Made it to Beijing in one piece this morning - we left Lhasa by train two days ago (it's a 48 hour ride). Our bunk compartments were two middle-aged ladies and one migrant worker. The two ladies took great pleasure in making fun of my broken Chinese (Hao taught me a few basic phrases, except they are the informal versions, which make them very funny). They were also trying to negotiate with Hao on a selling price so they could sell me as a husband for $50,000 USD (there are apparently "nice Korean girls" in their village north of the North Korean border) - they even brought over this old lady, who I believe was of NK descent - she barely knew Korean, and what little I could understand was a very different dialect. How popular I was - it'll be nice to know that if I continue to fail at relationships in the States, I can always just fly to northern China and marry a Korean girl - woot!

The Beijing part of the trip contrasts that of the Lhasa - I am fully embracing the comforts of modern life. Although Beijing is hot and humid right now, I am sitting in my air conditioned room, watching movies ("Pirates of the Carribean") on my 42" TV. The hotel I'm staying at is incredibly posh, which is a nice change of scenery after the last 10 days of constant travel - *this* feels like a relaxing vacation. I'll have to try to take pictures of the decor - it's a bit gaudy in places, but the overall experience here is fantastic (so far).

I never thought I'd be so joyful to see a sitting toilet (I've seen too many squatters lately) and a shower. The first thing I did when I checked in was to take a shower to get that film of travel off of me (no showers in the train, and the air didn't circulate well - gross!). I also managed to shed the lingering headache that's been with me for the trip - I don't think I ever fully adjusted to the altitude in Lhasa.

I'm tempted to find a McDonald's tomorrow after Hao leaves (he's flying north to Harbin to visit his extended family) - I'm really curious how they do Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets...

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I lost my iPod on this trip :( I didn't realize how much music is a part of my life until I lost the durned thing. On the upside, I thought I had lost my jeans on the trip ... but I found then stowed at the bottom of my pack when I arrived in Beijing.

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I went gift hunting in Lhasa for some of my coworkers - MAN, is bargaining FUN! I wish I had stayed another day in Lhasa just so I could spend it haggling with the vendors. The Tibetan ladies are the worst, they'll grab your arm and won't let you go - I somehow got convinced to spend 40 yuan (~$6) on this useless little jewelry box I didn't even WANT! How did that HAPPEN?!

I never got as good as Hao as negotiating, but I did alright - got all my gift shopping done for ~$80. I also found a gift for myself (a very rare occassion - I'm impossible to shop for) of this Chinese compass. The guy originally wanted 750 yuan, but I got it for 200 yuan (~$30) ... but that's till probably WAY overpriced, because he let it go too easily.

I expect most of my coworkers to throw out the gifts, but HEY, it's the thought that counts, right? (And as a cruel, narcisstic test to see which of my coworkers are reading my Tabulas, only those who mention the gifts will receive. That's right, if you want my cheap, crappy gifts I humped all the way from Lhasa, you will have to ADMIT you read my cheap, crappy Tabulas. Bwahahahaha.)

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Some jerk realized I was on vacation and decided to post 22,000 spam comments on Tabulas. I've now cleaned this up and blocked his/her IP from posting comments again. Sorry for the inconvenience, all - you can turn on guest commenting again (although I would suggest you turn on comment autolocking after 7 days or so).