A Night in Bejing

Well we made it through the flight from Seattle to Bejing. All 14 hours. Ty did fantastic. She mostly slept or watched movies on her DVD player. I watched several movies on the plane and tried to get comfortable as Ty encroached on my space. DH managed to get a seat across the isle from us, but next to several Chinese students returning home for the holiday. Sounds like his space was being encroached on as well by a girl with a big blanket who couldn't get comfortable!

We arrived at the Bejing airport and were greeted by a young woman holding a sign with our name on it. Somehow she knew we were the people she was looking for and flagged us down. Guess not a lot of families like us arriving at the airport. She had us unpack our coats and prepare for cold air as she shuttled us to a waiting van. In no time we were at the hotel where she was taking care of all the details. We were only with this guide for a little over an hour, but she really took care of everything.

The room was small but livable, and after figuring out how all the lights and TV worked, we went to the lobby to look for food. The hotel lobby was over decorated for Christmas. That was unexpected, but a great treat. There was even a bakery/ice cream counter completely covered in real gingerbread. The urge to nibble was hard to ignore. We saw a very talented woman in the lobby painting inside glass objects. Pretty cool. I made my first money exchange rate snafu and paid about triple what I thought I was paying for something. In fact I thought I was getting such a good deal I bought two! DH later figured out how much I really spent. Lessons learned.

Unfortunately we were too late for the restaurants so ended up eating the Ramen noodles in a cup that I had packed. Then sleep. Dear sleep. I wish! It was morning in our brains. We did manage to get a little sleep from the pure exhaustion of travel. This morning we had a fabulous breakfast and packed up to take the hotel shuttle bus back to the airport.

Onward to Hohhot, Inner Mongolia...