Day 2...Beijing

Having an awful time getting over the jetlag, was awake until 7am this morning, I don't know how Dom is finding it so easy! In saying that though he did sleep on the plane. I read somwhere that it takes one day for every hour time difference to get over the jetlag - at that rate we'll almost be in Hong Kong! Because of this, we ended up booking the same hotel for tonight even though we know its overpriced - we have to start being careful and hunting around for accommodation to make sure we are getting the best price, a new challenge for tommorrow.

Dom had his first authentic Chinese breakfast today, the fact he hadn't a clue what anything was didn't stop him. Unfortunately though, turned out that everything was quite bland - we will find a good breakfast yet though. (Unsurprisingly I slept in).

We ventured eastwards this morning - with the aim of finding an Internet cafe - dont be fooled by the thought that china is so technologically focused that it is drowning in Internet cafes - I think there is a wonderful niche in that market - they are very few and far between (yet another lie from our book). So off on our ventures we went, through Ritan Park (which is a lovely park full of temples and people practising martial arts) towards the World Trade Centre. The WTC turned out to be the poshest shopping centre I have ever been in, Louis Vitton, Prada, Gucci etc. Ironically, even though were in the middle of Beijing, there was not one shop which had a Chinese name. The restaurants in this area were the same, all western names, and western prices. To be honest we did go into O'Briens for a sandwich, I ordered a tropical salad which involved salad stuff with apples, oranges and other fruit pieces, well, it arrived to me under a shrowd of parmesan cheese. Apparently you can't teach taste.

As one can tell, this side of town is very glizty with high rises, big cars and people in suits, even at this though, with the designer suits and labels on, it doesn't stop them spitting and what can only be described as blowing your nose into the air (i.e. no tissue) in public. Seriously, there was a guy doing a two-sider blow which he dribbled on his suit and thought nothing of it. This has been a real culture shock to us, the public spitting and air nose blowing. Apparently they are trying to crack down on it for the Olympics next year, but they definately have a long way to go!

After giving up trying to find an Internet cafe we headed on our next adventure - the zoo. However, we had to face the metro before that. I had originally thought the metro was going to be confusing, crowded and dangerous (thats paranoia from Barcelona). However, the signs and announcements were in English, and the fact that there is only two lines means that it is very difficult to find it confusing. So we found the zoo no problem!

I haven't actually been to a zoo in years, but sure, why not go now. The main highlight was obviously the pandas, and even though it was an experience seeing themm they look exactly the same on TV as they do through a glass pane. It also comes across as if the pandas are treated like royalty as the conditions that the other animals were kept in were very questionable. Sadly, it was very difficult to look past the boredom in the animals eyes. In saying that, the animals were not scrawny and they all had water next to them - its very hard to know how to feel about that zoo.

Moving onto dinner, food is becoming a major feature, its amazing when you have to eat out for all your meals - im going to forget how to cook at this rate! After our cop out yesterday with the roast duck and springrolls, we wanted to ease ourselves more into Chinese food - without jumping in at the deep end. Well, Dom got beef with chillis which was lovely. I ordered stewed chicken with mushrooms thinking that this was a pretty safe bet...I was wrong. I think the chef must of attacked a whole chicken with an axe, dumped it into a wok, then added a variety of mushrooms. The chicken was just literally bone and skin - stewed - it reminds me of the stock my dad makes after every christmas dinner with the remaining turkey carcass, it ain't a pretty site, and this was not tasty either (the turkey stock is always lovely though daddy!).

So another great day but im still not blown away by anything the city has offered yet, and continuously getting more and more annoyed by people constantly trying to sell me something.

From a freezing Beijing...brrr...

Team Domro