A difficult day!
There was an alarm on Shining girl’s new phone and I asked her to use it. We had to get up at six to get a bus to the airport on time. She miffed it and I woke at seven. We rushed to get everything together and hurried downstairs to check out. We soon hailed a taxi and the woman driver seemed pleasant. I was a little concerned when I noticed she hadn’t put her meter on but didn’t have the energy to say anything. When we got to the airport she tried to over charge us, telling us it was less than the cost of the airport bus. When I told her how much we had paid for the bus she reduced it some of the way and I left it at that.
The flight to Beijing was pleasant but the landscape was covered with haze. We landed and headed for the buses near the exit. I asked which one would take us to Beijing Zhan (the central railway station) and we got on. So far so good. I saw the station in the distance and was pleased we had got on the right bus but a moment later it stopped and we were told to get off, about 200 meters down the road from the station and in the midst of a crowd of pedicab drivers in hard-sell mode all offering to take us there for the special price of 100 yuan! That’s about $16.00AU for the distance. I laughed and showed my displeasure in less agreeable ways and went to hail a taxi a couple of times before our pursuing dark angel agreed to my price of 15 yuan. A taxi could have charged us no more than 10 but what the heck. When we got there the pedicab driver tried to get 15 yuan each but I gave him 15 and refused to pay 30, telling him he agreed to 15, not 30. It’s a common trick. He only left when I offered to find a policeman to decide between us.
Then we went into Beijing Central International Youth Hostel. In Xi’an I had an internet conversation with a worker there and asked her to book us a room and gave her the dates. I was a little concerned that she had not replied to my question about prices as I do like to know in advance. At the counter the receptionist denied having any knowledge of a booking, but did say she knew of one letter from me. There were two letters each way. She did have the sort of room I wanted but when I asked the price it was double my budget. My first letter had stated in clear English how much I wanted to pay. Again I stormed out in high dudgeon after offering a few criticisms of their professionalism. We hailed a cab and I asked them to take me to the Zhaolong Fandian youth hostel where I stayed in winter. On the way I rang and asked if they had a room and checked the price. No problem, I was told.
We arrived at the Zhaolong, which is an annex at the back of a five star hotel of the same name and went to reception. I said I had rung and the counter staff told me there were no twin-bed private rooms. I told them I had rung only minutes before and was told there was one available. They said they would put us in shared rooms until tomorrow. I said I didn’t want a shared room. I wanted the room I had been given on the phone a few moments before. Eventually a pleasant man came in and I gathered he was the person I had spoken to on the phone. He assured me he could sort it out but we would have to wait a couple of hours. One of the rooms was soon to be vacant. It took a lot longer as the people in the room didn’t leave until after five, leaving their camera battery charger behind, but we got our room. We were able to leave our things and go out to eat and get money from my bank.
The hostel is friendly and clean. There are a few deficits, as usual, but it is an ok place for a traveller on a small budget. I do think they should have more than one washing machine to serve five floors of guests. The one they have is a front loader. I have experienced the slowness of front loaders before but this one is the slowest. There are a few drying racks in the small laundry room and one dryer which was working this time. Last time it was revolving but not heating. I didn’t use it. Buy fast drying lightweight clothes for travel. They’re the only way to go.