Delhi BABY!

HERE I am!
Finally.

Two flights- 1st Seattle- Incheon.
2nd- Incheon- Delhi.

The first flight was 11 hours-- not too bad, new classy plane with entertainment system, food, service, and lovely flight attendants to boot. Layover at my favorite airport- Incheon, where they give you free internet, and you can pay a small fee to shower and spend the night if need be. I really REALLY love Korea. Nice place, great spot to people watch. I saw a lot of ex boyfriends there (not really) but you know, the dudes that wear black blazers and a gold chain paired with a black tank top and fake amber-tinted Gucci shades. KOREA!

Second flight sucked. To be stuck in a tube for ANOTHER long span of time (8 hours) was pretty unbearable. Not to mention the airplane was old and cramped, with crappy entertainment system, gross food, nasty bathrooms and so-so service.

I did manage to watch a number of films and feel caught up with popular culture:
The New Muppet Movie
The Vow
Sherlock Homes, Game of Shadows or whatevvs
The Help
and random stuff. about elephants, Koreans, and some Chinese Movies (super corny)

Mike came to get me at the airport in his Kurta!! yaaayy!

Packing for India and China

Packing for this adventure has been interesting. As a first-time backpacker, I've made a good list of things to bring for 6 weeks. The hardest part should be India, while China should be easier to navigate (hey, majoring in Chinese never hurt!).

Most important things for me are:

• Tampons.
• Meds- anti-poop, fiber caps, antibiotics, decongestants, and ibuprofen, itch cream.
• Hair care- conditioner and product.
• Bug repelling stuff.
• Band aids.
• Lightweight camping towels.
• Dental Floss and toothbrush.
• Hand Sanitizer.
• Tons of Ziploc bags.
• Baby wipes.
• Iphone and charger.

I also packed a what looks like a very small amount of clothes... which is hard for me. I'm the lady with lots of luggage. Cutting down is hard. HARD!! Especially SHOES! And shorts... and tank tops..ugh.

Categories: Toiletries, Clothing, other stuff. Each category weighs about the same, from 6-8 lbs/category.

Things that are not important to me/easy to get where I'm going:

• Deodorant (sorry, Mike!).
• Shampoo.
• Toothpaste.
• Anti-malarial (ugh, but I don't need this in China!), which I'm going to take.... I think...
• Hat

Beijing Hotels

We have our visas, and our tickets from Delhi to Beijing. Today, my task was to book our hotels for the Beijing portion of our trip. I decided on 3 different hotels for the 6 nights we will be there.

First is.... Capital Hotel. I chose this location because it is central to all the typical Beijing stuff, as well as it's proximity to the subway line and my FAVORITE shopping center-- Xidan! It's the most expensive hotel that we will stay at, with a rate of $100/night.

Next, we will spend a lovely evening in Wudaokou for $63/night, where I went to college back in the glorious day. Back when Beijing was still pretty ghetto-- the Beijing that I love and miss. We're going to stay at the Xijiao Bingguan, which also carries a lot of memories for me. We will eat at Banri (shuang ma canting) which I can't believe is STILL there after at least 12 years. They would deliver to my dorm on the reg, which is why I gained like 20 lbs. when I went to college there. Awesome katsu curry over their tasty yellow rice with raisins.

Finally, we will stay at Traveler Inn Huaqiao. This is located a little more to the eastern part of the city. My main objective was to get close to Sanlitun... but not TOO close. It's a part of the city I am less familiar with and looked pretty cool. At $54/night, we shall see...

What's fun/irritating/smelly about staying in lower-end hotels in China...is what the place is actually like. If you take the pictures they show online, shut off 2/3 of the lights, add a brown layer of dusty streaks, add a bunch of crap like a broken-down refrigerator and some buckets, and an occasional waft of open sewage.... THERE YA GO.

Going going back back to China China!

Dedicated to the street food and dirty lifestyle in Beijing and beyond. We leave on May 7th, 2012! For now, some pictures of BJ and Datong that I took in 2009 with my folks!