Beijing part 2

Now we have finished our Beijing part of the trip and it has been amazing! We have both had some trouble with jet lag but that is not a problem anymore!
In these couple of days that we have spent in Beijing we have managed to see a lot of things:
The Forbidden City
Tianmen Square
The Pearl Market
Temple of Heaven
Summer Palace
The Great Wall of China
The Ming Tombs
AND
2 Olympic arenas!

We have not taken taxis that much and have instead used the subway (which is very easy to use here) like many Chinese people use! Many times on the train May-Hilde and I have been the only foreigners! We have gotten some looks I must admit! :P

When we were at the Pearl Market May-Hilde and I threw ourselves out into the haggling world! We managed to get half of the price that the people were saying many times and sometimes even lower! For instance when looking at some converse shoes, I thought of buying a pair and asked how much. The sales lady said the price which was REALLY overpriced and I said no no no... She continued asking how much I would pay for them and I said that I really didn't want to buy shoes anymore. When saying that she said another price which was 300 yuan less than the first price! So I guess that is another way of haggling too! May-Hilde has become a real haggler and got many good deals that day! We were very careful of not seeming too interested and talked in a monotone voice even if we wanted something really badly! And it worked really well! :D

When planning for this trip we really wanted to see the great wall of China (when in Beijing I think that is a must). when talking to the people at our hotel we had gotten to know that we could order a guide with a driver for a day but when May-Hilde read that we could take a tourist bus for half the price we did that instead! And what an experience that was! Buying the tickets was fine and we had to sit in a COLD waiting room for a while before hearing something in Chinese and seeing lots of people walk towards the buses. The two girls sitting next to us on the bus turned out to be our saviours for the day because they helped us with a form we had to fill out and some translation! We were the only 4 tourists on the bus and the rest were all Chinese! So the guide only spoke in Chinese on the way towards the Ming tombs (which i thought was a pity but oh well!) We went to the Ming tombs first followed by a lunch that was included with what we had payed! The lunch was interesting and consisted of picking and choosing what was set on the table in front of you!
The Great Wall of China was the highlight of the day in my opinion! There were no clouds in the sky so the view was amazing! BUT it was SO windy that i almost fell a couple of times! Luckily we were both wearing a lot of clothes so we didn't freeze to death but I tell you it was COLD!! But I think it was quite the experience! Being on that bus too and experiencing the tour Chinese style was great! If we had ordered the trip from our hotel we would have been the only people in the car with a guide.. So although we didn't get much explanation from the guide it was worth it!

People here in China are very helpful although they don't speak English that well. For example our room was really warm and we wanted to turn down the heat. BUT we couldn't understand how to do it due to the fact that everything was in Chinese!!!! So I talked to the reception and she had a lady come up and help us.. but she didn't manage to fix it and therefore 2 other people came.. they didn't manage to fix the air condition at the time but the next day when we came back from our day of sightseeing the room was colder!!
Also today we went to eat at this place where you chose what you eat and had to pay for it somewhere else. We chose what we wanted and were shown to the cashier not by one person but by TWO! They were very helpful and made things a lot easier for us! Maybe they also thought it was fun to help us foreigners who had no idea what we were doing?


Bejing has been great and Vietnam is our next destination! Who knows what we will experience there?

Pictures will come later!

Beijing

And so our journey has started!
Beijing is the first stop and I am really liking it!

This is only our second day here but I thought that I could write a little-something!
We flew from Oslo to Helsinki and then onwards to Beijing.. Neither May-Hilde nor I got much sleep and we were quite jet lagged yesterday.. But I was sort of expecting that to happen :D! We took a bus from the airport to a bus stop in Beijing and thought that we could walk to our hotel from there.. That was a very ambitious thought so we ended up taking a cab :P When we got to the hotel we both collapsed on our beds and fell asleep but we could only sleep for a few hours because we had to get used to the Chinese time... We walked around yesterday and ate dinner at the hotel before crashing at 20.00! For me I fell asleep at 20.00 but woke up 20.45 wide awake! That was VERY annoying! But I managed to fall asleep again and today we both woke up at 6.00 (so this will be a long day!)

The hotel that we are staying at is really central because it is right behind the Forbidden City! Yesterday we just strolled around and explored where we were staying but today we went to the Forbidden City and Tianmen Square ( den himmelske freds plass). It was amazing to see all the buildings in the forbidden city. this city is in fact 720,000 square metres!
It is very interesting to be back here in China because the last time I was here I was with my family and I didn't have to fix that much... BUT now May-Hilde and I have to arrange everything! What I find is very strange is that it is so hard to find a normal grocery store (we have been looking for one but we can't find any!!)

Being outside of Norway we have to communicate by English but it is quite frustrating that many Chinese people (or at least the people we talk to) don't understand us that well! On the other hand while we were eating breakfast this morning May-Hilde saw a couple and said "I bet these people are Norwegian" and it turned out that they were! So I guess May-Hilde has the eye for that sort of thing!

Anyway we are going to stay in Beijing for a couple of more days and we are planning to see the Great Wall of China, The Summer Palace, go to a couple of markets and something else (but I can't remember it right now...)

That's it! I'll keep you posted!

First Blog

I am quite new to this whole blogging thing but I thought it would be a good idea to start one before my adventures in the big continent of Asia! I leave on Monday (the 5th of January) and I am very excited!!!
My best friend from Norway, May-Hilde is my travellingpartner and we have dreamed about going backpacking in Asia for many years! Now the time has finally come for this dream to come true and I think these three months (maybe longer ) will be months to remember!
We have planned this trip for a couple of months now and there has been a lot of stuff to think about: visas, shots, things to bring on the trip and planetickets. And I still have things to fix before I leave (don't have much time left though.... :/)

Anyway out travelling plan is the following:
We will start our journey in Beijing and stay there for a week. After that we will fly down to Hanoi in Vietnam. From there we continue travelling down Vietnam and cross the border into Cambodia. Our plan is to be in Cambodia for a couple of weeks before going to Thailand. We have only ordered a hotelroom in Beijing and the planetickets that we need. Other than that we don't have any plans and we will figure stuff on our way!

Yes I think that is what I wanted to say! I will try updating the blog during my trip!

Happy New Years!!!