Another week in China's capital

Folklore says that travel is character-building. Sometimes I think that is a load of bullocks, but I have finally sound myself in one of those moments. After returning back to China from Mongolia, I managed to somehow bring back with me an infected eye. I kept putting it off all week: firstly, because I thought it was just a minor irritation and that it would disappear soon enough. Secondly, the idea of going to a Chinese hospital seemed like just a pain-in-the-arse (excuse the language) that I just left it

Fortunately for me, a Chinese-French friend took me to the hospital the day I was going to leave to Xian. The prognosis was not pretty: a infection above my cornea, which if I did not checked up now, I could go blind. It was a scary prospect and put me into gear.

So here I am. Stuck in Beijing. I have to go to the hospital tommorrow for more tests. Furthermore, I have a very regimented dosage of medication to take all week (two drops of two different liquids every hour) preventing me from doing much really. "Nothing too hard, no outdoors" or so the doctor said in his broken English. I have to make the most of the shitty situation - look after my eye.

Keep you updated on my progress....hopefully with full usage of my right eye.

(NB: Photo has no correlation to the topic of this blog post, but at least it go to reading this post.)

Beijing

Umhhh...The great firewall doesn't seem to be blocking my blog anymore. Strange.

Anyway, just thought I would take advantage of this unexpected opportunity, and get a post in.
Well, I am back in Beijing now after a very long trip from Ulaatar Beijing: a train to the border town, Erlian, and then a 10 hour bus ride to Beijing. The train was comfortable; the bus, in starke contrast, was extremely painful. Old Chinese people smoking, the pungent odour of Chinese instant noodles permeating the whole of the bus, very nice indeed. So arriving in Beijing at 4:30am - very tired, but alive, glad to be back in civilisation.

Now here for a week with my two friends. Basically we are just hanging out here whilst we wait for our Indian Visas to process. Haven't got too much planned here; though I want to take advantage of this privacy (which I didnt have at all in Mongolia): go on the internet, read my book, try to figure how what the hell I am doing with my life. The usual things you do when travelling.

Apologies for the dullness of this post, but hey a post is better than none.

Take care. Photos and Videos coming soon.
Much love,

Eddie