Somewhat Relieved I Am to have been Left Behind
From: Diana V Thompson [mailto:diana.thompson103@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2012 6:08 PM
To: kc@zoiboyz.com; Tom Golcher; Robert Crooks; Aunt Diana; Nikole Krause-Thompson; Maurice Thompson; Judith Myers; Kay Daniels; Sid Picht; mountainpk73048@gmail.com; d1030krause@gmail.com
Subject: Greetings from Beijing!
Good morning friends and family!
Nikole and I are safe and sound, and happily settled into a small hostel in central Beijing! Sorry it's been so long since my last note -- we've had a busy itinerary (and internet is really hard to get here!!) Here's what we've been doing:
We took the overnight train from Xi'an to the small walled town of Pingyao. The train was a lot more "authentic" than our last train, and we began to appreciate the wisdom of squat toilets, as little would have motivated us to put our lily bums on any public surface (if you get my meaning). Sleep was fitful, particularly for Nikole who was coming down with the cold that has been going around our group. My own immune system was not far behind, but I think we were both mostly suffering from the pollution -- their only source of heat was burning coal, and everyone had home coal burners, including the owners of our hostel. The air was thick with ash and soot
The hostel itself was quite charming, but Nikole and I are soft westerners, and were a little dismayed that the beds were wooden planks covered by a layer of felt and a blanket, and that there was limited hot water, and it was only available for 2 hours a day. Meh. At least the food was good (they served pizza in a restaurant down the street -- yumm!!). The next morning we took in the sights of the small walled town, admired some temples and bargained hard for treasures from the street vendors. We've been venturing to try more and more street food as we've had very good luck with the gastrointestinal region of our bodies so far -- but we hedge our bets by sticking to vegetarian, and mostly fried. Seriously good potatoes in this country!
Both of us were pretty happy to leave the dusty Pingyao behind and board another overnight train (seriously, we're grimy dirty at this point) for Beijing. There were real Tibetans on this train! It was so cool! The train was nicer than the previous "local" but felt like heaven compared to our hostel in Pingyao so we caught just enough zzz's to arrive successfully in Beijing! And thank goodness for that because our day was nonstop from there! Our first stop was Tienanmen square -- just amazing, and so HUGE you can't imagine. There's a big poster of Mao over the gate, just like in pictures we've seen. Crossing the massive square, we went through the gate into the Forbidden City. Again, the buildings were so big (I think there's a total of 9999 rooms throughout) Nikole and I were dumbfounded. After a while though they all kind of blended together... Friggin tourists are so hard to impress!
In the evening we hit a local supermarket for a treasure hunt of ingredients we can use for a lunch on the bus this morning (4 hour ride to the Great Wall!), and made it back in time to our room to change into spiffy duds for a Kung Fu show, and a stroll along the food market famous for its deep fried scorpions. All in all, not a bad day,though we were so tired by the end of it, we could barely move our pinky toes. This morning we're hoping we have enough adrenaline to keep us going -- we'll need it for this last little push!
I'm sending my love!
Love T
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2012 6:08 PM
To: kc@zoiboyz.com; Tom Golcher; Robert Crooks; Aunt Diana; Nikole Krause-Thompson; Maurice Thompson; Judith Myers; Kay Daniels; Sid Picht; mountainpk73048@gmail.com; d1030krause@gmail.com
Subject: Greetings from Beijing!
Good morning friends and family!
Nikole and I are safe and sound, and happily settled into a small hostel in central Beijing! Sorry it's been so long since my last note -- we've had a busy itinerary (and internet is really hard to get here!!) Here's what we've been doing:
We took the overnight train from Xi'an to the small walled town of Pingyao. The train was a lot more "authentic" than our last train, and we began to appreciate the wisdom of squat toilets, as little would have motivated us to put our lily bums on any public surface (if you get my meaning). Sleep was fitful, particularly for Nikole who was coming down with the cold that has been going around our group. My own immune system was not far behind, but I think we were both mostly suffering from the pollution -- their only source of heat was burning coal, and everyone had home coal burners, including the owners of our hostel. The air was thick with ash and soot
The hostel itself was quite charming, but Nikole and I are soft westerners, and were a little dismayed that the beds were wooden planks covered by a layer of felt and a blanket, and that there was limited hot water, and it was only available for 2 hours a day. Meh. At least the food was good (they served pizza in a restaurant down the street -- yumm!!). The next morning we took in the sights of the small walled town, admired some temples and bargained hard for treasures from the street vendors. We've been venturing to try more and more street food as we've had very good luck with the gastrointestinal region of our bodies so far -- but we hedge our bets by sticking to vegetarian, and mostly fried. Seriously good potatoes in this country!
Both of us were pretty happy to leave the dusty Pingyao behind and board another overnight train (seriously, we're grimy dirty at this point) for Beijing. There were real Tibetans on this train! It was so cool! The train was nicer than the previous "local" but felt like heaven compared to our hostel in Pingyao so we caught just enough zzz's to arrive successfully in Beijing! And thank goodness for that because our day was nonstop from there! Our first stop was Tienanmen square -- just amazing, and so HUGE you can't imagine. There's a big poster of Mao over the gate, just like in pictures we've seen. Crossing the massive square, we went through the gate into the Forbidden City. Again, the buildings were so big (I think there's a total of 9999 rooms throughout) Nikole and I were dumbfounded. After a while though they all kind of blended together... Friggin tourists are so hard to impress!
In the evening we hit a local supermarket for a treasure hunt of ingredients we can use for a lunch on the bus this morning (4 hour ride to the Great Wall!), and made it back in time to our room to change into spiffy duds for a Kung Fu show, and a stroll along the food market famous for its deep fried scorpions. All in all, not a bad day,though we were so tired by the end of it, we could barely move our pinky toes. This morning we're hoping we have enough adrenaline to keep us going -- we'll need it for this last little push!
I'm sending my love!
Love T
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