Foreign places Famous Faces All that digging in the sand at the beach when i was a little girl paid off and i finally reached China.

11 hours on trh train ride back to Beijing. We left at 8pm and arrived at 8am the following morning. The train compartment we had was a 6 berth. I really didn't like travelling that way. I had the top bunk and it was difficult to sleep on. For the first time i felt claustraphobic. there wasn't enough room to sit up so i felt like i was in a train coffin. It felt suffocating. I climbed down from the bunk beds a couple of trimes during the night because i felt so bad. I sat in the hallway. We were at the end of the carriage right next to where the toilet is. The smell of urine flowed into the hallway. It made me gag. I had to sit on the end of Corey's bed on the lower bunk. He had trouble sleeping too and said that he had the wheels of the train clunking in his ear all night. We shared the cabin with a chinese mother, father and daughter. Only the daughter could speak english. she was 14 years old and her english was great. We have her a koala keyring and in turn she gave me a lollipop as that was all she had. Giving gifts in China is a difficult thing. Its very cultural and i realised that they can take offense or be embarrassed, particularly if they don't have to something to give you. She liked talking to us, especially about Australia. The father also wanted to speak to us. we asked the young girl what her father does for work. She said that he is a business man. I asked what kind of business but she clearly stated that she didn't care what he doe. That was an interesting response but fairly typical for a highschool student, no matter what country they are from. We arrived At Beijing West Train Station. This station is bigger than Sydney Airport. We caught a cab back to Gloria Plaza Hotel wehere they gave us the shittiest room we had seen on our travels and the bed was rock hard. So while Dragon Master waited in the shitty room, I endeavoured to try my charms on for a better room for the same price. I was trying to comprehend that for only 200 yuan less than what we had originally paid,the standard of room whould be less. Sure we expected a smaller room for 600 yuan as opposed to 800 yuan but the quality shouldn't change. I mean, everything was completely dodgier, from the rock hard bed, right down to the little flip flops and hotel shampoo. I viewed 2 other rooms, of which the first one stank of smoke and had twin beds but the second was much more acceptable. Dinner was at "Serve the People" Thai restaurant which is loacted near the embassies.we went celebrity style and the demanding, finger snapping Hollywood came out to play. 2 bottles of Chilean white wine got us well and truly drunk. The duck salad was divine. Curries, red & green were hot hot hot. The atmosphere outside was a balmy summers evening, where we were sheltered by trees as we dined alfesco. It was gorgeous. The mosquito coils seemed to do their job too. All the Who's Who of Beijing were there, or maybe it was the Who's Who Wannabes. But no-one dare upstage Hollywood in the lilmelight. A chinese lady walked in as i was about io film myself. She asked if I wanted her to take a photo of us. Then she said "oh you want a photo of me". That's when Hollywood pipes up with "oh we have so many photos taken of us when we're in Australia". She was taken aback and tottered off in her pink high heels and tanned legs. She looked like a hooker buyt we think she actually is a famous chinese singer.that was just our guess. We watched people try to walk in strutting their stuff. It was hilarious. After dinner drinks were at what was supposed to Frank's Place. But as many things from the Lonely Planet China change so quickly, we soon found that Frank's Place was now called The Pavillion. It was a great bar - all style. I was given a lighter that looks like a sexy lipstick. We had a mojito, a cosmopolitan and a sex on the beach to share. It was the perfect night cap before hitting the Gloria Plaza Hotel and packing for Mongolia - on next destiatnation in the morning.