You are what you eat, I am now a scorpion

5 - 8 November 2009

The night at the Ger-camp was very cold, but beautiful. We had a full moon, so we couldn't really see the stars, but the landscape was stunning! The next day we get back to the hotel and finally get some free time to wander around. To be honest, I'm drawing a blank here, I can't remember anything else I did that day and in my diary there's nothing mentioned either, so I'll get on with the story.

Early the next morning we get onto our train that takes us to Beijing. It's already cleaner and the staff is friendlier than on the Russian train. One thing that is a huge improvement is the dining cart, it's beautiful, with wooden dragons and clean windows, even the food is great!

It takes us almost 36 hours to get to Beijing, dueing which we also pass teh Gobi Desert. When we arrive the massive buildings disappearing in the smog are the first thing i notice, it's like being in Bladerunner. It feels like it takes forever for the rest of the city to pass by, 60 million people take up alot of space!

At the station our honcho Alex, a.k.a. Wu, is waiting for us, a very cheerful Chinese guy that sometimes seems to get a bit lost in his own city. That night we get settled in our hotel, go to dinner (yum, Kung Pao Chicken!) and go to "the barstreet" where all the cool cats hangout, also known as the tourists with money (A beer costs us 4,50 euro in the bar, while in the store they are about 30 cents! But we do get some real Chinese live music and a bowl of fruit...)

The next day we do some touristy stuff. I think we annoy Alex a bit, because we're not as fast as he is, and he planned our whole day full. But he also annoyed us to by getting lost on public transport a few times... We got to see the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City and Tianemen square. But what I notice the most is the smog, it's very thick and heavy, during the day you can't even see the sun. I have no idea how the Olympic athletes could have been at their best in this air!

In the evening some of us go see an acrobatic show, which is really impressive: 12 cute Chinese girls on one bike, I thought the mothers with 2 kids and their groceries on a bike in Amsterdam were impressive! After the show we decide to go to the nightmarket, which is a market exclusively for food. But not just any food. No, this is where the strange food comes out. There are things like cattepillars, cocroaches, sheeps penises, snake, locusts and, the one that i tried, scorpions! Deep fried, crunchy and tastes like shrimp with a livery aftertaste. Delicious!