flight.
Go to go, the adventure has begun and now continues.
=)
Arrival at Frankfurt
16:10 ish..
The flight here was nothing if uneventful and slightly smelly. No, not me, I know what you are thinking but no, it was the older man seated beside me who stank of smoke and something else. He looked very unfriendly and we left it at that. I am now once again in the Lufthansa lounge and now drinking a cola, I am tempted by the beer but I already had a nice one on the flight. There is a huge amount of food available here as opposed to the newspapers and old rolls in Zaventem. As good as the beer was, the food was horrid. A piece of what looked like horse meat wrapped a funky piece of cheese and was swimming in some vegetables that looked far from appetizing. I left well alone.
The flight here only lasted 45 mins so I just had time to drink my beer, stop it from flying (get it?) all over the place and get it in me! I did however attack the tiny piece of cheese and 2 grapes.
Frankfurt airport is a strange place. The smoking places you see here are not just little fans above the heads of the smokers but large sealed off rooms, wit a sass door. It felt like I was looking at a human aquarium. The smokers themselves didn’t seem to mind. Security was all German, efficient and quite friendly. I had to leave the airport entirely having for some reason thought I would stay inside the ‘security’ area. As a business traveller, I again get the fast track path. They checked everything twice and guess which plonker left a small fizzy water bottle in his bag from the previous lounge. I felt like a boob but they are used to boobs like me so it was no biggie.
I obviously still have to get used to al this business stuff. Io wont be reading this so I can say it, there are also a lot of women travelling business, quite young women too. I am keeping my hands off, they probably bite. I am a little anxious about my arrival, its not the Chinese and their ways, more the burocracy and paperwork. It should be fine though.
With all this, I went up to a policeman asking how to get to terminal # and he said I was 10 years too early! I laughed and asked instead for terminal C. He was funny and a policeman…. I really wanted to go on a ride of the monorail or maglev they have here but to get to terminal C it is not needed. The distance it quite long so I think they should have it stop off at C. On a side note, the Germans are huge! Really, the vast majority of the German businessmen are massive. I will no longer complain to Dad about his weight. I look forward to the large seats on this flight, apparently I will have a double window seat!! I plan to try and take some photos with me mobile, I have not taken a camera with me, planning instead to buy a point and shoot in Beijing.
Onwards and upwards….
I think I am being called, all business class travellers that is!!
Thursday, 13 November 2008 16 pm Beijing
The flight was rubbish, I was unable to sleep, but tried anyway. I had seen all the films available so I read the 200 odd pages of the land rover magazine I bought.
On the plane, I played with the electric chair and screen. It is linux based system but I was too tired to fiddle, and scared I might crash the plane or something.
On arrival to Beijing, I expected a large city to pop out of the clouds. It was a bit disappointing… Before we arrived in Beijing, all I saw out my 3 windows was the white snow of northern Russia and Mongolia. Once in China, it turned into a sort of dust bowl. The closer we got to Beijing, the more dusty it got. There were also lots of buildings sticking up out of the ground like radiators plonked in the desert serounding what looked like a big factory. Obviously workers housing for the factory. Then closer to Beijing it became mostly houses. Beijing is very large and spread out so it is not too dense.
Upon arrival, the first thing to strike me was the fog / smog. It was crazy, you could only see 1 or 2 airplanes down. Also is is normal to have roundabouts for airplanes on the tarmac?? Beijing airport has loads of roundabouts for airplanes!!! Crazy.
The lack of visibility was creepy.. like an old horror film or something. The only thing I really saw on the landing were guard posts around the fence of the airport every 1 m or so. That scared me.
Then the doors opened and the smell hit me. It was a mix of something burnt and dust and humidity. Its difficult to explain but I think you get the idea. It took some getting used to. We arrived mid week at 9:30 am +-. The whole airport was deserted. You have to understand that this is easily the biggest airport I have ever been in but it was completely empty.
Customs was a breeze as I had all the documents ready so that was nice. What was bizarre was the ‘special’ equipment used. Upon arrival there is an announcement, if you cough, feel ill, dizzy etc then come see our Chinese doctors. I from then on had to resist the urge to cough! Then cane the temperature sensor. These are 2 meter high yellow tubes the hum loudly with a but neon sing telling you to walk slowly. As I approached I could feel my body getting hotter and as I approached, I started to walk faster. The 2 Chinese guard didn’t seem to mind.
When I saw huge, I really mean it. A 5-10 min train journey on the mono-rail showed only work men fixing things and guards and a huge amount of razor wire. I remember thinking that the razor wire merchant is making a killing, no pum intended.
Once out of the airport I found my chauffeur. He was really nice but spoke 3 works of English and my nihow and xiaxia were far from sufficient for conversation. We both tried in vain anyway. He liked some sort of rage against the machine American group. I tried to engage in conversation but it was no use. I looked out the window at the lack of traffic and building sites.
He dropped me off at the hotel, a massive complex. The room was not ready so I went to the office to say hi to all. They are a fantastic bunch and we had a few laughs before visiting the new offices. They are in a complete mess. There is no ceiling or plugs in the walls, not even a front door. They promised to have it finished for the weekend. I may have to stay longer…
So back to the office and off to lunch. They know how much I like walking and it is nice so we walked for a bit. The place we wanted to go to closed so the next door restaurant was chosen. I just les the girls decide for me. Then they brought a big pan and dropped it into the middle of the table to heat 2 different sections up. Stuff started to arrive. It was cooked a la fondue bourginione. It was great fun and I discovered the delights of the Szechuan peppers. They are not hot at all, think flowery and fizzy. My mouth was numb for 10 mins after. I have to buy some of these!!!
After lunch where the jasmine tea cost more than the whole meal together I am here typing this up in my hotel room with a view out over a river…. No don’t think lovely rustic river, more like a river in halflife2 for those in the know.
In the diplomatic quarter there are huge buildings all over and more sprouting up all over the place.
It is really cool here so far. I have had a few strange looks and giggles from people, but it is the traffic that really scares me. You have no priority at all and bikes, mopeds and cars come at you from al directions. My technique is to get into the middle of a group of people and cross when they do.
The sun is setting, I am off for an nap and then maybe some shopping, we will see what the local area offers. It is cool to be here but better tv channels would have been nice, there is nothing but Chinese tv and I am stuck watching Japanese sumos wabbling about and throwing salt at on an other. Its either sumos or Chinese pop rock, which really dosent rock at all. Sang u werry match (thank you very much I think!! Off the tele). Oooh I didn’t forget my pants, but I did forget to bring a comb and with my uncut hair as it is I might get arrested for its unkept state.
Night =)
a scary thing, i walked quick around the block with a colleague and she then left on a bus. i walked around some more got a bit lost, bought some beer, i hope its beer, found the bottle opener in the bathroom, screwed to the wall!!! i am having cashew nuts and some thing blueberry i think for dinner. night. planet of the apes is on the tele, in Chinese!!!
=)
god this jet lag thing is a cow i am wide awake and its only midnight here.
there were loads of lights on after dark here,like some sort of neon futuristic scene, well now they are all off and the streets are clear, very bizarre. as bizarre as my dinner of cashew nuts and blueberry jellies and beer. i plan on a huge breakfast, im starving. we had a very big lunch with all sorts of vegetables and lamb ham boiled in flavored waters, one sweet and the other crazy spicy with tofu, lettuces mushrooms etc. im setting my alarm earlier to allow for this feast!
back to bed!