10/7/08I couldn't think of a better incentive to wake up at 4:30 in the morning; going away for 6 weeks to travel across Asia, experiencing Chinese, Tibetan, Nepali and Indian cultures and fully documenting the trip in photographic form!
It was a lovely morning driving to the Stansted with tired excitement. Our flight from the UK left at 7:30 without any problems and an hour or so later we had landed in Dusseldorf International Airport. It wasn't a bad airport with lots of cafes and shops but I was glad to be leaving it after about 7 hours worth of killing time.
Our connecting flight was long (about 9 hours) but pleasant enough and around 9:30 local time we had landed in a misty Beijing. Once we had collected our bags, after having our passports checked by a friendly border guard, we wandered out of the terminal in search of a taxi. We soon learnt the extent of the Lonely Planet guide's reference to an English speaking taxi driver being a rare thing!
After a puzzled laugh, and a look at where we were headed on the map, the taxi was soon on the road, with us in the back hoping that we would be able to find the hotel once we had arrived on street we were headed. We finally arrived somewhere along Nanheyan Dajie and paid the driver. Not knowing exactly where we were we glanced around and, low and behold, there was Days Inn, right across the road from where we had stopped. Following a few minor issues at reception (we thought we had already paid for the room by card, and the room wasn't ready) we were soon lying in a very comfortbale air-conditioned room and almost falling asleep having not slept much on the plane.
After a bit of planning we a decied that a short sleep was the best idea and we reluctantly got up about an hour later. Both hungry we left the hotel in search of food and were soon sitting in Megabite - a busy food hall type restaurant on the basement floor of the enormous Oriental Plaza. We ended up eating Japanese Teppanyaki and some strange fruit salad.
No longer hungry we got a feel for the area by wandering around the mall and up Wangfujing Road which it was situated on. We were back to the hotel some time around 10pm with a couple of good maps to help us plan some of the unorganised parts of the trip to an extent. A while later we were both asleep.
It was a lovely morning driving to the Stansted with tired excitement. Our flight from the UK left at 7:30 without any problems and an hour or so later we had landed in Dusseldorf International Airport. It wasn't a bad airport with lots of cafes and shops but I was glad to be leaving it after about 7 hours worth of killing time.
Our connecting flight was long (about 9 hours) but pleasant enough and around 9:30 local time we had landed in a misty Beijing. Once we had collected our bags, after having our passports checked by a friendly border guard, we wandered out of the terminal in search of a taxi. We soon learnt the extent of the Lonely Planet guide's reference to an English speaking taxi driver being a rare thing!
After a puzzled laugh, and a look at where we were headed on the map, the taxi was soon on the road, with us in the back hoping that we would be able to find the hotel once we had arrived on street we were headed. We finally arrived somewhere along Nanheyan Dajie and paid the driver. Not knowing exactly where we were we glanced around and, low and behold, there was Days Inn, right across the road from where we had stopped. Following a few minor issues at reception (we thought we had already paid for the room by card, and the room wasn't ready) we were soon lying in a very comfortbale air-conditioned room and almost falling asleep having not slept much on the plane.
After a bit of planning we a decied that a short sleep was the best idea and we reluctantly got up about an hour later. Both hungry we left the hotel in search of food and were soon sitting in Megabite - a busy food hall type restaurant on the basement floor of the enormous Oriental Plaza. We ended up eating Japanese Teppanyaki and some strange fruit salad.
No longer hungry we got a feel for the area by wandering around the mall and up Wangfujing Road which it was situated on. We were back to the hotel some time around 10pm with a couple of good maps to help us plan some of the unorganised parts of the trip to an extent. A while later we were both asleep.
1 comment:
What a fantastic start to a great journey. Looks like you're going to have an amazing time. Luc x
Post a Comment