Here we Go!

Greetings my friends!


Here it is! The very beginning of my very first blog. It’s a good way to easily collect my diaries and make them available to all without annoying those who could not care less with lengthy mass mails. You are most welcome to leave me your comments and such.

So here we go. After getting up in the middle of the night, heart braking goodbyes, and a few hours of waiting, I was on a plane to New York. We took off at around 9h50 AM and I slept most of the 2 hrs long flight.

Since it was the 6th anniversary of 9/11, right to the minute, I was expecting a semi-military presence and never ending line ups which was not the case. To the contrary, it all went surprisingly fast and smoothly. Thus I had several hours to kill before my next flight scheduled at 16h30. Fortunately, I had the privilege of the company of and another young Quebecois in a quest for adventures in Bangkok.

The Air China’s Boeing 747 took off at around 18h15. I was one of the very rare white people on board. The Chinese man sitting next to me happened to speak relatively good English so we chatted a bit in between naps, meals and movies.

A few interesting figures of the flight CA982 from New York to Beijing for those whom it interests.


- Distance: Just over 10 000 km

- Average altitude: Almost 10 000 m.

- Time of flight: 13 ½ hrs.

- Ground speed: Approximately 900 km/h


Another interesting fact, we took a direction I had not expected. We flew right over the North Pole. When I realised what was happening, we were above the millions of lakes of northern Quebec. It was almost night time although the Sun never entirely disappeared. At the darkest time there was still a glow at the horizon. The view was absolutely stunning when we got to the extreme north end of the continent, just before flying over a cloud covered Arctic Sea.

We arrived at 19h00 (7h00 Quebec time). Without too much difficulty I was able to take a bus to downtown Beijing. We drove past the Forbidden City’s main gates, simply magnificent! Many of the skyscrapers were absolutely spectacular in their architectural design. The streets were buzzing and slightly chaotic but not too much.

After getting off, I faced my first true challenge, finding a taxi who knew where my hostel was. Even though I had taken care of asking my flight neighbour to translate the address on a piece of paper for me, none would take me. I must have stopped and asked about 10 different cabs, they all waved me away. Finally I stumbled upon a young Chinese man who spoke ok English and helped me negotiate with an old diver. Even him did not know exactly where it was. I went with him anyway with my fingers crossed. He was driving like a mad man amongst pedestrians who had to run for their lives. I’m exaggerating a bit here but not much really.

We were both very happy to finally find it. He charged my twice the “normal” fair, 30 RMB (about 4.25$). Rather cheap still and at this point I was just thrilled to have finally reached my destination. A rejuvenating shower and a comfy bed were impatiently waiting for me. All and all, a 32 hrs. day.

So here I am, in one of the nicest, most comfortable, and charming hostels I ever visited. It is a good starting point to slowly beging the taming of the Chinese Dragon.