Never accept rides from strangers

Yesterday, Lori and I were off to meet David to see the Temple of Heaven and the Pearl Market.

Unfortunately, the diving event from the day previous saw us get back to the guest house at a very late hour so we had very little sleep the night before. In order to prepare ourselves for the day, we decided to trek on out to Yong' anli to Starbucks for a coffee to help begin the day prior to meeting David at the Temple of Heaven in Tiantin Park.

Once we finished our coffee and pastry (the guesthouse was too full for us to have breakfast there) we hopped on the subway and went to Qinan Lu by Tian' an men square to get on the bus to go down to the park. As is usual, I got all turned around and decided that we should walk down Qinan Lu to the park. On our journey, a man with a pedicab stopped with a placard advertising Temple of Heaven for 30 yuan. Lori and I discussed, we were already a little late for meeting David, so we decided to hop in and let him take us for a ride. Once in the pedicab, the man turned his cab around (he was going in the opposite direction) and started to take us for our ride.

As we travelled down Qinan Lu, the cabbie decided to turn into an alleyway (hutong) off the street. As we approached the alleyway, I though 'neat looking place but this is not the right direction'. Lori must have been thinking the same thing, because just before he entered the hutong Lori started poking him in the back and saying 'hey, hey this is not the way. With that, the cabbie turned around and continued down Qinan Lu.

As soon as we started back down Qinan Lu, I pulled out my cell phone and called David, forget roaming charges, safety is more important. David asked where we were and I had no clue, so David asked to speak to the driver, I handed the driver the phone and David must have given him s**t because he started to go in what I thought was the right direction. Then he spoke to a cabbie buddy who had followed us from where the cabbie picked us up. As I realized something was afoot, our cabbie stopped at an intersection and told us to get into his buddies cab. At this point, I had, and especially Lori had had enough and we bailed without paying.

Out on the streets of Beijing, not really knowing where we were, I called David again and he told me how to get to him by subway (our guide book was wrong in its directions). Once we managed to make it back to Qinan Station, we made our way to David and began a beautiful day in the Temple of Heaven and Tiantin Park.

At the end of our adventure in the Temple of Heaven, we decided to go for a walk and grab a late lunch. While walking through the park, incredibly beautiful, we realized the the marathon will be coming through the park as we noticed the blue guide line on the ground. This marathon is going to be distracting for viewers because some of the sights that will be in the background are breath taking.

After an amazing lunch of spicy bean curd, baby bok choy and mushrooms and spicy mongolian beef, we walked up to a bus station and saw a little more of Beijing life that I don't think a lot of tourists get to see. We walked past a hutong that was an entire neighbourhood and looked amazing.

A little further on, there were some workers returning a hose to its storage place after watering the gardens on the street.

After a nice little bus ride on Beijing Public Transit (The TTC could take quite a few lessons from Beijing) we went to a condo complex that resembled a 5 star resort and had coffee and relaxed as we had been on our feet for the last 9 hours, minus an hour for lunch.

Lori and I were both falling asleep and decided not to go to the Pearl Market but to return to the guest house for the night.

When we got off the subway at our stop, we walked out and saw that the corner was lit up very nicely, I pulled out my camera and turned it on, but it decided it was enough for the day and shut itself down, my battery had died.

I have charged my camera, am charging my cell phone and will be charging my MacBook very soon.

Another day another adventure.

By the way, today's adventure will be in the Beijing rain and I found a Starbucks closer to our guest house rather than traveling across to the other side of the city.

More to come.......