Off to Beijing

This is the first time that we'll all be going for a vacation as a group. All of us flew back to Manila; Some as early as a couple of weeks back, some flew in the same day. Em-J and I booked the same flight and was there the day before.

We decided to meet up at the airport but some checked in just in time so we only saw them in the plane. Here we are posing for some pictures while waiting for Joy and Abby.





We arrived in Beijing at around 12am; The Terminal 2 airport was pretty huge but very quiet at that time. It feels like an aged NAIA Terminal 3.





We were greeted by the freezing cold right outside. I was actually surprised by how cold it was, now I don't feel so bad for spending a bit on my thermal shirt and underpants.





There was a long stretch of cabs right outside and we were approached by a cab driver offering to take us to our hotel.



Here we are negotiating with the cabbie. He didn't speak much English so we were having a hard time understanding him. Good thing he was familiar with our hotel. He charged a total of 420 RMB (2,700 pesos) for the van. We didn't know if the rate was steep or not but we all agreed since we'll be together.



We stayed at the Novotel Xing Qiao and the very warm lobby was a bit of a welcome treat. The hotel was simple, affordable and is conveniently located. The MRT station is right outside the hotel; The shopping district and a few tourist spots were also just a few minutes away. Some of the staff speak good English so communicating wasn't so hard.





While we were checking in, the rest of them took advantage of the free wifi in the lobby only to find out that both Facebook and Twitter are blocked.



We requested for adjacent rooms but they had none when we checked in. We also stayed in different floors, the boys on the 9th, the girls on the 10th. It was also quite warm in the room and I was informed that they turn off the aircon at night. We would later leave the aircon turned off even during the day.









After settling in, we decided to head out to eat at 2 in the morning and only Burger King was open. It was a long walk and we were just about ready to give up and head back but I'm glad we didn't. Meals were pretty affordable at around 16 RMB (100 pesos).