FLASHBACK #14: China & Charity (Part 2) - A Strained Friendship & Beijing

As the sun began to set on the fourth day of trekking, the Wall appeared jet black against the rich orange-red sky. I made an emotional call to my parents - although I had my friend with me, we no longer spent time together and I was starting to feel the strain on our friendship as we continued to ignore one another. I had met lot's of new people and, from time to time, her behaviour shocked me to such an extent that I wanted to acknowledge no association with her. Arrogant is how I would describe her behaviour. On several occasions, she was overly sarcastic with comments like 'you big girl' or 'move, you big poof' which were a bit below the belt. During the telephone call, a tear rolled down my face. As my phone call ended, the young doctor sat down beside me on the steps where I was sitting. Noticing my tears, he asked if I was feeling okay. I lied, saying I was just missing home. Later in the evening, I met up with Judy and Sweetpea. They asked if I was okay, referring to my friend's behaviour. I was embarrassed. I had no idea she had been that obvious. My lip quivvered and Sweetpea gave my back a gentle rub; that simple gesture made me feel much more relaxed, determined to enjoy the remainder of the trip. I spent the rest of the evening with them and, as we got to know eachother, an alliance was formed which still exists to this day.

The next day would be the fifth and final day of trekking, covering 8km along the Great Wall at Simatai. This stretch of the Wall had the most watchtowers, reputedly containing 135 of them. The trek was quite a challenge as we scaled more than 1,000 steps. There were some sheer drops where walls had fallen away and a number of participants suffered from vertigo. Amazingly, every single member of the group managed to make their way to the lunchstop. When the last few arrived, there was a round of applause followed by an official photo shoot. We decended into the lush valley below, bound for the accommodation we had left in the morning. On our arrival, we were greeted with champagne, party poppers and balloons, celebrating the completion of our 80km trek.

After the celebrations died down, we were transferred to the heart of Beijing, to the Rainbow Hotel. We were all in awe, as we looked out of the windows of our coach. There were people everywhere, either navigating the streets on foot or by bycycle. Those fortunate enough to afford to pay for transport overloaded buses and cars. As we checked into the hotel, I felt badly dressed as I dragged my luggage into the plush reception clad in now-dirty trekking shoes and loose t-shirt and shorts. My friend and I had been assigned the same room and I can honestly say that, by that stage of the trip, I truly detested her. I grabbed a long shower, thankful that we had all made it this far safely. Wearing real clothes (e.g. not shorts, or trekking shoes!) for the first time on the trip made me feel like a King.

As I headed down to reception, I made a quick phone call to Bree. During the whole trip, I had made a conscious effort not to tell anyone about the man who had only recently come into my life. Not being able to share this happiness with people (even my friend who I'm so glad I didn't entrust this kind of news with), made the whole experience more stressful. By this time, I realised that I had fallen in love with him. Remember how much your heart aches when you are away from someone you love? Hearing his voice at the other end of the line, I was once again amazed at how successful my hearing operation had been. He was well, he missed me and, as people started to gather around the coffee table where I was seated, I wound down our conversation.

The chat was a nice start to the evening we had planned; a group of us had opted to have professional foot massages. I was a little cynical about how much my feet needed rubbing, but oh-my-god! After 30 minutes of twisting, clicking and literally slapping my feet, the petit young Chinese girl with a surprisingly strong grip gestured for me to relax for five minutes. There were about four of us in each of the rooms and each of us looked at one another, a happy/drowsy relaxed look about us.

Upon our return to the hotel, we sat down for dinner, reflecting on the trek. People showed eachother photos on their digital cameras, taking the opportunity to swap contact details as the trip began to draw to an end. The next day, people had the freedom to do what they wanted. Literally everybody had opted to visit the Forbidden City and nobody could have told me how much of an adventure the day would have been for me personally.