Following the advice of my so far mostly trusty guidebook (the maps seem a bit shonky - but I'll leave that open to debate, it could be my interpretation skills) I picked Lau Pa Sak.
They said "Limited menu, tricky to find [ha], uninspiring decor... so why is this place busy? It must be the excellent Singaporean street food at hard to beat prices. The service is friendly but the highlight is the food. Everything is great; condensed milk coffee, satay, noodles, curry chicken, hainan chicken, and the best of all, the Laksa (spicy noodle soup). Arrive early and beat the large groups of homesick Singaporeans and embassy workers who have made this a popular lunch spot"
I said: "Good but not spectacular", guess I wasn't feeling particularly verbose.
I of course went for the Laksa.
Spicy soup being the perfect choice when it's 30+C outside.
Suitably fuelled, I then had a good wander round, specifically on Sanlitun Lu. I really thought this would be a great place to live nearby. I did take a couple of videos, they're on my youtube page as normal, but they were mainly taken for Caroline's benefit.
Also, it has to be confessed, when I watched them back again I was struck by the banality of my commentary, says wonders for this blog eh...
After a visit to the Beijing branch of the aforeblogged Bookworm (not as nice as Suzhou, more a bookshop with a bar injection than the inverse, which was true of Suzhou) I then took another bus towards the touristy part of town and Houhai lake.
I was now confident enough with buses to correctly guess which one to take simply from the direction it was headed and my trusty map (hubris?).
Ending up moments later, exactly where I'd planned, for the princely sum of 3p was extremely satisfying. So I rewarded my self with a walk round this here lake:
And then a beer (well two beers - they were only 3.1%!) on this here roof terrace:
No that I pretend the commentary in that one is exactly thrilling by the way, it's just produced with a wider audience in mind that's all.
With an appetite worked up, I then decided that day two in Beijing meant some roast duck was contractually obliged. This is a number of hours and many kilometres after lunch by the way. It may not seem so long, but it was.
A word of advice, if you're concerned that you may be being ripped off, paying 68Y for one portion of duck, don't worry, chances are they'll just bring you loads, just like this:
Slightly obscured by that photograph is the fact that the chef had kindly presented the ducks napper, on each plate. So I thoughtfully set up this photograph for you all:
And he proceeded to look at me for the rest of the meal.
And no, I didn't suck his brains out, as I understand is the delicacy.
I sent it back to the kitchen, both of them.
At which point the chefs probably laughed at the stupid lao wai for wasting the best bit.
Finishing the meal I then consulted the unintelligible bus sign and jumped on the 107back to Dongzhimen subway station.
Only a slight miscalculation of my actual position at that point meant it wasn't going towards Dongzhimen, but away as I realised a full 30 minutes later.
Happily as I was working to no deadline, and the tickets weren't expensive, I chalked it up to experience and got the same bus back in the other direction the entire length of it's route.
Weird when you think, that bus will represent home to work, or home to school for some people and they'll use it every day for years. I used it twice in one day and probably never again... sorry it's getting late and I'm getting pensive.
Anyway, back at Dongzhimen, I took the new line 13 (Opened in two stages; 2002 and 2003; as you'll know if you've read your wiki links) to WuDaoku (where all the universities are). This was to test the potential route to work.
It wasn't great, about 1:15 all told I reckon and £1.75 in each direction, a bit steep for Beijing. I'm going to try a couple of other routes, to see which is best.
Anyway, enough blogging for tonight, I'm off to wash my feet, they're the colour of hobbits (feet) after walking so far in Phillipe Phillops.
Someone reward my efforts with a comment will you?
Getting a google account isn't so hard is it?
1 comment:
I probably should comment on a later post mate but as you mentioned it here i thought i'd give it a go!
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