buy a railway ticket, great success

Sunday 24th March.

Wind and rain. Do washing, write all this stuff, chat with dormitory neighbour Ron from USA whose been teaching English for 18 months in Tokyo. Have lunch in the hotel, two rice dishes and a large bottle of beer 4.50 Y. At 4 o’clock venture out, catch 106 trolley bus, the terminus is just round the corner so get a seat. Despite this actually getting on to the bus was a high spirited scrum, my feet hardly touched the ground, several poppers on my jacket suffer. Buy tour ticket from a blue office just north of Maxims and CITS. 7 Y. Leaves tomorrow at 8 o’clock, hope the weather is better.
 Catch the underground 10 Fen and incredible scrum to go one stop to Beijing hotel, meet Ron in one of the many lobbies, the place is enormous meet some girls and wander into the large imposing starched Chinese restaurant. Order minimum meal vegetables and tea, 3 Y each! Hit the acrobatics show again. After show go to the Grand Railway station. In the far lefthand corner of the main hall is a large quiet comfortable foreigners waiting room and booking office, no queues, Reminbi and fake Taiwan student card accepted no problems. Such small wins in the great battle that is independent travel give sufficient pleasure to cope with the next 10 petty bureaucratic set backs. Ron buys a hard berth ticket to Kunming for 81 Y, 60 hours.

street scene