Moving on today, to Shanghai. Had already said goodbye last night to D + L, with a session of mutual photo-taking in their room – today it’s their turn to visit the Wall, but they gave us their room key so we could leave our bags in their room. We packed up, taking our time, did that + then went into town to have ham sandwiches + milk at the Friendship Store – lovely grub. At the Beijing Hotel we ran into a familiar face, John the Irishman from the Yangtse boat cruise – a nice and friendly bloke, even if he did spend some time telling us, for the 2nd time around, how to forge our currency declaration forms in Burma.
I went back alone to the hotel, while Val went for a walk, armed with the camera, thro’ the back streets of Beijing. We hadn’t seen all there was to see around the city, but the tourist life palls quickly. We felt, tho’, we’d done it sufficient justice. I had a shower back at the hotel, Val did the same when she returned, + then, at what we judged to be the appropriate time, shouldered our bags + began to leave. It hadn’t occurred to us before, tho’ I suppose it should have, that our departure would attract attention. The first one to accost us was the girl in charge of the floor – I mean the 6th floor, not the carpeted one, and our task was not made easier by the fact that D + L are behind with their rent. She was bright enough quickly to ascertain from the beginnings of our explanation, however, that this was too complicated for her to handle, so she sent us down to the front desk, one of her male assistants accompanying us to make sure we didn’t wander. It was no simple matter proffering our explanation, believe me. I hasten to assure you that, in our own eyes at least, we had done nothing wrong, having already paid in full for every night we had spent in the hotel. The problem was that their administrative system was so cumbersome, + they, moreover, so inefficient at implementing it, that when room changes had become necessary – when our Norwegian room-mate had moved out, for example – we had simply organised matters ourselves, without informing them of any changes, so that their records did not tally with the factual reality. We were not the only ones to operate in this way – most travellers staying there simply took over rooms coming vacant, found fellow room-mates, and continued to pay the rent in the former occupant’s… or the one before him, or the one before him… name. It wasn’t a simple system to operate, but it was simpler than going thro’ the front desk. Except, of course, when the charade was exposed, which happened to us. Our explanation was tortuous, involving several rooms (not counting 615, D + L’s, which further confused the issue.) And, of course, we had no receipts to prove what we had to say. But eventually, they just gave up on the whole business, + off we went.
The whole affair was a huge joke, but annoyingly we had wasted valuable time, + to make things worse the bus stops were crowded. In order to get to where we wanted to go, a hotel restaurant for our farewell meal in Beijing, we had to take a circuitous route. Everything worked out well in the end, merely at the cost of some frayed nerves. We were a little worried about time, but the restaurant was efficient, + served us a fine meal quickly. We wished we had found it before actually, as it had an extensive + very reasonably-priced Western menu. The only mistake was ours, in ordering orange juice. We meant orange soda, but could hardly complain when freshly-squeezed juice was brought – it’s our language, after all – even if it did nearly double the cost of the meal.
Once we’d boarded the train + taken up our allotted seats, (having first ascertained there were no sleeping berths to be had) we decided we could not be bothered to go to the effort of trying to arrange a stop-over in Qufu. It was just too much effort, so we settled down to making ourselves as comfortable as possible. Not easy, of course, but we managed. Best of all we were able to get a decent night’s sleep, first of all me on the floor, Val across the bench seat. Then, later on, vice versa.
We might have been able to predict that there would be administrative problems with the hotel, but it was just our luck, of course, that it should be us around which the entire bureaucratic edifice collapsed. But in the end, no real harm. And then on our way, straight to Shanghai – my added comments yesterday about becoming weary with the country obviously pre-echoing the reality.
