Second Mail from Beijing

Hi guyz...

i'll start off from where i left in my last mail...and some answers to
interesting queries ppl have been asking me...
well...i'm not planning to give up the ornithology pleasures that bangalore
has to offer...so i am not keen on exploring my oppurtunities in this
land...

remember that famous Aamir Khan dialog from Ishq...

"Life mein theen cheezon ke peeche nahin bhaagne ka....Bus, Train aur
Chokri..."

Here the buses are very frequent, the trains are very fast, the girls are
both...so am not chasing anyone here..;-)
i guess that answers 90% of my friends' queries...

as to the other 10%, no i've not started eating cockroaches and
snakes...they're very costly here...:-)
i still remain 100% veg...(hopefully i have'nt eaten anything non-veg)....

my non-veg. colleagues are having a party time...there have plenty of
choices and they love experimenting...some have even eaten donkey meat...:
-0

there are KFCs and Macdonalds' all over the place...if i remember
right...blore has only 2 KFCs...i'd been to a supermarket last week and
they had snakes and turtles for sale...

anyway food apart, China has a cultural heritage to match India...

Last saturday, we went on a package tour to the gr8 wall..they took us to 2
different spots of the wall and the ming tombs...some of our colleagues who
had been there before commented that the place was not interesting and said
it was only miles and miles of the wall that you cud see...but when i went
there...it was a awesome experience....the walls are so huge and then the
pathway is very steep..it is at an incline of about 40 degrees and
sometimes upto 45 degrees... and one poor guy had a backpack of abt 4
kgs....
....
....
....
....
well that poor guy was me...there was no one else having a bag and i had to
carry most of the stuff...it was like military training...but i enjoyed it
a lot...:-)
but my appetite was not satisfied and i'm planning to go back one more time
to enjoy the splendor of the wall...

i was annoyed with my colleagues for their comments...wat did they expect
when they came to the wall....Aishwarya Rai dancing...?????

and then we went to the ming tombs, where the kings of the gr8 ming dynasty
are buried...there are 13 tombs, of which only one was open to public..its
an underground tomb...with a depth of 27 m...(phew...did they take care of
their dead or what...his two queens are buried next to him, so that he
doesn't feel bored...!!!)
and u know wat...that guy used golden soap box...laced with jade...
actually jade is cheap over here and i'm planning to get some lumps so that
i can get some jewellery made in india ...

but the entrance fares at these historical places is damn costly and it
cost us 200 bucks (thatz Rs. 1200) just for the tickets...anyway its once
in a lifetime exp...so its ok... i also came to know therez a train to wall
which passes along the mountains and promises a very romantic
journey....(remember konkan railway...)

and then i've been to the different markets around beijing...the bargain
ratio is about 1:20...
in china...u give them anything original, they'll give u a replica in 5
min....u'll hardly be able to tell the difference...tale mele hodeda hange
achchu hodithaare...:-)
i got some Tommy Hilfiger shirts...I'm eyeing a Ferrari shirt which even
Schumi wud die for...(fake of course...)

Btw i've booked tickets for the Shanghai grand prix...its on the 26th of
the next month and the stand is one of the slowest of the track...so
hopefully, i can get more than a glimpse of Schumi and gang...

thatz it for now...

more in my next mail...

i love reading ur replies...keep 'em comin'

-sathish