Forgetful city...

I finally got a flight to Beijing and made it there with no problems. I had just finished reading a book, Mr. Nice, that I traded in at some hippy cafe in Lijiang. The book is an autobiography about one of the biggest hash smugglers in the world. It was an easy read and quite humorous, but I found him to be a little self indulgent and didn't quite believe the fact that he didn't blame the CIA agent who caught him in the end and busted his 'loads' numerous times- In the end I highly recommend this book. The reason why I tell you I read this book is because I became slightly paranoid about drug smuggling! Silly I know... but we all saw that Claire Danes movie where she got locked up in a Thai prison.
The Chinese girl that I met in the room, however nice she was, for some crazy reason I concocted the thought that she may have put something in my luggage as she had complete access to it (I don't use locks, is someone wants to steel something they can cut a back pack open). She had suggested a hostel for me to stay at in Beijing and for this reason, I did not.
I instead listened to Harry and Yuin- Poacher's Inn was to be my new home. Yuin warned me that it was not the nicest place, basic amenities with a shared bathroom, but right in the heart of the night life scene... seemed like a great option to me!
Poacher's in was in an interesting area. It did not seem like much in the day time- there was a new shopping center, not huge but a few stories tall. There were some really cool boutique's in there and had I not been on a budget, I could have done some damage! The stores along the street were all small locally owned convenient (or random)stores, some restaurants and tiny bars. There was a bigger building too and what I discovered the next night is that it had a lot of bars upstairs... it was random and hard to describe. It was a massive block of a building with barely any windows... there were two separate sets of tiny small staircases that lead to the bars each on it's own floor. Looking at the building you would never guess there were bars in it.
I found Poacher's Inn down an alley way. Across from it was a Pizzeria that looked quite nice. Poacher's Inn on the other hand, not so much. There were some Nigerian guys checking in, so I had to wait my turn. I of course had not booked ahead of time or checked on availability, but I had no problems as of yet. While I was waiting one of the Nigerians struck up a conversation. His name was Bobby and he lived in Beijing dealing with exporting clothing and was there checking in his co-workers, or so he said. I checked in and had to go to the third floor with my 26 kilo suitcase and no lift. Bobby to the rescue! Bobby was so very kind to not only bring up my bag to the third floor, walk me to my room, but also came into my room and suggested I stay at his two bedroom home instead. Bobby also made sure to give me his number in case I changed my mind.
The room was smelly, dirty, had no TV and was some of the worst accommodation I had yet. I walked around that evening but returned to bed pretty early. That evening in mid sleep the phone rang- yes it was Bobby. Apparently he took note to my room number too... I politely declined to meet him out.
I woke up early the next morning and had my free breakfast-no coffee, what's the point?! I walked to a very cute coffee place and sat at a table near not only westerners, but the only two other people in the place. I needed some new friends. One I recognized,we had said a few words to each other in the hostel- his name is Leon (from England). He had just met a girl that moved to Beijing days earlier and new no one- she is Amy and is from Columbus, Ohio. I somehow managed to start a conversation with them (that means eaves drop till you can contribute or laugh with them at something in their conversation, chime in with a witty line and after the banter ask them a question about sight seeing- works every time).
I was invited/ tagged along to the Forbidden city with them. I thought it was completely overrated. I was not impressed in the slightest. I far prefer the temples and Buddhas that were with the three pagoda's in Dali. I am not sure what I was expecting, but it was not that. Granted we did not do a tour, but I would have liked to have understood more about the life there. We saw a clock exhibit, they were some of the tackiest pieces I have ever seen. I also expected there to be more gardens on the grounds, but there weren't. Leon agreed, it was a disappointment- totally forgettable!
We decided to walk to around the area and find a place to eat. We heard there were local neighborhoods that had little whole in the wall eateries and we wanted to find the most famous of those neighborhoods. We walked for miles, passing up, in what my opinion, were really great local choices. We were exhausted, dehydrated (we all know how I feel about that) and starving so we went to the next place we saw. We somehow ordered, some dishes were good and some were not.
Amy went home as Leon and I returned to good old Poacher's. We both napped and met up for dinner. Before going to dinner we decided to coordinate a trip to the great wall for the following morning. We actually ended up going to the hostel that the Chinese girl in Beijing suggested. Man was I stupid! The place was really nice and had a lot of fun activities to do and programs coordinated. For ease we decided to get a private car and driver to take us to the less visited area of the Great Wall. It was to pick us up at 8am.
For dinner we went to a Thai place, shared a bottle of wine and had a fantastic meal. It was one of the best I had in weeks! We decided to venture out to a bar even though we had morning plans. We went to that strange building and found the Club Blu. We had another bottle of wine,danced a bit and called it a drunken night. For fear of not waking up, Leon stayed in my room... stop, I had two beds and you better believe we slept separately!