WIDE AWAKE

Ugh! I think I may have slept a couple of hours and my dear hubby hasn't slept at all! When I was laying in bed I was thinking that I thought that I always remembered reading that the beds in Beijing were comfortable, but when you left Beijing....They were like sleeping on a board??? The beds in this hotel are "quite firm".....Oh my gawd, I can't imagine that they could be made any firmer than this. We have a small cot in our room and I pulled the mattress off of that and put it on top of the bed....I think that helped a bit. Poor, J.....He's probably sorry he didn't think of it first! ;)

I wanted to tell you about our experience when we landed in regards to how they're dealing with the flu. When we first landed in Tokyo they boarded the plane, but just came and took papers from those travelers that were staying the night in Tokyo. I'm not sure if we walked through a temperature scan in the airport or not....If we did, I didn't see it. Of course, there were quite a few people on the flights with masks on and also around the airport.

When we landed in Beijing....I could tell that they're taking it MUCH more serious here. We had to fill out papers stating that we aren't experiencing any symptoms of the flu and also state where they can reach us for the next 7 days. All during the flight if we heard anyone cough and blow their nose....J and I were mumbling under our breath. They boarded the plane when we landed and came up and down each aisle and pointed this little temperature gun at everyone's forehead. It doesn't help that you're sitting there for a little bit of time and the plane is starting to heat up.....We were just a little nervous to say the least! It also didn't help that this man that was 3 rows up from us had to have his temperature taken over and over again. I'm not kidding when I say, it was taken about TWENTY times with that little gun and then with also with a glass thermometer. Then this other important masked man boarded the plane and then they were all talking to the traveler for what seemed like FOREVER! They finally let him and the rest of us go and let me tell you, it was a sigh of relief! A HUGE sigh of relief.

After we left the plane, we walked past at least two temperature body scan machines before we reached freedom. In case I disappear for awhile, I thought I should mention that one of the temperature scan machines went off when a girl that was supposed to be sitting next to me (we played switcheroo, so that J and I could sit together) went though the first temperature body scan machine. I never did see what happened to her! She had ended up sitting in the seat directly behind me during the flight....I'm sure if she is sick with the virus, they will be knocking at my door during my stay here.

We were met at the airport by our guide, Veronica. She told us that she will be our guide during the entire trip.....She is VERY nice and I already can tell that we're lucky to have her! We had three other families from our travel group on the Tokyo to Beijing flight...... Everyone is so nice! Five families flew in earlier to Beijing and we will be meeting them in the lobby this morning. We also have two other families that will be meeting up with in the province tomorrow.....Pug Mama being one of them!

I wish I would have taken a couple photos of our room before we started making a mess of it.....It's a very nice room. I'll try to take a couple photos later after I've straightened up a bit. For as organized as I thought I was when I left, our room looks like total chaos now.

I hear J snoring now.....I think I'm going to hop in the shower and then make a cup of coffee and try to wake up a little. More later......