China

One of the blessing of living in Thailand is that the rest of Asia is on our doorstep. And you all know how we love to travel...

So, last month Jair had to go to China for a country visit to the ADRA office in Beijing. And yes you guessed it, we tagged along.

So, we got to see Beijing!

Well, our trip did not start off with a bang... First our flight (a 1am flight) was delayed with 4 hours!!! Great! Joshua eventually fell asleep around midnight but true to form, Isabella kept going until about 3am.

She just could not wait to board, but eventually it all got to much for her. We finally got on and took off around 4am. Not to serious I thought. Well... Half hour before we where supposed to land in Beijing, we get diverted to another town. Due to a thunderstorm in Beijing they could not land. Okey...how long can a thunderstorm last... Well there we sat (in the plane) for 6 or 7 hours. Yes, that was not a typo, 6 or 7 hours!!! Now I am sorry, but that was just pathetic! They could not land in a simple thunderstorm, and it took 7 hours to get things back on schedule... This just does not add up in my book. And to top it off, we got a packet of cookies and juice for lunch... Oh glory. And I have not even mentioned the staff yet...

My little angel still managing a smile...
So, we finally get to Beijing.

Well now we have to get a taxi to the hotel... We probably got the worst taxi driver in Beijing... First he gave us grief for the amount of luggage. (We had 3 suitcases between 4 people, not a lot in my book!) And I am thinking to myself, "Hello, you are at the airport, this is what people come with when they travel, get a grip"
Anyway, then he gives me this big story that the kids must not dirty his white seat covers. WHITE, what is wrong with this man? So they get in very carefully, and he shoves me in, but alas Isabella got a bit of dust on it. And he goes off at me. I just looked at him, was not about to say anything, cause if I did he would have gotten all my frustration from having to sit in the plane for so long. So I just gave him 'the look'... And then to top it off, he slams Jair's leg in the door. Oh glory, at that point we felt like getting out and getting another taxi. But we where to tired... So finally at around 7pm we get to the hotel. He helps us off load everything, and opens the stroller (but not making sure it is locked). And poor little Bella was so tired that she got in the stroller. And yes, it collapsed on her, cutting her finger. Oh that was just the cherry on the cake...but we held it together (we are parents now you see...hehehe...). Calmed her down, checked in and collapsed on the bed...

What should have been a 4 hour flight, turned out to be a 22 hour ordeal... Hence, I have nothing good to say about Air China!

Well, that was day one of our trip...day one in which we should have been sight seeing, instead we where stranded on a runway in a God forsaken little town...

Okey, so come the next day and off to the Great Wall of China. So great! To be honest, I expected it to be wider and higher, but the impressive part is that it just keeps going on for miles and miles and miles. I can't say that I liked all the tourists. It was just jam packed. I was really impressed with my kids that day. They walked and walked and climbed and climbed, and they had a good time. Well done Bella and Josh!


We also visited the Ming Tombs and the Sacred Way. For an explanation of what these are, click here.

Now I must say, I don't think it was that Sacred when we had gone through...

We ended with the Olympic Stadium where the games where held in 2008. Huge huge huge...!

We where exhausted by this time, and the next morning we had to be ready to go to church at 8am, oh goodness!

But we where ready, and had an interesting day at church and Bella and Josh enjoyed playing with the other kids.

That afternoon we just slept and slept and slept...it was great! We did eventually make ourselves get up and go out. We where heading out to Tianamen Square, but had a bit of a detour...

We had managed to get ourselves there on the subway, but met a couple on our way. The Chinese like to stop foreigners and talk to them and practice their English. This couple, Jack and Shishi stopped us and spoke to us.

Jack & Shishi

They where heading to same way as us and offered to walk with us. Well, they "convinced" us to come look at their art exhibition which was on the way. So, being the polite, friendly people we are... we agreed. I have to tell you, as we where getting into the lift I was picturing the headlines in the news paper..."Two foreigners found dead in a dumpster in the alleyway". But they where legit... I have to say the paintings where really beautiful, so we bought two. They where happy and we where really really hungry. So they took us to a close by Chinese restaurant and helped us to order. We had a really great (maybe cause we where so hungry) meal!

Real Chinese restaurant

Fried Tofu with a sweet sauce - unexpectedly good!

And in between all this my shoe broke, so I ended up having to walk barefoot in Beijing. Luckily it was not Bangkok...

So, after some shopping and a really great meal, we finally made it to Tianamen Square and The Forbidden City.

Well, come Sunday we headed out to see the inside of the Forbidden City. It is HUGE! Took us about 3 hours to walk through. But so so impressive. Now one thing I have to say about the Chinese, they do things in large scale. They do not spare space (probably cause there is so much of it) and they make it beautiful!

Now if you are wondering what the Forbidden City is, click here.

Well, Monday to Friday Jair worked. So I spent the day with the kids. They enjoyed just being able to play and not having to walk around looking at funny buildings.

In the evenings we did some shopping - really cool! I had fun shopping in China. The prices are not always very cheap, and you really have to bargain hard. But we got some really nice things at reasonable prices.

The one thing we did that I enjoyed the most was walking through the Hutongs.

Hutongs are a type of narrow streets or alleys. Hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. Many neighborhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong, and then joining one hutong to another. The word hutong is also used to refer to such neighborhoods.

Since the mid-20th century, the number of Beijing hutongs has dropped dramatically as they are demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. More recently, some hutongs have been designated as protected areas in an attempt to preserve this aspect of Chinese cultural history.

On the Friday we headed out to the Temple of Heaven. Really beautiful buildings and relaxing gardens around.

But by this time we had seen enough. It is much like the temples in Bangkok. Seen one, seen them all. They all are really beautiful, but one does get to a point of 'enough'. We where ready just to relax and enjoy the people. Which we got to do on Sabbath. We went to church and had a nice chat to some of the people there and then went to lunch with the ADRA Country Director and her family. And yes, we did do some last minute shopping in the evening...how do you know me...??

My poor kids have never had so much attention headed their way. Most of the time unwanted attention...no, I think all of the time unwanted. My kids do not like being poked and prodded at. We thought it was bad in Bangkok with all the attention they got, but China is 10 times worse. A 100 times a day someone would stop us on the street and want to take a photo with them, pinch the cheeks and want to know what their names where. By the last day they had just had enough, shame... My the end I was ready to hang a board around their necks with the price for a photo...

Bella very unwilling to pose...

Now, talking about the people. Suffice it to say that I appreciated the Thai people more, coming back... I will give you an example...

Heading back home we had another delay boarding...surprise surprise... When we landed I asked the air hostes where I should get the stroller, on the plane or in the terminal (cause going they gave it back to us getting off the plane) Well, she looked at me and just shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, ask the ground crew" She really could not care less and did not mind showing it. I tell you, being the boertjie I am I could have klapped (smacked...for my English friends) her. But being married to Jair has taught me to hold my toung and think what would Jair do... So I just left and did not give her the earful I could have. Just to get to the terminal and find our stroller is missing. Well, at this point I just 'loved' the Chinese people...A perfect example of what I mean, read the small print at the bottom

We did however get the stroller back two days later, delivered to the house. Now I even loved the Thai people more... I have to say that I was wishing they would not find the stroller and I could order a nice new one from the States, but alas...

So, my final thoughts on Beijing. It is a beautiful, impressive, huge city. Very polluted! But with 17mil people, I suppose it is to be expected...

This is not an overcast day, it is just smog

Very few days one can actually see a nice blue clear sunny day.

For all the photos, click here..but be warned, there are hundreds. So go make yourself a cup of tea, sit down, and relax... (just scroll down a bit and you will spot it)