There and back again, an archer's tale by Robin Eriksson.

Day 1 is published below...

Day 2, Fawlty Towers.

7.40 In the morning, Chinese time. Damn I’m going to starve to death! I’m sitting at breakfast on day 3 and trying to summarize last day. Havin’ a traditional Chinese breakfast and the only things that is edible is some kind of fried bread and some kind of dough package with vegetables and minced meat inside.
Yesterday I woke up an hour after I wrote the first chapter in the diary. The night was short cuz we were flying east...We landed at Beijing International airport at around 7 in the morning and we started go through all the security checks, took a train to pick up our luggage. That was necessary because the airport hall is about 1 000 000 square meters! It was built for the Olympics and it’s really huge and stunning.
We met Glennan and Chrissie at the exit and they were hoping someone would pick us up when we arrived so they also could get some information but no one came for us... We asked at the information desk an found out there were tickets booked in our name to Xining at around 14.00, long wait!
We had a breakfast at Burger King’s, tasty and cheap, the only bad thing is that no one speaks a word of English in the entire airport.A few minutes before we boards the plane some people explain that we are going to follow them and they are going to take us to our hotel in Ledu after we land in Xining. Not a minute too late! Back on the plane I tried to sleep again but it was hard because it was a short flight. We also had some food! Some kind of bread and a piece of strange meat. When I looked out the window the landscape looked more like Afghanistan than China. The landing was the worst I’ve experienced, the pilot first took the plane down but then changed his mind and started climbing again, flew for another 15 minutes and then turned and went back again. Thought he was lost... After the landing we were packed in an old buss bound for Ledu. Hot, dusty and bumpy. The buss driver honked his at every car we passed the whole trip which lasted about an hour. We soon realized ,people drive and walk on the street just how they feel like.

When we entered the hotel we were met by a horde of other archers who wanted to have a look at our bows and arrows instead of checking in or get out of the way so we could check in. The organization wasn’t the best, nothing to hang in the Christmas tree as we would have said in Sweden.

Our hotel room... Doors that doesn’t close, big stains and burn marks on the floor and on the walls, the toilet doesn’t flush, the power shuts down once in a while, and big holes in the hall way floor and walls... And so on.

Then it was time for dinner, food! And wine and rice wine. But the food... chicken wok with chicken heads, a whole fish, liver, the only thing that was edible was bananas and some kind of meat that was soon eaten. On our table there was our “gang” ( EWBS, ETAS etc”) and the team from Slovakia.
People went up on the stage and sang folklore songs from their county/province and me and Bengt took the stage and sang När gäddorna leker.
Everybody was dunk and wanted to say hello and have a toast. They doesn’t handle alcohol that well those Asians... We had many good and interesting discussions with the other Europeans.
Had a good night sleep.

To be continued.