Travelling to Beijing

9th March 2016

5 star hotel in Beijing with an interesting bathroom

I flew from Vientiene to Beijing via Bangkok, with Thai Airways, the seemingly best option from the choices available.  Not too long and not too expensive, though neither the quickest nor the cheapest option.

The hotel in Vientiene were providing a transfer to the airport and the driver was ready earlier than I had booked, which resulted in getting to the airport before check in started.  Not totally comfortable as I was dressed for the flight, not for Vientiane’s maximum temperature of 39 degrees!

The airport cafés did, of course, sport airport prices for their food, and I purchased a packet of banana chips and locally produced purple potato chips – tiny packets for almost the price of huge packets in the tourist destinations in town!

Beijing transport

The duty free shop has an interesting selection.  Despite the fact that tonic is available in every small convenience store in town, the choice of gin in duty free is limited to VERY top of the line and something with a price tag that suggests I do not want to put it into my body.   Nothing in between.  A 750ml bottle of Pernod looks good, and might even use up my remaining kip. 

I had selected seats when I booked the flight, and when I tried online check in, had the option of an exit row seat for the Vientiane – Bangkok sector, which I selected for the extra leg room, though when I reported at the airport, the lady on check in decided to move me forward in the plane and give me an isle seat, so I would be more comfortable?  Not sure why, but anyway, it was only an hour or so flight.

The flight from Bangkok to Beijing confirmed that I do not like night flights.  It was an 11:59pm departure.  I am sure there is a good reason for this departure time, although it eludes me.  There were several flights departing Bangkok at this time.

More Beijing Transport

When I booked, I had chosen seat 72F, an isle seat in the centre row right at the rear of the plane.  I had chosen this on the grounds that it might be an area most likely to have no neighbours and I might curl up slightly horizontally for a bit of sleep.  Navigating my way to the rear of the plane via a squillion other passengers who had pushed their way further forward in the queue to board and were then busy playing musical seats was interesting, but was assisted by a series of flight attendants.

I finally reached my seat, and since it was well past my normal bedtime, did not actually register that someone else’s belongings were strewn across the entire middle row.   As I went to put my handbag on my seat and place my backpack in the overhead locker, a Chinese gentlemen got a bit agitated, so I showed him my boarding pass and he continued to get agitated with a flight attendant, who simply told him she did not understand him.  He removed his stuff and I sat, and had an amusing conversation with the gentleman in the window seat diagonally across from me.  It seems that this man was trying to lay claim to all the seats in the rear row of the plane.  There was ongoing animated conversation involving me as the subject between this man and the flight crew and my subsequent inquiry of a flight attendant who appeared to speak both his language and English suggested that he wanted a row of seats for his wife who is sick, but has found some further forward.  I am a little sceptical.  He is told to return to his allocated seat for takeoff.

Trees still in their winter dress

After takeoff and all the required signs permit such activities, I go to the toilet and return to find that someone has moved themselves to the other isle seat in the centre row.  As I organise myself, and get my jacket from the overhead locker, which necessitates passing it across her to my seat, and prepare to make myself comfortable, she presumably realises that she is not going to get this row of seats to herself and leaves.  The aforementioned gentleman returns to the rear window seats to find a young girl attempting to sleep on them.  There is another animated conversation in which he sends the young girl away.  I guess from the conversation involving a couple of flight attendants, they are trying to manage him, and there is some more conversation in which I am clearly the topic of his attention.  Again, the gentleman in the diagonal window seat shows amusement and we have another short conversation at his expense.   Sometimes its good not to understand!!

Lovely landscape amongst the concrete jungle

A hot meal is served and I am not sure about the “certificate of authentic Thai food” in respect to the rather bland fried rice with chicken.  However, flight attendants from both isles are attentive to my needs when it comes to drinks and the wine is the most drinkable I have had in months, so a refill or two is welcome.  I guess that I am travelling with a substantial number of people who do not consume alcohol, or at least in the form in which it is on offer, so there is more time for attention to those who do!

The flight is bumpy, so I do the right thing and fasten my seatbelt, before curling up horizontally across the 3 seats, which now seem to be left to me.  Oblivious to his wife’s needs and health issues, the Chinese gentleman attempts to do the same on the 2 seats nearest the window.  There is subsequent conversation in which I am the subject, later in the flight.  Rather not my problem.  Anyone else could have made the same choices when booking their flight.

As we get closer to China, the flight attendants advise that no photography is permitted over China - interesting!

