View from our window in the Oriental Hotel Bangkok
The Authors' Lounge at the Oriental where high tea is served and Joseph Conrad and Somerset Maugham (I think) used to hang out.
Tom and I on the grounds of the Oriental
The Terrace of the OrientalThis is our last night in Beijing and I am now two countries behind in the blog. It's not my fault though! Honest! The other morning we were leaving the hotel in Bangkok to fly to Beijing when I fell down. Right in the middle of the hotel lobby! Of course there were about a million people around, all very concerned (or amused as the case may be), but I knew immediately that the only thing hurt was my pride so I dusted myself off and assured all that I was fine and off we went. Oh by the way, my computer was in my well padded bag and it didn’t even occur to me that it may have taken the brunt of the fall. You guessed it, it did. When I tried to log on to write my blog in the airport, I got a most ominous screen which I hoped was interference but nothing changed later. Long story short, when we got to Beijing the first thing I did was tell the guide I had to find an Acer store that could diagnose the extent of the problem. Hopefully, a small adjustment would be all that was needed.
Our guide, Amanda, and the hotel concierge worked it out and by the next morning the computer (without me) was on its way to Acer across the city in a cab with a hotel bellman accompanying it and Amanda’s cell phone number taped to its cover. We were in the Temple of Heaven when the call came—terminal. Or in Amanda’s words, your computer is destroyed. I panicked because all of the pictures were on it, but they said the hard drive was ok. About ten phone calls later we had communicated that we wanted a new computer similar but better than the old one, the cost (not too bad), and that we would pick it up after 3:30. Amanda said she would go with us which was really nice of her considering our Mandarin Chinese is a little shaky, so around 4:30 we arrived at the Acer repair center where at least three people had literally dropped everything to get another computer (they had to go to a different place for that), re-program it from Chinese to English, get it all set up, and whatever else you have to do and by 6:00 we were back in a cab with a brand new twice as powerful Acer, the old hard drive which was intact, and memories of some new friends. The true miracle is that I have got it up and running without Eric to help me! And as you can see, I am now able to post pictures and can even post some makeshift captions! So here are some pictures of the Oriental and now I'm going to post some more pictures while I can.
Our guide, Amanda, and the hotel concierge worked it out and by the next morning the computer (without me) was on its way to Acer across the city in a cab with a hotel bellman accompanying it and Amanda’s cell phone number taped to its cover. We were in the Temple of Heaven when the call came—terminal. Or in Amanda’s words, your computer is destroyed. I panicked because all of the pictures were on it, but they said the hard drive was ok. About ten phone calls later we had communicated that we wanted a new computer similar but better than the old one, the cost (not too bad), and that we would pick it up after 3:30. Amanda said she would go with us which was really nice of her considering our Mandarin Chinese is a little shaky, so around 4:30 we arrived at the Acer repair center where at least three people had literally dropped everything to get another computer (they had to go to a different place for that), re-program it from Chinese to English, get it all set up, and whatever else you have to do and by 6:00 we were back in a cab with a brand new twice as powerful Acer, the old hard drive which was intact, and memories of some new friends. The true miracle is that I have got it up and running without Eric to help me! And as you can see, I am now able to post pictures and can even post some makeshift captions! So here are some pictures of the Oriental and now I'm going to post some more pictures while I can.
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