After docking in the smoggy Chinese metropolis of Chongqing (by some accounts, the most populous city in the world with a reputed 36 million+ residents) early the next day, we took a brief, but harried, cab ride to the local bus terminal. From Chongqing, we made our way five hours southwest by bus to the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu, famed for its pandas and spicy regional cuisine.Upon arriving in Chengdu, we spent the entire afternoon furiously calling local travel agencies in a last-ditch effort to obtain a Tibetan entry visa. After a few thankless hours on the phone, it soon became apparent that the local travel agents were using the present circumstances as an opportunity to gouge foreign visitors. At that point, Kaberi suggested that we simply return to Beijing where our hotel owner friend Shauna was likely to have some local influence and expertise, particularly in the travel agent area. After conferring with Shauna via phone, we summarily booked a flight back to Beijing 30 hours hence.
We had planned to get up early the next morning to visit the Panda Reserve located 45 minutes away. Our plans were sidetracked, however, when Kaberi came down with a nasty and incapacitating stomach bug. Convinced that she had contracted food poisoning from an otherwise forgettable noodle lunch a few hours earlier, Kaberi spent a miserable, sleepless night and day commuting to the aft-located porcelain goddess. After being sedated with a cocktail of Dayquil and Tylenol PM, Kaberi was ushered onto the flight to Beijing. Once in Beijing, she collapsed in a heap at the Cote Cour SL hotel, our newfound home-away-from-home, leaving Vik and Shauna to tend to Tibetan visa and trip logistics (which they managed successfully only because of Shauna). Meanwhile, Kaberi recuperated in style, as Shauna had greeted us with wine, tasty Chinese snacks and an upgrade to a roomy suite with high ceilings and a small terrace.
When she awoke the next morning, highly-motivated and with her mind set on traipsing to the city’s antique fair, Kaberi had to be physically restrained by Shauna and Vik. Resigned to her temporary house arrest, Kaberi settled back into bed to watch reruns of Alias on the hotel TV and Grey's Anatomy on the trusty Slingbox. By nightfall, she had largely recovered, allowing us to pay a visit to yet another of Shauna’s divine restaurant recommendations, the laughably-misnamed My Humble House.
With many Beijingites out of town for the Labor Day holiday (known locally as Golden Week), the city was relatively-quiet, allowing us to hightail it to downtown in record time and have the swanky restaurant completely to ourselves. Blessed with prime seating directly before an indoor water pond, we enjoyed a scrumptious Asian meal of tuna tartare, white miso cod and spicy noodles (from which Kaberi respectfully excused herself). After dinner, we strode to the nearby Oriental Center shopping mall to see the newly-released Spiderman 3. Halfway through the flick, and no doubt the result of having to stomach Kirsten Dunst’s witless performance, Vik started to feel ill. In an hour, we were both in bed, having self-administered generous doses of NyQuil and very much hoping for the best.
The following morning, Kaberi felt close to normal but Vik found himself much worse for wear. While administering a much-needed doseage of DayQuil, we remembered that we needed to start taking anti-altitude sickness pills in advance of our impending Tibet trip. After doubly medicating, Kaberi exchanged places with Vik by hanging out with Shauna and attending to the final details of the Tibet tour. In the interim, Vik stayed in bed and caught up on episodes of Lost and 24 on the Slingbox. Kaberi made her way over to Beijing’s weekend antique fair and refrained from buying anything, so as to not sap Vik’s strength further. From the antique fair, Kaberi moved on to the Na-Li district, boasting one girlie shop after another, where her best purchasing effort was thwarted by the availability of 0 and 2-sized clothing.Vik roused himself in the afternoon, and we had an early dinner at Alameda, an upscale Brazilian restaurant in a hip eastern Beijing neighborhood.
Upon returning to the hotel, we discovered that we had inadvertently taken Kaberi's anti-inflamatory medication earlier in the day. To compensate for Kaberi’s oversight, Vik gave us a double dose of the anti-altitude sickness tablets while concurrently administering a long rant on carelessness and irresponsibility. Exhausted and grumpy, we both fell asleep early at about 9 p.m. The next morning, we were surprised to be awakened by Michael, the assistant manager, who was calling to make sure that we were okay. Puzzled by his concern, we wearily peered at the room clock and discovered that it was almost noon! Apparently, anti-altitude medication is also a strong sedative that is never, under any circumstances, supposed to administered in a double dose. After being informed of this, Vik was astonishingly silent on the matter.
Despite the late start, the day ended up being relatively fulfilling. We first ventured over to Silk Road where Vik used his bargaining skills to secure us inexpensive t-shirts to replace thoroughly worn-out predecessors. When we returned to the hotel a few hours later, we found Shauna and her travel agent waiting for us with Tibetan entry permits, plane tickets and a confirmed trip itinerary in hand. That evening, we introduced Shauna to a fellow Beijingite, Werner, who we had befriended on our Yangtze River cruise. Shauna identified another amazing dinner venue, and the four of us enjoyed an pleasant and authentic Chinese meal at an open-air courtyard table.
Before we left the next day, Shauna told us that we felt like family to her. As we bid Beijing farewell for the second time in two weeks, the feeling for us was very much mutual. Our much-anticipated journey to Tibet was next on the agenda.
