March 30-31, 2012—Beijing
I didn’t sleep well and got up before the alarm went off at
4:00am. I got ready quickly, finished
packing, told my parents I would meet them back in the cabin by 6:15 and headed
down to the Lobby Bar for one last cappuccino and one last farewell.
We had arrived in Tianjin (the closest port to Beijing) at
4:00am in the morning, and the crew was already hard at work unloading all the
luggage and preparing for disembarking the current passengers, turning the
cabins, loading the new luggage, and embarking the next group of
passengers. Turnaround days are always
extremely busy for those who work on board and the dining room and buffet opens
early to accommodate early breakfasts for those disembarking the ship early in
the morning.
Ronald had opened the Lobby Bar by 5:00am, and as soon as I
got there had my cappuccino ready for me.
He wasn’t busy yet, so we did a have a little bit of time to talk. A few of the ship’s officers stopped by for
coffee (“to go” since it was a busy day for them), and those that I had run
into throughout the cruise said they hoped I had enjoyed myself and wished me a
safe trip home. I’m always amazed at how
so many of the ship’s crew, staff, and officers remember my name considering
there are over 2,000 passengers on board every couple of weeks!
Over that past few cruises, I had learned a few rudimentary
words in Tagalog—I knew how to say good morning, thank you, how are you, and a
few others. This cruise I learned paalam—good-bye,
and it was time to say paalam.
Finishing my cappuccino, I told Ronald it was time for me to
leave. He came around out of the bar,
gave me a hug, and told me to email him.
I told him I would, then with one last hug and a sad good-bye, I turned
and left the Lobby Bar.
My parents and I gathered our carry-on bags and headed for
our disembarkation gathering point. When
our color number, Navy 1, was announced, we headed for the gangway, and left
the Diamond Princess. She’s a beautiful
ship and hopefully, I’ll have the chance to cruise on board her again.
Although the cruise was over, the vacation was not, so once
we cleared Chinese customs, we found our bus and headed for Beijing —a 2-hour drive away.
Our tour guide introduced himself saying he had given
himself a western name of “Henry” to make it easier for us and spelling it for
us so we’d know he was “Henry” (why he picked that name I have no idea since he
couldn’t quite say it correctly and it sounded like he said Harry). During the 2-hour drive, he provided quite a
lot of information about China
and Beijing ,
but many of us hadn’t had much sleep and I think most people dozed off—I know I
did.
Our first stop was Tiananmen Square . Wow—what a huge place this was and it was
incredible to see it. We were told that
we were lucky that there weren’t many people there and it really wasn’t crowded
at all.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to enjoy it that much since it was so cold, and the wind was blowing pretty hard so the wind chill had to be pretty high. The tour guide kept us together and while what he had to say was interesting, it wasn’t worth standing around in the cold wind. As soon as he was done talking, everyone rushed back to get on the bus. We had gone from high summertime temperatures to very cold, winter-like temps in just 2 weeks.
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| Tiananmen Square |
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to enjoy it that much since it was so cold, and the wind was blowing pretty hard so the wind chill had to be pretty high. The tour guide kept us together and while what he had to say was interesting, it wasn’t worth standing around in the cold wind. As soon as he was done talking, everyone rushed back to get on the bus. We had gone from high summertime temperatures to very cold, winter-like temps in just 2 weeks.
We then went to the Temple of Heaven Beijing
to see it.
It would have been much nicer in better weather, or if the tour guide had just let us explore it instead of stopping and providing all the commentary. As it was, we were pretty rushed walking through and trying to snap pictures along the way, then standing for 10 minutes while he talked, then along again. I’ve found that most of the excursions we’ve been on have been guided tours with no free time at all. While it does provide a lot of information, and the security of having someone deal with the transportation, entry tickets, language, etc., is definitely worth going on the excursions, it would be nice if they could provide a map, some handouts, and some time to explore the different stops, then meet back on the bus. But I guess that would cause issues with some people not making it back (as we were to find out later that afternoon).
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| Temple of Heaven |
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| Temple of Heaven |
It would have been much nicer in better weather, or if the tour guide had just let us explore it instead of stopping and providing all the commentary. As it was, we were pretty rushed walking through and trying to snap pictures along the way, then standing for 10 minutes while he talked, then along again. I’ve found that most of the excursions we’ve been on have been guided tours with no free time at all. While it does provide a lot of information, and the security of having someone deal with the transportation, entry tickets, language, etc., is definitely worth going on the excursions, it would be nice if they could provide a map, some handouts, and some time to explore the different stops, then meet back on the bus. But I guess that would cause issues with some people not making it back (as we were to find out later that afternoon).
