Back In Melbourne

Ok, so I arrived back home yesterday and it's definitely good to be back. Wasn't sure I was going to make it at one point. To get to Beijing Airport I had to take a taxi ride to a shuttle bus. Driving in an orderly fashion is not one of the Chinese strong points. My driver for some reason was in a big hurry. Early on he had us driving in the middle of two lanes, both of which were lanes that were going in the wrong direction. Staring down two oncoming cars for a couple of moments, the driver managed to get back in the correct lane with a little time to spare. Good of him. Then as we were driving in the correct lane, a bloody big bus swerved to avoid something in it's way and suddenly was taking up our full lane. So a big swerve and a couple of choice words from me and again we were back on track. Then I think adrenalin caused my driver to decide that the red light we were approaching was only a little bit red so he gunned it through the lights and once again, we were facing down two oncoming cars. At this point I decided our luck couldn't hold and surely this was when the crash would happen yet somehow we just missed both of them and executed a nice turn before anyone hit us. It felt very good to get out of that car.

Then I found out the shuttle bus was going to take two hours to get to the airport which would have been scraping it a bit fine. Some dude I thought was an official for the bus company said in really bad english that a taxi could do it in one hour. The taxi just turned out to be his car. So then mental car ride number two began. To his credit, the guy got us through peak hour traffic, fast, without so much as a scratch. He used the bike lane often (I was so sure he was going to knock down a cyclist), he cut off other cars constantly, he honked his horn like a maniac and he got me to the airport in just over an hour which for peak hour was a top effort.

The rest of the travel home was incident free.

So one more thing before I finish this blog. Wanted to mention my visit to see Chairman Mao's body. He died 31 years ago and although he wanted to be cremated, they embalmed him and now he spends his days in a Mausoleum which obviously has to be called The MAOsoleum where you can view him. The whole thing felt very surreal. In Tiananmen Square I found a large queue of people I thought might be queueing to see him and joined it. Lasted about a minute before some official told me to get out of the queue. Couldn't figure out why straight away but then slowly pieced together that you have to check your backpack including camera into a bag check area over the road. Once that was done I was back in the queue with a bunch of jostling Chinese people. Couldn't see any other tourists. We were then ordered to line up in two lines. There were police and guards everywhere making sure we stood within the special queueing area. We were then ordered to move forward where we walked through some gates while still outside and then around a corner in what felt like military formation, all the while being scrutinised by many guards who barked the odd order which I think was mostly about no cameras etc. Once inside a sign in English said to be quiet and remove your hat. We passed through a couple of rooms and then reached the viewing room. Inside a big glass case, a good 10 or more metres away, was Chairman Mao, lying down and covered in what seemed to be a red flag with the communist hammer and sickle on it. Basically you could only see his head and since the crowd was forced to move along quietly and quickly, I doubt I saw more than about 20 seconds worth. Not long enough to see whether the embalmer had found time to remove that massive mole from near his mouth that he really should have had sliced off before he got into politics. He just looked like an oldish, balding man to me. Then it was all over. We were then in the souvenir area where the guards weren't so interested in hurrying us along. :)
I wish I could have got a photo. There are various rumours suggesting that either the body is decomposing or that it's just a waxwork. I've also heard that sometimes it's the real body and sometimes a fake for when they do restoration work on him. Perhaps he's like Michael Jackson and every once in a while, parts of his face just slide off or something. I also found myself wondering what the other people who were viewing him with me thought of the experience. Were they just satisfying some sort of morbid curiosity like I was? Were they looking at a man they believed was a great leader who helped their country become what it is today? Or perhaps they were quietly wishing he'd rot in hell for all of the deaths he caused in his time at the helm. Not a clue.

Ok, I reckon that must bring this long final blog entry of my holiday to a close. It's great to be back and I look forward to catching up with everyone over the next couple of weeks or so. I guess I now have to go and get myself a job. Yikes!