Those last fews beers while we sung our lungs out at karaoke felt like a terrible idea when the truck departed at 8:00am, but nothing a nap couldn't solve. We arrived at 12:30pm and had lunch in the café across the walkway from the hotel. Michelle demolished 25 dumplings and I had Kung po chicken…again. We all had a nap and made our way sharpish to the Hutong area. Narrow alley ways, housing narrow, low ceilinged cafes and boutiques. The alley ways were chockablock with people, locals and tourists bustling in the walk ways, brushing past one another. Selfie sticks absolutely everywhere. Aromas wafting into the streets from all of the different shops mingle and compete, in the way two types of music do when they're played from opposites sides, and every now and then the worst smells; stinky tofu and durian. Worst. Smells. Ever. 

Getting irritated with the unwelcome bodies in our close personal space, we went into a small café for tea. Michelle had rose bud tea, presented in an adorable tea pot with a straw handle. We were a little too relaxed in the café and ended up practically running back to the hostel to make it back in time for the acrobat show. 

Jason took us on the metro to the show. A very efficient service with adverts projected on to the tube walls from the side of the trains. Mick decided to spend the entire journey slagging off the tubes in London. I asked when he'd last taken them…Ten years ago. Pipe down Mick, get back in your box and go back to Lincoln. The show took place in a big auditorium. The building had no bar or café area but you could buy beers from a vending machine by the entrance. To be perfectly honest, the show was average. It was an acrobat show based on the premise of a video game and the main character, a clown, had to complete the levels to get a diamond. I think I had expectations of these incredible acrobats on the same level as the guy in Oceans Eleven. 

After the show, Annlee, Loes, Becs, Hamish and I decide to go for some drinks in the city. All we could find was a large street called Satlingun Road, which was purely just a collectipn of strip bars. Considering the strip was opposite a large shopping centre which was still open, where children were shopping, I found the scantily clad women gyrating in the window a bit too much. There were no regular bars or pubs. Disappointed we went into Hooters for dinner…none of the staff spoke English. So we stopped at the first Peking duck place we saw…it would take two hours to prepare. Realising that we were flogging a dead horse, we made our way home. Because there were five of us we needed two taxis. Annlee and Becs took the first taxi. While we waited, and waited, seven taxis ignored us and four locals got picked up immediately on separate occasions. We were getting really cheesed off. A rickshaw eventually stops and Hamish agrees a price. The driver is on his phone and realises that our hotel is farther than the rate agreed. We stop the rickshaw and jump out. The driver drives past us back and forth trying for more money. Hamish shouts ‘I'm done with you’ and waves his arm which seems to get the message through. Twenty minutes later, a second rickshaw stops, agrees a price and we head off. Unsurprisingly, he also calls a friend and realises that the hotel is farther than he had thought. We threaten to jump out and the driver agrees to take us for the original rate. One hundred metres down the road the rickshaw breaks down. The ‘vehicle’ comes to a slow halt and we get out. Loes and I are laughing, I'm in that ‘if I don't laugh, I'll cry mood’, Hamish isn't, he's just angry. We start to walk and the driver starts screaming at us for his fair. In fact, he starts shouting for more than the fair, waving his arms, stomping his feet, explaining that now his vehicle is broken. Hamish tells us to start walking while he deals with it. The little driver decided to square up to Hamish and pushes him. I can tell if the man is stupid or brave. Hamish hold his temper and pushes past him. I don't know what the man was yelling but he carried on until we could no longer hear him. We carry on walking to the hostel and hail a cab. He wants the same fare as what we were paying back in the city but by this point we’re done with arguing and jump in. 

The journey takes no more than 5 minutes and we are greeted by Annlee and Becs who were sitting on a bench outside the hotel. The debacle has taken 90 minutes and they've been waiting over an hour. It's also just gone midnight and all of the food places close at midnight. I take myself off to bed before I say something inappropriate.