We had lunch in a hotel with tables of 10, but was served a
“typical” Chinese lunch family style. Since
there were so many choices, we were able to pass the plates around and only
take what we wanted. I tried a little of
everything served and I thought it was all pretty good, although I’m not
entirely sure what I ate other than the easily recognizable sweet and sour, and
veggies such as bok choy.
After lunch, we headed to the Forbidden
City . Our guide said we
would enter through the south gate, then make our way to the north gate where
our bus would meet us. My parents
decided to forego getting off the bus—by this time, the combined cold and wind
had gotten to them—so I headed off the bus without them. The Forbidden City
was huge and I didn’t realize how big until we had gotten all the way
through. It is set up in a series of
courtyards and each time we entered one, I thought it was the last one, until
going through more arched tunnel-like doors and there was another courtyard
with more buildings.
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| Forbidden City |
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| Forbidden City |
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| Forbidden City |
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| Forbidden City |
Our guide stopped in each one to explain what the different
buildings in the courtyards were as well as provide information on the lives of
the emperors, the empresses, and the concubines. He said that everyone thinks the concubines
were always the prettiest girls in all of China since they were concubines to
the emperor, but that wasn’t always the case since the person who selects the
concubines isn’t the emperor, but the empress (imagine having the wife select
the girlfriends for her husband and you get an idea of how pretty they
were). There is also a rank structure
among the concubines with everyone entering at a very low rank with the
quickest way to increase rank is first to attract the emperor, then to provide
a male son.
I would definitely recommend anyone visiting Beijing put the Forbidden City
on their list of must-see places. The
only drawback is that after a while, the pictures of the various buildings in
each of the courtyards will start to look alike, but they are incredibly
beautiful with intricate details.
Our last stop was for a tea ceremony. The last, obligatory visit to a place where
we are encourage to buy something—this time tea. The tea ceremony wasn’t really a tea ceremony
(like you would see in Japan ),
but more of a tea-tasting, where the salesperson made various teas, explained
the differences, and poured everyone a little taste. Of course everything we tasted was available
for sale as well as the different tea pots and accessories for making the
tea. Even though I like tea and enjoyed
the tasting, I didn’t buy anything at all.
Finally, we arrived at the Doubletree Hilton Hotel where we
were booked. Princess had booked this
hotel for all those passengers who were staying one night and leaving on
flights the next day. Their standard process
for passengers flying out the next day is to have all the luggage that had been
left outside our cabin the night before taken straight to the airport and held
there, so all we had was our carry-ons.
Our rooms had all been pre-assigned, and the Princess Cruise hospitality
desk set up at the hotel had all our keys ready to hand out when we
arrived. The hotel had plenty of staff
there to greet all of us handing out the signature Doubletree cookies and
complementary coke or sprite. It was all
very well handled which was impressive considering that five busses of between
30-50 people each all arrived at the same time (but then Princess, like most
cruise lines, are very good at handling a large group of people considering
they can disembark 3,000 people along with their luggage and embark the same
amount with their luggage all within a matter of hours, so a couple of hundred
with only carry-on luggage would be easy).
Since we were all very tired by this time and it was after
5:00, we just went to the hotel restaurant and had their buffet. Even though we didn’t have to check out of
the hotel until 1:00 and didn’t have anything planned, we went back to our
rooms early. I was in bed and asleep by
8:30 (the earliest night in a very long time).
March 31, 2012—Headed
Home
We started the long trek home, first by bus to the airport,
then flying out of Beijing, changing planes in Hong Kong, and arriving in San
Francisco where we stayed overnight. The
next day, my parents drove back to Sacramento and I flew home to Las Vegas.
The cruise and the vacation had ended. I had once again made friends with so many
people on board, both passengers and crew—some were friends only for the
duration of the cruise, some I would meet again by chance on another cruise,
and a few would become long-time friends. The question cruisers tend to ask each other
is “Where are you going next?” I don’t
have a future cruise booked (yet), but I know that over the next few months,
I’ll be searching, and that I’ll embark once again for my next sea
vacation.
Until then, it was time to get back to reality, and back to
work—no matter how jet lagged I felt.
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