on safari

Took about three minutes to prepare.

This is not specific for Beijing, but I have never had one before. Got to admit: I really like it. It even made me start drinking hot water just like the Chinese do. Bottles can be ordered by phone from a shop in the same building. Well, could be ordered by phone if my Chinese was good enough. At least for today’s refill I had to go down with the empty bottle to show them what I wanted. They were really friendly (and probably made a bit of fun of me, hence the smiles) and even brought it to the apartment to set it up for me.

A major advantage of living in Beijing is that you can ride a bike in the city. Although I know at least one person who rides a bike in Bangkok, it just seems to unhealthy to me. Traffic and chaotic road conditions are of course the main reason for that, but one should not forget the pollution and the black fumes that can make cycling in Bangkok a nightmare. Now, Beijing has fumes and pollution, but it also has wide roads with separate bike lanes. The traffic in Beijing is slightly less hazardous than because of the complete lack of motorbikes. To make up for it, there are a huge number of electric bikes which make no sound at all and ride at full speed on the bicycle lanes .

If everyone has one, I need one too!

Today’s main task for me was to find and buy a bicycle. Having a version (though not the newest I think) of China’s Lonely Planet, I found the Qianmen Bicycle Shop that is supposed to sell good quality bikes at Qianmen Dajie in central Beijing. Now, Qianmen is really far from where I live, but I didn’t really know where else to go and it seemed easier that way.

I thus walked about 20 minutes to the subway station which is closest to my flat and took the subway to Qianmen. Emerging from the underground in Qianmen, I was quite shocked to discover that Qianmen Dajie has been closed for renovation, including some of the streets in the surrounding Hutongs.

Having come so far, I decided to go to the next bike shop I could find and I continued walking. In China, if there is one successful shop, there is most likely a similar (less successful) one nearby. I finally found one at Zhushikou Xidajie, just a few blocks from Qianmen Dajie. Bike prices ranged from about 120 to 400 Yuan. I decided to get a simple no-frills bike without gears and any other stuff that could easily break. Beijing is flat like a pancake, gears are really not important. I got it for 180 Yuan plus 40 Yuan for a lock and a lady basket.

Having been riding my bike for about four hours around Beijing, I already got a throat pain from the dust and the pollution, but it’s great fun. I really enjoy having it!

See the full flickr photo set of my today’s adventured here.

Arrived in Beijing yesterday. I feel constantly cold, but the weather applet says it’s 22 degrees (Celsius), so I guess that’s quite warm for spring. Yes, it’s spring time. Kind of strange coming to a four season place after Bangkok. Spring is supposed to be the nicest time in Beijing. Though to me, Beijing mainly seems really dusty. I think it’s a combination of pollution and dust from some nearby desert as well as the omnipresent construction sites. I live a bit further off the center, but conveniently close to where I will be working from next week. It’s a quite a large Chinese (meaning non-expat) apartment complex where I share a flat with a Chinese girl. It’s a typical Chinese furnished two bedroom apartment with a living room, kitchen, and bathroom. Nothing fancy, but really good value compared to what you get in Bangkok for the same price. My flatmate is real fun and she speaks perfect English. The apartment faces a large busy road (Chaoyang Bei Lu) and is quite noisy, but I don’t really mind. I am quite sure I’ll get used to that in a few days.

See the full flickr photoset here.

About two and a half years ago, I went to the dentist in Switzerland and she told me that I have two cavities to fix. Unfortunately, I could not go to my appointment and I finally never showed up. However, one year later I went to see a different dentist who said that my teeth were in perfect shape. Now today, I went to see a dentist here in Bangkok for a checkup before leaving for Beijing. Same again: Nothing wrong with my teeth. Hmm, so either the problem has fixed itself or my first dentist wanted to sell me a service I didn’t actually need.

Today I went to a pharmacy nearby to buy some eye drops. Bangkok’s dust and dirt as well as the constant exposure to air conditioning and fans doesn’t seem to agree very well with my contact lenses. I actually wanted to buy some mild eye drops like ‘natural tears’ to ease the occasional irritations. I really thought that’s what I explained to the pharmacist. She gave me a box and said that this was mild. With all the Thai writing on it (which I still can’t read properly), I was kind of forced to trust her, so I bought it for 30 Bath (equals about one Swiss Franc). When I got home, I opened the box and started reading the package insert and the first sentence is: ‘[…] is a synthetic soluble corticosteroid, 30 times as effective as cortisone’. So that’s supposed to be mild? Sounds like a serious drug to me…

In Thailand and pretty much anywhere in Asia for that matter, any kind of medicine is freely available at the pharmacies. Just name it, and you’ll get it. Problem is, you even get it when you don’t name it. Therefore, people here tend to take antibiotics and really strong drugs for pretty much everything, simply because there is nothing else available at the pharmacies and everyone does so. But for my slightly irritated eyes, corticosteroid is a bit too much. Guess I’ll try to find a different pharmacy tomorrow.

I learned two important lessons this week:

1. Christmas decoration disappears when Christmas is over.
2. What Thais and Chinese call birds’ nest is really birds’ spit

There was a fire at Major Ratchayothin on Wednesday. The Christmas decoration caught fire and distroyed part of the California Wow fitness center. Major Rachayothin is very close to where I work and when we heard that there was a fire, we ran up the stairs to see it from the balcony. However, after having seen what was there to see, we decided that there was no fire after all and went back to work. Later only we heard about the burning Christmas decoration and I thus learned my important deco lesson.

Major Ratchayothin: before and after the fire.

Ever heard about the famous birds’ nest soup? Birds’ nest is a popular new years’ present in Thailand and it’s currently on display in every supermarket. I always thought that eating a bird nest was kind of weird, but I never enquired about its details. While waiting for a friend to finish his shopping, I naively asked about the secret of the famous birds’ nest soup and I learned that it consists of the saliva of cave swifts. Mmh!

Bangkok features some of the most astonishing Christmas decorations I have ever seen. Almost every shopping centre has their own decoration. This is quite funny as Christmas is not even a national holiday in Thailand. I’ll be working on December 24 and 25… However, with these decorations it will feel a bit like Christmas anyway.