Day 2 - Beijing to Erlian

Our this day's agenda is to first make sure we get to UlanBaatar by the 18th of March, since we have some onward bokings. And we do want to visit the Tianmen Square, Forbidden City and Olympic Park. In addition to this, we also wanted to meet Prasoon's ex-colleague and shop for some winter clothing.
The weekly train from Beijing to UlanBaatar runs only on saturdays, as we read. Surprisingly, there is no concrete information on that either. We started the morning with a trip to the Liluiqao bus station, as suggested by out Hostel Concierge. All we know is that the Lonely Planet and other resources mention a bus station and a daily bus that leaves. After much research, we have two names from our Hostel Concierge and the internet - one is the The Liluiqao bus station and the other is Muxiyao bus station. We head to Liluiqao by train and then, a cab. An English-speaking lady confidently confirmed that there is no bus today. She also suggested to check out the Mixiyao bus station. We rushed to the Mixiyao bus station and after much language struggle found out that the earliest bus leaves the following day at about 5pm. With this schedule, we would hardly get a day in UlanBaatar. Feeling very lost, Prasoon decides to call a bus agency from a little shack outside the bus station. We were lucky enough that the shack-employee, who did not understand English, understood our urgent need to get to Erlain, the Chinese border-town with easy access to Mongolia. He took us to a private bus station, towards the backside of this one, through a long route passing through an indoor wholesale linen market. To our relief, we finally found a bus that goes to Erlian. Ofcourse, we were a little doubtful of the whole deal that was done 'Sans-English' - only actions. Our check-in time was 3pm, departure 5pm - pay 400 Yuan NOW! and ofcourse, no tickets issued.
Phew! this seemed like a whole day's work. Now we need to make the best of the few remaining hours in Beijing. We tried asking around if there is a metro station somewhere. Noone understood us and finally we managed a map, but in Chinese. Nevertheless, it helped us to communicate with people. We stepped into a mall across the bus station - I have a picture of this mall. It was a strange mall, with floors dedicated to goods. The first floor was only polo-style T-shirts in all colours and patterns, the next was track suits and then jackets and so on. We bought weather-proof pants for 10 yuan each. The best part was communicating what we are looking for - pants that can resist water. We found an English-speaking girl in one of the stores and she gave us directions to get the BRT for Tianmen Square. The BRT is Beijing's rapid bus service running on dedicated bus lanes. We got off the BRT at Qian Gate - Our first glimpse of the Imperial City. We walked southwards to the Qianmen Street. At that time, we had no idea what the Qianmen Street is. It reminded me of the Grove, Los Angeles with the trolley running along the middle. And also of the Thirs Street Promenade. It was pretty crowded, with almost nonw of the stores open yet. There were a few restaurants functional though. The Qianmen Street recently underwent a year long renovation and will continue to serve as the commercial and amusement center it was centuries ago. Just one or two food stalls were open. We tried the yoghurt and it tasted just like yoghurt. I loved the bright colours of the buildings close to the Qian Gate and as we progressed deeper into the Qianmen Street, the colours migled with the dusty Beijing sky. I'd love to go back when this place is all buzzing with activity. There were a lot of tourists even now though.
