Our Day WIth Roma

We faltered all morning long on whether or not we should go out to Fragrant Hills to hike. The sky was looking cloudier by the minute. But after realizing that on Sunday it was going to be worse and rain, we headed out on the Subway to the end of Line 10 (that's our line) to Bagou to meet up with our friend Roma. Roma's from Australia where she grew up but her family is from the Phillipines. Here's Chase striking a pose on the platform.



Bagou is still in Beijing. But it feels more like a village after living in the CBD for so long. Everything here in the CBD is well lit, signed, and civilized. But out there even though there were still multistory buildings within sight, it felt like a different world- no running water, delapidated homes, trash everywhere, open sewage.

So we took a cab the rest of the way and started our hike up to Xianglu Peak. After about half way up, the path became just a series of staircases because it was so steep. We climbed nearly 500 steps before we had to sit down and take a rest.

After we got up, Roma noticed her butt sweat left a mark on the ground. So while Chase held her back and out of the picture, I snapped this one.



Here we are at the top. We ended up climbing over 1000 steps.



Part of the reason why Fragrant Hills is so fragrant this time of year is because of the blossoms.



There were many pagodas you could hike to and here is one in the distance.



We started our hike down on another more circuitous route that followed a wall like structure on the side of the ridge that has some sort of historical significance. Doesn't ask me for more details. Ask the expert tour guide, Chase.

Hmmmm, I wonder where I could put my trash???



On the way down I met this family that had twins. There aren't many twins in China because of the one-child policy. Well, I suppose the won't make you give a baby away or something if you have twins, but I guess genetically, they are not common. These little ones climbed all the way up to this point by themselves. I had a great time chatting with the Mom. She doesn't look very Chinese in her features and mentioned that a lot of people take her for an Indian. I thought so as well.



Here's that famous wall I told you about. No, I know it's not the Great Wall. So Chase found a spot that he wanted to climb on. He mentioned that was the first outdoor climbing he had done since moving to China.



And here's Roma in Natarajasana (dancer's pose) at the end of our hike.



Our entire hike took nearly 4 hours. Afterwards we went to a cafe called Sculpting in Time where I had some of the best Earl Grey I've had in China. The tea was made by an Indian company, Roma told me, called Dilmah. Never even heard of it! It was smooth, velvety, and rich. Just the way I like my tea. We went through nearly two pots of it! We decided to sit outside on the back patio where we were visited by a stray cat who came and sat next to us hoping to be petted or fed. It was good to hang out with Roma because most of the time we are with a big group of people and don't really get much of a chance to talk and get to know the people we hang out with so often. Roma's really cool and fun and easy-going. So after some good conversation around 7 we headed our separate ways to go home, shower, and get ready for a night out in Beijing. That will be my next post.