A room by the hour

We did not enjoy our time in China very much.

We find the process at the airport very confusing and disorganised and the officials particularly unfriendly and somewhat intimidating.

During the entire process none of the officials smiled once. They all barked orders at us and never said please or thank you. We both set the metal detector off and had to be searched (score 4 out of 10), and I thought I was going to be shot when the searcher found a packet of foil wrapped chewing gum and a lip balm in my pocket.
I have come to the conclusion that the officials are not actually characterless miserable rude robotic individuals, but rather they believe they come across as authoritative and professional. I'd have had my P45 long ago if I acted like they do.

When we made it through to departures, we decided to rent one of the "by the hour" hotel rooms at the airport. This is not the sort of thing we normally do but we were both grumpy and wanted to get away from all the mean people. The room was good and not at all seedy like I had expected. Needless to say we had been allocated a twin room despite having asked for a double twice. We didn't bother complaining as that would have used up some of our valuable paid for sleeping time, and arguing is difficult when you don't have a common language.

We had a three hour sleep and went to a cafe offering "fried egg, sausage, bacon and toast". I have never had a breakfast that sounded so much like a proper British fry up but tasted so much like a Chinese takeaway. Never ones to turn away calories, we ate it all apart from the lettuce and carrot salad (!)
We bought a couple of panda souvenirs and then spent about 45 minutes buying bottles of water for the flight. I won't bore you with the details of why, but yes, it really is that difficult to stay hydrated in Beijing.

I managed to post the previous blog more by luck than judgement (well, I think it posted anyway!). In China you can't just use wi fi internet, you have to be monitored, which involves setting up a free account linked to your passport. I was already agitated enough by the officialdom and didn't really like the idea of that, but discovered a loophole that allowed me to upload anonymously but not download anything.
I decided not to write this blog, as it is a little critical of China, until I had left the country. They won't know about it until I'm back in the UK.

We're on the plane now, having taken off about half an hour ago. The Chinese men are at it again. There is also a baby on board who is almost certainly a Chinese male baby judging by the noise. I think in China, spit = sexy as all the men do it, not just the scummy looking ones. Needless to say, it's not doing anything for us.

The flight is horrendous, the worst one yet. There are too many children on board, one of our chairs doesn't recline, and neither of us can sleep. We can't wait to get off.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Beijing