We hadn't really done much research about the Forbidden City. We kept trying to figure out which way is the real Forbidden City. We moved towards the Monument to the People's Heroes and the Tian'anmen Square. Here is when we noticed the strange attire of the Chinese babies in winter. Will post a picture of that too. I found it extremely interesting and cute. Looked around for a bit, took some pictures and moved towards the gate of Forbidden City with Mao's image on it. The scale and colours were extremely awe-striking passing through the gates. There were lots of English-speaking guides here. Unfortunately, we just had to draw the line here if we want to do a bit more in Beijing. We decided to head out to the Olympic Park now. Took a cycle rickshaw for 10 Yuan to get us to the next major street, where we could get a cab to get to the Olympic Park. The cabs in Beijing are run by meter, but we still got cheated. The cabbie took a really long route to get to the Olympic Park and charged us 60 Yuan, while it cost us only 27 Yuan on the way back. We saw the CCTV towere on the way with the burnt tower in the as-it-is form. The Olymic Park is set along the axis of the Forbidden City. I was totally awe-struck seeing the aquatic center, looked totally surreal with a Chinese temple in the foreground. The Bird's nest looked great from a distance too. The sky was very dull and gloomy all through our stay in Beijing. I'd love to go and touch the Aquatic Center, but we are running extremely late to check out of our hostel. We rush back in a cab to the hostel, where we had exceeded our extended check-out time. They had locked access to our room. We requested them to open it up, then packed, packed, packed while Prasoon checked out at the front desk. I locked the room behind me with the key still in. The lady at the front desk got extremely mad at us for doing that. At the hostel, they charge a refundable 100 Yuan for the key and she had to go and get it for us. So, more the reason for her to get mad at us. Well, it seemed like we were trying hard to be the worst customers they ever got. We were still in a mad rush to meet Prasoon's friend, Andersen and his wife, Vivien. Caught a cab and located them without much difficulty. They led us to an extremely nice all-vegetarian restaurant in one of the Hutong lanes. The food was extremely nice too - lotus stem with rice, bamboo shoots, green onion pancake, pumpkin soup, sweet n sour pork and a tofu dish. I could not stop drinking the jasmine green tea - fresh, very flavourful and a mild sweetness. There was no sugar in it, but you could add sugar crystals, called 'mishri' in Hindi. It was an introduction to vegetarian food for Andersen and Vivien. I admire their thoughtfullness and hospitality for bringing us here. And ofcourse, they were great company. It must be around 3:30pm or even later after the late lunch and at 5:00pm we have our coach, the only hope to get to Ulanbatar on the 18th of March. We asked Andersen for some directions and he explained to the cab driver to drop us off at the Mixiyao bus station. We were nervously sitting on the edge to get there in time 'coz the driver had expressed to us that we need to be there at 3pm. Now our bus stop was the one behind the Mixiyao bus station through the wholesale market. We thought of expressing this to our driver once we are close to the destination. But then, he insisted to drop us off at the Mixiyao bus station and would not listen to us. After some argument, we got off the cab and ran towards that wholesale market with our backpacks with us. Later, we could relate this to the Amazing Race because as soon as we reached the shortcut through the wholesale market, the shutters were half down and the other shutters were closed. Everyone around understood our urgency and without a word being spoken directed us to the only shutter that was open. Remember, we are still running with out backpacks. We finally made it to the coach. It was still there and so was the guy from whom we purchased the ticket. This was a sleeper coach, so we had to take off our shoes before entering the sleeping area. We had no idea that there was a seat number. We nicely helped ourselves to the best seat we could find and there was some shouting in Mandarin and then, the bus driver explained to us that we have been assigned the seat at the very back - 5 people sleeping in a row, right next to each other. Prasoon took the window, me next to the window and there were 3 people on my other side. They provide the quilt. pillow and a little shelf to keep your shoes and water near your toes. This was far more exciting than thought of. This lady next to me is worth a mention too. I, ofcourse, dont know her one bit, but she was very comfortable with me. I realize her jacket is layered over my jacket, which is beneath my head. She could almost share my quilt, was that close and decide to keep her leg in my space. Could continuously feel her hand and leg. We just assumed noone here speaks English. Prasoon was awake for quiet long in the comfy, heated bus. For a long, long stretch, we were travelling along the Great Wall of China. At about 8:45pm, we stopped somewhere for dinner. This seemed like the most remote part of the world. The bathrooms were primitive, with no partitions, even for women. There were just 5 holes in a row and the toilet did not have any sink to was hands and not even a door. It was like - 'Hello World'! Prasoon had to just use the wall which was the restaurant view. The next challenge was to eat vegetarian food.
Just when we trying to explain in our Indian-Mandarin accent, the word for ‘Vegetarian’, there was a South-American lady who helped us. She was petite and could easily pass off as Chinese, so we didn’t really think of her as a foreigner here. She spoke fluent Mandarin, from whatever I could make out. I still wonder what she was doing there. She didn’t look like a tourist, seemed like someone who travels this route often. She was probably in her 50s, travelling on her own, didn’t seem like she was on an adventure. Well, she didn’t invite much conversation, so we didn’t intrude.
Apparently, they overcharged us for the food, which we realized later. We had some tomato and tofu concoction with rice. It was pretty decent. Most of the passengers ate instant noodles in the restaurant. Drinking water and hot water were available free of charge. Now we were ready for the second leg of this journey from Beijing to Erlian.