the birm*

Well Doorbell and Bake drove me to the airport, we had some brekkie with my left over coins and cash and had a good chat. I checked in with 34kg without anything being said (praise the Lord!!). the boys said goodbye and left at about 10:45, leaving me with a few hours to walk around before boarding.

The plane was delayed, so we only boarded at 1:30 (instead of 12:20) and only got in the air by 2pm (I actually went to sleep while we were taxiing and woke up after take off, which I don’t think I’ve ever done!).

The plane trip was slow, hot, uncomfy and boring. The movies were few and of low quality and my games didn’t work. I slept a fair bit and ate/drank as much as I could (it’s amazing how good plane food and sprite tastes when you’re hungry and thirsty!).

We landed in shanghai, got off, went through customs, got back on and landed in Beijing at 12:15am. 10 minutes later I had my luggage and met Matt out the front. Twas great to see him and great to “smell” the cold (if you’ve never been to the snow or to a cold country you can’t really imagine the feeling, as Australia is usually humid. Dry cold stings your face and nose and it’s very refreshing, without being uncomfortable).

We got a taxi back to Matt and Goldie’s home, the 20^th floor of an apartment building in Beijing. Finally had a good sleep!

Today (Monday) we got up, had a great coffee (Matt’s pretty good at most things…including making good coffee!) and went for a walk. We had lunch at a weager (I dunno about the spelling) restaurant, which was taaaaaaastyyyyyyyy and incredibly cheap. We walked around some markets, caught some taxis to meet different people for different things and met up with Goldie and Isaac in the evening for some dinner at another restaurant (which cost about $4 for an amazing array of Chinese food). Beijing is pretty busy with people, bikes, cars, bikes, buses, motorbikes, taxis, trikes, bikes and trucks. So far it’s been an amazing time and great to catch up with some good friends. Tomorrow we’re off to see “the wall”…