Day 118 - Lost in Beijing

Okay, for anyone that is coming to Beijing my first and best recommendation is get a map. Actually get three of them in all different sizes. Preferably in English although have a Chinese version also. Beijing is big. Super big. Beijing municipality has a total area of 16800 sq km, roughly the size of Belgium. Today taught me a few lesson. Awoken as usual at a ridiculous hour, not impressed, within an hour we had ourselves booked into where the boys were staying. The Beijing Downtown Backpackers Accommodation in Nan Luo Gu Alley, highly recommended on Hostelworld and by a few others. Only thing is on the directions page they only had info if coming from the airport or Beijing Railway Station. The street name, came up a blank on Google Maps, so we had no way of knowing how to get there by metro. I did a bit more searching and found a listing for the youth hostel name in Google Maps. Delighted with the info we headed off. We took the local subway to the nearest station I saw on the map. We arrived on another crazy busy highway, with no address and wondering how we'd get there. Thankfully I had the number in my last dialed numbers. We jumped into a cab, although just prior to that I asked an attentive soldier where the area was, we were looking for. He pointed to the right. Our taxi took the instructions off the BDBA staff on the phone and we were off. It all seemed too easy. We headed off and I kept checking the map. Roughly knowing where we were supposed to be going I knew something was wrong. Ian kept telling me to relax. Maps are one thing I love. Always have and from my rough calculations we were well off the mark. Next he headed west in the opposite direction of where we were supposed to be heading. Feeling slightly stressed the further we drove I rang the hostel and got them to confirm our destination to the driver. A moment later he handed it back to me. I asked the girl where the hostel was based on the area I had seen on the map. She confirmed that the driver knew where he was going or perhaps I had seen the wrong hostel. I relaxed a bit. Ten mins later we were driving through a row of some very smart Huan Tons with Chinese lanterns hanging from trees lining the laneway. We passed by Peking Downtown and Ian called out for the guy to stop. I was like, no its definitely the Beijing Downtown. Thinking we were lost we called the hostel again, only to find out we were in the right place. We arrived in the place and I gave out about the name on the outside of the door. She said it was the same thing. This I didn't quite agree with and didn't gain any knew friends. We checked in and jumped on the lads asleep in the room. I greeted Eoghan with some wonderful BO after not showering for the last two mornings and Ia n hopped on Aidan. The boys had only being asleep a few hours. We caught up on our adventures and got some showers.

We got a taxi with some help of a local. The Forbidden City was closed for the day by the time we got our shit together so I recommended Tian'anmen Sq. It was bloody freezin outside as we walked across the square. Aidan was in hilarious form, still drunk after only getting to bed at 1pm. Peter looked absolutely wrecked. Within minutes the boys were complaining of the cold and wanting to get a taxi home. I decided perhaps a bit of sightseeing was in order so I dragged them to the metro. They had no idea where they where. So like sheep they followed. Funny enough I was a bit lost myself. I knew roughly, although after leaving the map back in the hostel I was riding on a bit of luck. First thing was we got off at the wrong station. Next we went back one stop, now sure I had it. We walked out of the metro and I was totally lost. The boys were looking at me with a look of "are you serious?". Suddenly I saw the astronomy observatory I had visited the first day. That didn't help. I was still a bit lost. It must have being the stop before this one. LOL. Aidan, hangover looming was, "okay, I'm getting a taxi and going". I knew getting a taxi was going to be insane. No one listened. So, I asked for the hostel flyer and headed off to the metro. When I walked back into the station, a woman was frantically trying to get someone to understand her, asking people, "Do you speak english?". In all the bustle of the evening rush no one was stopping to help. As soon as she saw me, she was, "Do you speak English?" I asked her how I could help. The poor lady had being standing outside for over an hour trying to get a taxi. Another warning for you. Taxis can be fairly hard to get at times, especially during rush hour. Secondly, if you don't speak Mandarin a lot of taxi drivers will not give you the time. Thirdly, if your destination is on the other side of the city, they will probably not bring you there. Feigning ignorance they will wave you no. Sometimes you just need to sit there, ignore their franctics noises and hope they'll bring you home. Taxis are cheap. The longest possible journey from one side of the city to the other will be no more than €15. Generally most fares are two to three euros max.

The lady was lost. She had the card from the hotel although no directions. She had no idea which metro to get. Most public maps are written purely in Chinese so they are of not much use. I rang her hotel on my mobile. No one spoke english so we were in the same boat. We asked one of the staff to help and they pointed at one of the stops on the metro. It was a start. I began the journey with lady as she was heading in my direction. As we walked and chatted I realised how stressed she was. She was from Morocco and worked for the government. She was over doing a workshop and had only arrived the day before. She was finding it very difficult with no one speaking english. We spoke about Ireland and Morocco. I learnt a lot about a country I knew nothing about. We got lost and took the wrong metro line so we had to come back on ourselves and start again. We finally arrived at her station an hour later. It had being a fantastic journey and time to spend with someone. Somewhere along the way I had decided to make sure she got home. We exited the station at her stop. It took two taxis before someone would take her and knew the address written on the card. I gave her a hug and kiss and she was so looked grateful as she headed off into the madness that is Beijing.

5 minutes, and one metro stop later I was walking down the street not far from our hostel. Another row of Huan-tons where being rebuilt and kitted out along the roadside. Local are beginning to realise the money that can be made from them. On the way back I got to see the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower all lit up and standing majestically in the night sky. Another 10 minutes I was back. The boys were playing pool and online. Myself and Eoghan headed to the local bar to read a book and me to write the blog. We sat, ate some snacks and drank a few pints. Cheap stuff was only 20rmb a pint. Not bad tasting. By the time the place was closing I was fairly tipsy. Most of the days blog written. Eoghan was chatting some hot German bird up. We headed back. I was so wrecked and crashed immediately.

