I am lucky enough to have two good friends in Beijing and it was my plan to meet one of them early today, being a Saturday and spend the day together, however she had a few things she wanted to do today and so in the end I had to make plans or myself during the day and agree to meet up with her in the early evening.
For the mid afternoon I decided to take a visit to the Lama Temple, almost next door to my hostel and a mere 40 yuan entrance fee to see some great exhibits and temples that were built and dedicated to Tibetan Buddhism, rather than Chinese. I did try to find some postcards that showed some of the amazing ornaments and displays that were on offer but all I could find were photos taken from of the various statues of Buddha and of the temple itself.
I was starting to think that Beijing was a very dangerous place to walk, as everywhere seemed to be polished slate or marble and I was skidding around like a fool on an icerink til I took a glance at the bottoms of my trainers and realised that with all the non stop walking I was doing I had totally worn out the grip and was thus walking on a smooth piece of hardened plastic, thus in need of replacing.
Wiith this in mind I took off next to find a place to buy a cheap pair of trainers, a job easier said that done and not for the first time I realised that Chinaand Beijing particular isnt really that cheap unless you really know where to look or you dont mind rock bottom quality.
My plan to get some trainers came to naught by myself, as I could not find any discount store or market and so it was that my friend V' came to the rescue when we met up a little later on, suggesting that we go to a nearby market mall and it was here that we got me a pair of trainers for 100 yuan and a second speed clip belt for 80 yuan. We also grabbed some socks as the various hotel laundry services have been eating them at an alarming rate and I must have replenished my stock three times since leaving the UK.
After shopping V' and I stopped off to grab a drink in a nearby coffee shop where we were met by her friend and together we spend a nice hour just chatting and slurping on fruit smoothies.
All good things come to an end and I had previously agreed to meet up with my other friend H' tonight, originally thinking that I would have had the whole day to spend with V', so with a fond farewell and a promise to do my best to arrange another meeting before I left I jumped into a cab and drove off into the night.
I was told that no Beijing taxi driver can speak more than a few words, and although at first I doubted this after taking several I now feel that I was not lied to, the logic being that if they could speak fluent English then they could easily get a much better job that being just a taxi driver!
Even with written directions in Chinese it took a few phonecalls from H' before the driver could fix a position on her place and after that we barely had enough time to grab a bite to eat before it was late enough for us both to crash out and get some sleep, with Sunday ahead of us.
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