Day 1 to 3

sorry for the delay in updates it seems that google blogs is blocked in china as well as facebook :( although i have found away around it using proxy servers...

day 1
my first update from dubai airport, wow Dubai looks amazing.
I set of from england on my around the world trip at 0900 hours, my mum nicely offered to take me to manchester airport. I arived at manchester airport at 1100 hours and for some reason i still wasnt nervous, just very excited. after a wait in the airport i left for dubai at 220. I loved flying with Emirates, plenty of gadgets and complimentery drinks to keep me amused :D although the food was terrable.
Flying down to dubai airport was amazing. so many lights. it made me think how much energy must be needed to run a city like that. i flew over and was amazed by the crazy man made islands before finaly landing in Dubai airport at 2400 hours.
Dubai airport was very impressive full of tourists from all over and lots of people with tea towls on there heads. after an hour or so looking round shops i found a nice bar and confy chair to chilax in and wait until my flight to Beijing 11 hours later.



Day2
I left Dubai airport early saturday morning and headed off to Beijing, again flying with Emirates but thins time i apeard to be the only english person on the flight and kept getting hit by the guys head who was nodding off next to me. i tried telling him but soon realised he spoke nill English. after a 9 hour flight i arived in china, very excited. I got a packed train to terminal 2 to collect my baggage, i was the only westener on the train and i got a few funny looks. :o
i grabbed my baggage and headed for the exit to meet chen. I couldnt find him anywhere i checked everywhere. after an hour of waiting and looking i gave up and decided to ring him but of cause my phone had gone dead. I therefore decided to try and get a taxi to his home so i followed the signs for taxis wich lead me just outside the airport. I got a taxi streaght away and i asked the taxi if he could ring chens number and find out his address. i passed him his number wich i had writen doen and he rang him. after listening to him talking down the phone in chinease not understanding a word he was saying he said i have got the address. after driving for 5 mins or so i asked him how much it would cost he said 250yen, i wasnt sure how much that was but it was half of what i had in currency so i said that sounds abit steep 200? he agereed. after a 25 min drive we reached a very untouristy area with plenty of chinease people hanging around outside shops with scooters. it looked a very rough area. the taxi driver pointed to a building and i got out. I soon realised that this was not chens address and was given a very aggresive look from a scarylooking shirtless guy outside the building when i tried to enter, he shouted somethin in chinease at me (possably some kind of insult) i quickly turned round and walked away fast. as i walked down the street with my weston clothes and my big rucksack i was stared at by pretty much everyone, i must of stuck out like a saw thumb. for the first time i felt quite scared as i realised i was at the other side of the world on my own in the middle of the night in a dodgy area being stared at by pretty much everyone and to top it all off i had no working phone. :s
i knew i had to get out of there and fast, i decided to try and find a taxi and get to the closest hotel. i finaly found a taxi and i asked him for a taxi to a hotel. he replied blacudamacharatas or something. yep clearly he cant speek english i tried to explane using signs and making snoring noices and sleeping motions but he wasnt getting it and possably thought i was some kind of nutter, after trying a few more taxis i finaly found one that understood my sign language. he took me to a hotel and charged me 15 yen for a 10 min journy. i then realised that the other taxi driver must have ripped me off damn...
i entered the hotel and tryed to ask for a room for one night, yep they knew no english. i realy should of learned chinease before coming here. after a long time trying to explane using signs and bits of english they knew and pointing at things in my lonley plannet book aka my bible!!

i managed to pay on my card wich is good as i only had about 14 yen left in cash. i was taken to my room by a tiny chinease man. i gave him a tip for carying my bag then went in and locked the door. i organised all my kit for the next day and wrote down what i needed to do tomorow inorder to find where chen was.



Day 3
I woke up in the hotel at about 8.00 and the first thing i did was ring chen and find out where he was. he said he would come pick me up from the hotel. i then went down for breakfast. yougutt and tomato juce mmmmmmmmmmmmm......
chen arrived soon after and we got a taxi together back to his place. he lived on floor 9 in a very tall building. after speeking with his family and unpacking my stuf we decided to go out and hunt for a laptop. we got a taxi to a big Hyper Market in Beijing. as we entered chen spoke to one of the people and we were escorted to a laptop shop. we looked at three different shops chen negotiated and translated for me. finaly i purchased a laptop for 2700 yen. a very good deal as i got a very powerfull little netbook :D
chen then flagged a taxi and we headed back to his place, dropped off the laptop then went to get some food, we went to a cantoneeze resteronte and got loads of food for 80 yen about 8 pounds.
I failed at chopsticks :(
after the meal we headed back up to chens and planned some stuff we wanted to do over our time in Beijing.


*piks to come soon :D