Day 26 - Friday - Auroville

Up early, awoken at 6am by someone shouting “Hello, hello”. Got a bit annoyed with the landlord over being woken so he could get more guests in. Tried to go back to sleep although the mixture of the Indian music being played over a tannoy, hip-hop on a stereo, a group of young guys chatting and laughing loudly and ants nibbling on me, was too much. I took the hammock with my book. Over the morning I met the 10 Indian that had moved into our little resort. They had all just completed their final exams in Bangalore University. Really pleasant and friendly guys, who offered me to join them for breakfast. I politely declined.

Myself and Greg went for breakfast of Bombay (French) toast, pancakes and coffee. Really delicious and something I will rave about for years to come :) We rented a rather battered looking moped. Headed to Auroville and got a puncture just before we arrived in the Visitor Centre. Ended getting shafted by the security guard and the local puncture repair service. Ate one of the cheapest and tastiest lunches. Saw the Auroville information video and got our passes to Matrimandir. Looked around for somewhere to stay. Got lost for quite some time. After and hour or so we found the main Auroville Youth Hostel. Met a smiling Indian kid with the most striking eyes. He smiled the brighest and biggest smile and we smiled and stared at the each other for 10 minutes. The hostel only allowed a minimum of 2 weeks stay. We moved on.

Headed to the Matrimandir. Ended up dropping Greg's camera as I went to take a photo of him pinching it between his fingers. The moment was lost, as you might imagine. He tried to turn it off and restart it. To no avail. The camera was screwed. The lens was extended as the camera fell onto the square paving stones. We returned to the moped in silence. The walk felt twice as long as it had on our way there. I was battling internally with whether I was to blame or not. Trying to recall the event and running over the consequences in my head. Hilarious. Us humans. We are sure are a special species. All of our own. The damage we do to ourselves internally is really something else. If we saw someone treating a friend like we abuse ourselves we'd either protect them are punch them. Nevertheless, we spend so much of our lives beating ourselves mentally. What use is there in wondering in what happened or what might happen? I started to realise I was doing myself no favours tormenting myself like this as we walked along. Greg was in the same state and had a number of other things going on in his head. I looked at the situation. I was to blame. I had being looking at buying a camera the same as Greg's. Greg is 24, a student and was living on a tight budget. As perception has thought me, €200 to him is a lot more than it is to me. Bite the bullet, Sam. All this thinking had being going on and now we were both on the moped, motoring along, still in silence, returning to the guesthouse.

As the bike hopped along on the dirt track leaving the Auroville complex, my self created cloud began to lift. I felt so much lighter after making the decision. I hadn't said it to Greg yet, although I was sure of the decision. We got back on to the main roads of surrounding and in a minute we came through the first town. I took the right junction, waved at a few locals and sped on. Greg mentioned were we going on the right direction, which I replied to with certainty. Well as much as you can, on the bucket we were driving. 1Km later we came around a corner and were moving along at a good speed when the bike lost control. The back started fishtailing and wobbling. I started braking in bursts to bring the speed down while trying to control the bike from crashing. Amazingly we brought it to safe stop. The same back tyre that the guy had repaired earlier had gone again. We pushed the bike to the nearest entrance to a property. Rang the the bike owner and asked him to pick us up.

An hour later we sat, being entertained or perhaps we were entertaining them, by a few plumbers. They were working on the construction of a new house. Greg thought perhaps we should check with someone else if they knew where we were on the map. We stopped a man and his daughter on a bike and another man, with a blue baseball cap, stopped as we were chatting. The map was turned and looked at in puzzlement by all. Know one had a notion where we were. When we mentioned names of places they were a little more helpful. They said Pondicherry was in one direction and Auroville was in the other athough as to where we were or the beach road we were staying at we might as well have being asking them where Ballygowackwards was. We kind of worked out we were lost, not where we originally thought we were and had relayed this to the bike owner an hour ago. Oops. I rang to update the bike owner on our situation. So we, actually I, because Frenchy seemed a bit annoyed, understandably, began pushing the bike along the road in the direction of the nearest village we had passed through. I was still smiling and laughing internally at the hilarity of the situation.

As we approached the village our blue capped gentleman, that we had learnt, from Auroville kept us company with questions and chat. He was incredibly pleasant and a very interesting man that under different circumstances I'd love to have sat down over a cup of Chai with. This wasn't really the moment. As we walked through the village I noticed a young man and an older one cross towards us on their bikes. Obviously, the rather annoyed older gentleman was the bike owners father. They young boy offered an older bike in swap for the one we were on. This was hard to believe as they one we were on, sounded and looked like it had come straight out of World War II. Well this one looked WWI. Inside I was laughing hysterically. The father seemed to saying something about money as I explained the day we had being through, to the young guy. There was some communication between them and we were off, on our dinosaur. Whizzing along, in the right direction this time. Beeping, our speed induced horn as we went.

We gave back in the bike when we got back. Auroville had not left the best feeling in our short visit to it. This is silly, although we are only human. The rest of the evening was used to catch up on internet, rock in the hammock reading my book. Dinner with 10 Bangalorians in a rather dingy looking place. There waiter looked like he came from the same era as the later bike we had that day. It so strange seeing such old people working in India. Crippled over with age. Its some sight. Quiet shocking. Later Greg told me he had received a lot of bad news when he was on the internet from back home so his head was all over the place. I told him I'd cover the camera, although I think it was the last thing on his mind. I sat up for an hour after he went to bed reading and swinging.