Bushes wrapped, presumably to protect against frost

Arrival, immigration and bag collection goes smoothly.  I need to catch a train to actually collect my bags, but go along with the signs.  Unusually my bag is not one of the last on the carousel, which is nice, but it does mean I have to push my way past the people who have already pushed themselves and their luggage trolleys in front of me (in the area which says “keep clear”)

I clear customs and am out in the general area.  My first need is an ATM, but the ATM wants a phone number code.  Minor panic.  A  young Caucasian man confirms he has also had trouble, though had managed to extract money from this machine before.  I ask for assistance at the adjacent tourist information desk and after someone is located who speaks English, I am directed to another ATM.  The ATM’s have their number pads so securely shielded, that I am hard pressed to read the information on them, however, I am eventually successful in obtaining both currency and the return of my card.  It’s probably a Visa cash advance but I will deal with that later.

Traditional buildings amongst the concrete jungle

I avoid someone touting his taxi services and proceed to the taxi information desk, and the young lady writes the name of my hotel in Chinese on a slip of paper for a taxi driver, (although  I did already have this on my phone) and suggests the fare may be about 200CYK, as was also suggested by the travel agent.

A taxi driver at the rank confirms he knows the hotel and directs me to his car.  I should have been a little suspicious that his taxi license was not clearly on display, but it was 6am and I’d had little sleep.  He shows me a card with some prices, and I first think these are tour prices, so photograph the card and his phone number, than realise that his is showing me that the price for the journey is 480.  I express very genuine surprise and tell him it is way too much and it should be only 200.  There are ongoing discussions and reasons and I finally agree to 380.  It’s a 50Km journey and that’s probably about what it would cost for that distance at home.  I suspect he is ripping me off though.

We are driving through dawn, and as the light increases, there is frost on the ground.  The information as our flight landed identified it was -2 degrees.  A bit cooler than the 39 degrees of Vientiane.

China's traffic was always busy
but not always as well ordered as this

The hotel is expecting me and has no issue with me checking in at 7am, which is a huge relief.  However, I was quite surprised not to be shown to my room and assisted with my luggage (not that I really need assistance with a small backpack and a suitcase on wheels, but it would have to be the first overseas destination where I have not got this assistance)

My first action was try to figure out how to make the room heater work, my second was to crawl into bed for a few hours.

The bathroom is interesting.  There is a very large window between the bathroom and the bedroom, and while the toilet is a little obscured from full view from some parts of the room, it’s an interesting choice for design.  I subsequently, after discussion with others on the tour, discovered that there is a blind that can be lowered to give bathroom privacy.  The shower is also rather interesting.  It’s a hand held shower, but overhead, embedded into the ceiling, is a dinner plate type shower – no water saving nonsense here!  And the drainage from showering is slightly lacking – but I am used to Asian bathrooms and am glad that I did not leave my “bathroom slippers” behind.  It had crossed my mind.

The hotel is supposed to be 5* and it certainly has prices to match – as I find out when I find the room service menu, so I chose to go to the shopping centre just across the road for lunch.  The initial choices on offer at the mall entrance were MacDonald and KFC.... as I walked further, Pizza Hut was added to this choice.  I went higher and eventually found a floor with restaurants, and based on the menus on display, chose one place that might serve food I wanted to eat in China (as opposed to pizza and chips) and would be relatively easy to order.  There was one waitress who could write the cost in numbers, although this was relatively unnecessary, as I could do the mental arithmetic.   I ate a very tasty lunch for half the price of the cheapest hotel breakfast item!  It was tasty, 2 different plates of dumplings – fillings involved leafy green vegetables and various other ingredients and a bowl of sweet potato soup with noodles.   Judging from the interest in me from staff and other diners, I guess they don’t get many Caucasian customers.

I eventually found another food section, and this looked not only much cheaper but also a bit more “fast food” like, but given that I was totally “packed” as my Bhutanese students would have said, I did not need to investigate further

I also found the supermarket section to buy some snacks for later - that was interesting.  It might be a communist country but consumerism and luxury foods are pretty big!  I chose nuts, dried fruit and a packet of digestive biscuits with black sesame seed.  What is did find a little alarming was the amount of packaging.  Inside each packet are small, single serve packets. 

The hotel concierge had provided me with a map and a suggestion that a subway trip to a museum might be my best option, as there was little locally of interest, but as I am walking through the shopping mall, light headedness from being tired sets in, so feeling not obligated to play tourist, I return for an afternoon nap. 

Checking out the hotel swimming pool (it’s a big pool, but colder than the outdoor one in Vientiane) and the spa and restaurants takes few minutes later in the afternoon, but I decide that I don’t need to pay more for a massage in China than I would pay at home, and I don’t need to eat Japanese food, at huge prices, in China, nor am I in need of a huge buffet meal.  Some hot drinks and snacks and attempts to connect to the internet to do a bit of research about my upcoming travels consume the rest of the evening.