Day 1 – On our way to China

Day 1: On our way to China:

Finally!!! I was excited to board the plane to Beijing tomorrow. The thought of leaving my daughter, Ria, on her own and my son, Rohan, in Sydney was unsettling me and kept me awake. I was also worried about not getting up on time. It was a very early wake-up and departure from home. I couldn’t sleep the whole night.

We landed in Beijing. The plane kept running for a while. What happened??? Isn’t it going to stop? It had been more than 30 minutes since we landed!!! The plane taxi took more than HALF AN HOUR to come to a complete halt before we could get off. Beijing Airport is MASSIVE, catering for a vast population.

Once out of the airport, Arpan was happy to jump into a BMW waiting for us. Beijing in the night was magnificent. We soaked into the unique vibe. The cityscape was modern yet original. Glass and concrete buildings touched the skyline with beautiful ancient manors side by side; the latest model luxury cars were navigating the roads with the old motorbikes and bicycles. We loved our trip to the hotel, thoroughly enjoying beautiful Beijing by night.

The driver dropped us off at the entrance of a gorgeous building at 11 pm pointing inside.

We were a bit overwhelmed. We couldn’t read any signs displayed there.

Where do we go now from here??? We looked at each other.

We couldn’t see anyone who we could ask. Arpan saw a gentleman showing Five (5) with his palm opened and pointing upwards to our relief, .

Got it! We have to go to the 5th floor.

The girl at the reception didn’t speak English but was smart enough to use the Apple Siri App for translation both ways. Sometimes the messages were not getting across correctly. Never mind! The communication was fun, and we felt the real taste of China. We immensely enjoyed our communication experience.

The hotel was beautiful inside, with its lovely painting of Chinese history exhibited on the hexagonal walls looking very authentic. Lots of shops surrounded the hotel, created a real buzz about this place. We were happy.

Time for a good night’s sleep.