The Bargain Lady

 I woke up at past three in the morning local time. Again, I fell asleep while watching Pier's Morgan on CNN. With my stuff all over the place I could hardly remember if I eat dinner or not. Right after I changed into my pajamas I curled up under my sheets and turn on the TV. Here I am again in Beijing the second time around.

The Smog covering Beijing Sky

   We were absolutely full DXB-PEK. The six and a half hour flying time went like a breeze. I guess I prefer busy flights at least I get myself entertained. I have some lovely crew with me and that made everything easier.
     I was considering to treat myself for a massage before going to bed and go to Silk Market the next day. I guess only the latter I really considered doing. Learning from my first experience in Beijing, these Chinese are very clever and very pushy. I don't really want to get myself  too involved in doing business with them. There's always hidden charges, and most of the time tourists like me ends up paying more. So I erased the thought of having a massage ( perhaps in Thailand by the end of this month) and just do my shopping in preparation for my Europe flights ahead. I was doing my things-to-do at 3 am in the morning in Beijing and so I realized to take this interrupted hour of my sleep to do some writing and reflection. Maybe this time I can write a decent entry with a beginning and a conclusion in my Travel Journal.

      Beijing is the least among the destination that I want to see in my Roster  second to Narita-Tokyo. And that's for some really good reasons. The city is huge. Just imagine how massive their airport is and the queue of tourists in the Immigration. And yesterday it was a Chinese Holiday so the amount of people is double. The street was jam-packed. With the strange halo of colors reflecting in the sky at any time of the day pollution is ready for your intake. Walking around town at ten in the morning the thickness of smoke was surely getting into my lungs. I hailed for a cab for a 15 minute ride to Silk Market. Downtown Beijing is like any other modern city. Skyscrapers, shopping malls and long chains of restaurants are the most eye-catching.  Public buses are full of people going places to enjoy their national holiday. I guess only foreigners like me choose to get on a cab.

The famous Architectural Wonder is in Beijing

Silk Market 

    As expected, I came to the battlefield of Bargain. The six storey infrastructure has so much to offer.Ground floor for Casual clothes, lower ground for Bags and shoes ( where you can find all the latest-imitation of LVs, Guccis, name the brand they have it! ), First floor for Winter Clothes and Undergarments, Second for anything Silk ( of course, it's the Silk Market), then jewelry, eye wear, electronics and gadgets, Massage centers and restaurants on the remaining floors. I just stick to the Clothes section looking for a leather jacket, some cashmere shawl and anything that can protect me from the cruel Winter spell. In no time I found a very good quality leather jacket that I've seen in Mango. In Dubai, that jacket costs about 300dirhams. The lady asked me if I want to try the jacket. And so I did, and it's perfect. She immediately asked me for 900Yuan which is 450dirhams. This lady is insane I told myself. I said "No Thank You, that's beyond my budget". She asked me how much I can give her. I said 200. She said why such a pretty lady like me is giving her a very low price when she just sold the jacket earlier for 1200Yuan. I didn't believe her. I said" it's OK I will still look around anyway" and head towards the exit. But she did not let go of my arm. She stood right in front of me. And that's when I realized the battle just begun. After for about 10 minutes of our tug-of-war with the price. She finally agreed to 300Yuan which is 150dirhams. Not bad. I can never find a nice leather jacket for 150dirhams. I felt tired after that. Her soprano-like voice was just annoying to bits. And then I head towards the Cashmere area. Same story. I fought for the Burberry-like shawl for 100Yuan which she asked me to buy originally  for 600Yuan. Chinese People. They.Mean.Business. Great bargain for 50dirhams. And man, it's so pretty. I was still planning to buy a few more stuff that I wrote in my List. But I suddenly changed my mind. I still have Bangkok at the end of the month I think it was better to just save the money. And honestly I was feeling harassed right after my bargain feud. So I put my money safe back to my bag and just went straight to the Silk Section. I've been meaning to own a real Silk robe. Again, I fought like hell to get it at 50dirhams. Haha. But it was exhausting. Rudeness overload. There were plenty of nice stuff to buy. Once I was at the verge of buying  a  fake Tory Burch purse and a Miu Miu. But I'm still very much supporting the authentic luxury goods. So I just went straight to the street and hail a cab back to my hotel.

I did not buy much. I guess I still prefer quiet department stores with price tags attached to the goods. I don't like the feeling of being ripped off. I want the real deal. It could be fun in the beginning but tricky in the end. I will just wait wait for my Bangkok. Anyway I have two days layover to look and decide what to buy there.

I passed by Carrefour. I told the taxi driver to just bring me there since it's just a three-minute walk from where I stay. Just when I was about to step inside, the pungent smell caught me off guard. Carrefour was so full and the smell of I don't know what started to make me sick. I stepped back and went to Starbucks instead. I don't have any idea how much croissants I ate and how many Cheese buns I had for my entire trip just to play safe, avoiding food poisoning. I was so into eating an authentic Peking Duck but I still have more Beijing flights to do before I find the right place to have it.

It's just plain hard to be in Beijing if you're still a newbie. I might end up broke and starving if I did not take these precautions. It's certainly not like Sydney or London where everybody speaks english and somewhat safe to have a bite and not get sick. The hotel room of course, is a great disappointment. Only CNN and BBC are English channels and in the middle of the day the TV signal was cut off, for no reason. So I just went straight to finishing my Hunger Games book and went to sleep.

I hope they will give me Shanghai next month and skip Beijing for a while.
   I arrived Dubai feeling relieved. This feels more like home. The eight hour flying time was the exact opposite. And I can't wait to have a decent meal.