Tea in Asia: Day 11 - Beijing, China

The last two days – if you can even call it that – of my trip to Asia went by pretty quickly...

In the morning, I went back to the first pearl market with CPR and AB. I was unlucky and ended up in the passenger’s seat of the taxi. That was not fun. I swear I had three heart attacks! I didn’t mention the traffic in Taiwan before, but all the drivers were crazy! You know the paint that outlines the lanes in the streets? And you know how you’re supposed to drive within the lanes, unless you’re changing lanes? Well, I swear the lanes were non-existent. People were driving however they felt like.

We got to and from the pearl market without getting into an accident. I almost felt like kissing the sidewalk once we got back to the hotel. But I didn’t. Instead, I kissed my lunch goodbye. And no, I didn’t puke. What I meant was that we ended up having our late lunch at the hotel. These were our drinks: ginger ale, Sprite, and Coke. The picture reminds me of the Power Rangers when they beam to or from Zordon’s layer.

Anyway, the menu was all North American style bar food. I wasn’t hungry at all, so I ordered a pizza. I figured, hey, I’ll just have a nibble and then finish the pizza afterwards. The pizza tasted just as good as it looks – meaning it tasted like a plastic flavourless disk.

I’m pretty sure CPR and AB both got a burger (one was a chicken burger).

I killed the rest of the afternoon with a few people before dinner came around. Some people wanted to go out and find dinner again, but then it was decided that we’d have dinner in the empty hotel restaurant.

That wasn’t the only bad sign. Check out my fork (left) and DG’s. Wowzers! DG’s fork looked like a mini pitchfork.

Onto the dishes… stir fried shrimp and broccoli.

The hot and sour chicken and peanuts was really good!

Stir fried pork and bamboo shoots.

This was supposed to be braised daikon with beef, but I guess there was a mistranslation on the menu. The soup and soft daikon were really comforting. I wish there was more.

Because dumplings were easy to eat and please, we got two orders of boiled dumplings.

I just want to tell you all that I had nothing to do with the following two dishes…

Almond chicken with an orange sauce…

And finally, the last dish of the night, fried rice.

We finished eating dinner and then headed up to bed. Since it was the last night in Asia, I reflected on how much I saw and did over the course of a week and a half. I wish I had more energy and wasn't bogged down by feeling sick. I really wasted my last day in Beijing. In hindsight, I should've went to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall and hung out with everyone in Beijing more. Maybe it was for the best that I conserved my energy.


Read about the best breakfast I had in Asia. Okay, it was really sad.