I can't believe what happened!

We had our last meal at Helsinki market. Looks like Finnish loves their sausages. That's yummy tho. 

So that's it. Our three weeks trip has almost came to an end. Sitting at the market. Looking at the water and the islands over the water. It's beautiful and calm. I wonder will I ever have a chance to come back to Finland. 

When everything seems wonderfully calm I can't believe what happened to us at the airport. Our flight from Helsinki to China would stop over in Moscow for a night. We tried to check in online the night before and it only allowed us to check in the flight to Moscow not to Beijing. So we thought yeh maybe it's not quite 24 hours yet so we will let the people at the airport do it instead.

The lady at the airport tried to check in for us but she couldn't find the flight. It turned out the flight we booked has been cancelled and we were scheduled to another flight at night! What the hell??? She said the airline has emailed us three times and also SMS us. I checked my email EVERYDAY! I received no email from them even in the junk mail!! Unbelivalbe!! Even when I checked in online last night it still shown our flight the next day is at 2pm not 22 o'clock! I can't believe this happened to us. I m glad that we can fly out before mid night otherwise Iain will have a problem with his visa! 

Well that's not it. I tried to contact Novotel in Beijing and tell them our flight has been delayed we will check in one day later. The bloody reception said she can't help us and I have to call them back at 9am to talk to reservation! 

I emailed Agoda and the hotel to explain the situation. Agoda replied me the next morning said it's alright but the hotel replied me they are going to cancel the booking! Bloody shit! I told them why we can't check in on time and they replied the booking policy said no changes and cancellation! I almost exploded! I told them it's not our fault that the flight has been cancelled. So she finally agreed to extend our check in time to 12 noon the next day but we still have to pay for the first night. Oh my god!!! She didn't even know I have already paid the reservation!!! What the F has she been doing? When I told her we have already paid then she said everything is fine! OMG.... Why people can be so retarded?

Anyway. We arrived Beijing safely at the end.

Why so dirty?

For some reason cars in Beijing and Moscow are so dirty you can hardly see their number plates!

So far in China I managed to

1. Told one Chinese man off on the plane coz he keep using his computer when the plane is landing. I told him if he wants to die he can die somewhere else. Iain was very scared.

2. Went to NONE public toilet coz I m so scared

3. Order Macus and KFC delivery once 

4. Have one argument with taxi driver coz he tried to rip me off for one dollar! Iain doesn't know what happened so he wasn't scared but I told him it's a principle problem 

5. Got told off by the police once coz I tried to take a photo of him

6. Pushed over ten thousands Chinese on my way to the forbidden city! Seriously there are SO MANY people here!!!!

Best service in the world

Guess what? You can order McDonald and KFC delivery in China! We just ordered the meal online and it arrived less then 20 mins! Genius!! The delivery service is 24 hours and at McDonald. Website you can order like 3 days in advance! 

Thanks but no thanks

Having Iain with me in China attacked lots of attentions. Everyone went to him and tried to sell him something. In another words people tried to rip him off all the time! 

I haven't had this problem coz I have an angry face. There was only one person approached me so far. She asked me to go to her clinic to lose weight. I told her I don't need to lose weight I Chinese. I may sounds nice to her but in my head I have killed her ten times! 

Anyway, the word that he used all the time in this trip was " bu yong" it means no. I think he used it more often than thank you. But when people heard this big Australian feller said "bu yong" they just cracked up laughing and let him go. Some people stopped for a few seconds, it's like "what? What did he just said?" Then they start laughing and said "your Chinese is very good".

I wonder how many tourists bother to say Chinese to them. It's a simple word but it's so powerful. The more you say no in English to them the more they after you. But if you speak their language and say no they will just let you go easy. 

I remembered a pair of mother and daughter team trying to sell us tourists stuffs on the street, we said no to the mother first then the daughter came after and the mother said to her "oh I can't believe he spoke Chinese to me" 

About pollution

I have heard a lot of stories about how dirty, or polluted I should say, China is but we never really see how serious it is until the day we flew to Russia. Everyday when we walk around we see this layer of fog/ smog hanging around. Not too thick not to grey. It's like you are living in a 24/7 construction site, there is dust constantly on your face. I didn't realized how horrible it was until one day I took off my shoes and the area that was not covered by the shoes are all dark! I thought I had a tan on my feet but unfortunately I can wash them off without worries.

The last day of our stay in Beijing is the worst. You can only see te shadow of the buildings. What a shame. This beautiful city is now coping with all the over development of the infrastructure. I hope one day we will be able to see the real beauty of this city again.

How odd

I was at the Tian An Men Square when I saw this tour guide waiting for her group taking photos. I have no idea what kind of group she was with but she looks like a Chinese so I went to ask her how to get to the Forbidden city in Chinese. And the first thing she said to me " can't you speak any Spanish?"

What the hell?! I said no to her and I was so regret! I should have said " Can't you speak bloody Chinese? Do I look like I can speak Spanish ??"

Anyway I asked her how to get to forbidden city again and she answered me in Chinese.

What is wrong with these people!?

Crossing the road in china

Crossing the road in china can be life threatening. People who don't care. Buses that don't care. Crazy taxi drivers who don't give a shit about anything. And when I say crazy, I mean they are ALL driving as if they are in formula one race. 

In general people don't care. It explains a lot why Asian drivers don't give a shit when they drive in Australia. Even if the traffic light has a count down for you, people still cross the road as if they own the road. Cars still turning in even the traffic light is red. You can never figure out how the systems work. 

There is no rule. People is the rule. They do whatever they like and the fact is if you don't do whatever you like you will never cross that bloody road.

Forbidden world

I am really amazed how those people manage to build such an amazing palace thousand years ago! How much thoughts they put in? When we walked pass the forbidden city and the temple of heaven, there were so much details everywhere. On the roof. On the stone. Everything means something. I m glad that I came. I feel like I appreciate history more when I get older. Walking along the streets here, you see tall shinny business building on one side and thousand years old buildings on the other side. It's confusing but it's a very interesting feeling. Love every moment of it.

Ni Hao - Hello China

This city is absolutely beautiful. Lots of movment. People. Cars. Constructions. Businesses. But when at the corner if the street you found a beautiful 600 years building standin there. As if the world has never changed.