Welcome to crunch day. We’ve got a lot going on and not much time to take care of it. Today is laundry day as I’m now out of clean clothes despite a modest extension thanks to the hotel in Shigatse. Add to that I’ve awoken later than I had hoped. Wesley already took off for the Olympic Green as he wanted to buy some souvenirs. I had to run downstairs to get tokens for the laundry room, which is conveniently just down the hall from our room. Tokens in hand, I dump one load of laundry into one washer and another into the other washer. I can’t read Chinese, and I’m not sure if the box of stuff nearby is laundry detergent, but there’s only one way to find out. Being a bachelor, I’m used to routine when it comes to laundry, and routine for me is pulling the bright orange plastic container down from the shelf and filling a cup full of blue liquid. The Chinese box contains white powder, so I’m not really sure if I’m cleaning my clothes, bleaching them, salting them, or giving them a liberal dose of anthrax. Only time will tell.

I run back to the room, take a shower and change clothes and pack up as much as I can to try to manage what time remains before our early afternoon flight to Singapore. The laundry is taking longer than I would hope, but finally it’s ready for the dryer. I move the loads over, start the dryers, and then head out to see what I can see at the Olympic Green. I decide to skip the nearest security checkpoint as the lines seem long, so I go across the street to the next one. I join a throng of people all pushing and jostling to get up to the security checkpoint. Immediately in front of me are a man and woman – the woman is trying to walk away but the man has a tight grip on her arm and is forcing her along. He’s dressed in all black and the woman is really trying to get away. I think this is some sort of domestic dispute until I notice a few other similarly-dressed men forming a ring around these two with a videographer capturing the whole scene on tape. I’m not sure what’s going on at this point but I really don’t want to get involved, so I make a beeline past the group towards the security checkpoint, and after a few minutes am through and into the Olympic Green area.

The Bird’s Nest had already opened probably two hours earlier, and I could go over there to catch events, but I was determined to get some cool Olympic souvenirs to bring back, and since I was quickly running out of time this was my immediate priority. So I walked the long walk over to the “Olympic Superstore” where luckily there was no long line to get in (I was told the line could be quite long because they limited the number of people inside the store at any one time). Once inside I was amazed at the variety of stuff there – all manner of clothing, toys, computer-related items, household goods, etc. As I was building a mental checklist of things I wanted, I ran into Wesley, who apparently had the same idea as I and had already watched some of the track and field events. He brought me up to speed on the coolest souvenirs and the promotions (if you purchased a certain minimum amount, you received a free stuffed animal or something like that). I grabbed a basket and began filling it up. Playing cards, stuffed animal mascots, baseball caps, mugs – I had assembled a big lot in a few minutes’ time. I checked out right behind Wesley who gave me grief for the amount of crap I’d just bought (I had three large fabric bags full). It didn’t occur to me at the time that I’d need to store it somewhere.

We then high-tailed it over to the Bird’s Nest to watch the track and field events. We only had enough time for about 40 minutes, which was a shame because we had really good seats – I think we were in row 6 which was within spitting distance of the runners on the track. We watched a women’s 800 meter sprint event, women’s high jump, and men’s hammer throw. The hammer throw was funny to me because after the athlete would fling the metal ball, somebody behind the scenes would drive a little RC truck out to retrieve the ball and then drive back towards the athletes with the “hammer” being drug behind the RC car. This process repeated itself over and over. The only real excitement came when a photographer was standing out in the hammer throw field taking pictures and one of the athletes managed to fling the heavy metal ball to within feet of where he was standing. I wonder if the photographer needed a change of underwear after that near-death experience?

I think it would have been more impressive to be there at night with the glow of the giant Olympic torch casting an orange hue over everything, but the weather was perfect and the crowd excited nonetheless. All too soon, we had to leave. As we were walking out of the stadium, we were approached by a well-dressed gentleman and his assistant. It turned out they were doing interviews for the BBC (I believe strictly for use on a blog/webcast/website). The BBC person interviewed Wesley and I for two minutes and then we headed off in the direction of the subway (there’s a stop almost in the center of the Olympic Green). On the way we stopped for ice cream (it was hot and we weren’t sure when/if we’d eat). We both purchased some kind of honey/peach ice cream bar that was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. It was very refreshing and extremely cheap – if my currency conversion is correct we paid $0.15 for the bar. Best value on the trip, without a doubt.

We scarfed down our ice cream bars (which were melting at a dreadfully quick pace) while waiting for the subway, and in another minute were disembarking and walking up the stairs of the station to our hotel (what an awesome location we managed – literally just around the corner from the Olympic Green and the subway). Back up to the room to find out our room keys no longer worked. We asked the housekeeping staff to let us in but they refused. This necessitated a walk downstairs to the front desk. While Wesley took care of this I went to check on my laundry. It was still damp, so I popped more tokens into the dryers and turned them on again.

While the clothes were drying, I worked on packing my bags while Wesley packed his. We were getting awfully close to our scheduled departure time for my comfort – it was past 1pm and our flight was scheduled to depart at 3:25pm. Wesley arranged for a taxi while I grabbed my clothes from the dryer and quickly folded and loaded them in my suitcase. I had absolutely no more room, so basically everything purchased at the Olympic Superstore was going to have to be a carry-on.

With everything packed up, we ran downstairs to checkout and hop in the taxi. Traffic was slow and it took us 15 minutes just to get onto the highway to the airport. We moved quickly for a while but then came to a wall of stop-and-go traffic. At this point we were seriously concerned about making the flight, as it was now nearing 2pm. The traffic finally cleared up a bit and we made it to the departure area. We paid the taxi driver, grabbed our bags, and walked as quickly as we could inside to find the proper gate. And then we promptly stopped. Immediately inside the exterior door to the terminal was a long line of people who had to go through a metal detector just to get to the check-in counters. And of course we picked the longest and slowest-moving line. I was preparing for the now serious risk of us being denied boarding and wondering what our options would be. We made it through the metal detector and then went off in search of the check-in counter. Check-in was actually a breeze – the agents were friendly and didn’t raise any concerns despite our late appearance – it was not within one hour of departure. We dropped our bags, got our boarding passes and then joined the security line. Now that we were familiar with the PEK security drill, we moved through quickly.

We had little time and instead of checking out the lounge options (which, while greater than one in number, were unimpressive in amenities), we browsed through one more Olympic store and picked up some last minute things (Olympic chopsticks and a t-shirt). As boarding was about to begin, we started walking to the gate. When we arrived at the gate and there was no airplane, it was clear that we would again suffer another bus ride. Four flights into/out of PEK and only one actually at a jetway (and it was the smallest plane to boot). Oh well, we were soon on the plane and it turned out the load was light up front – no one in first, just Wesley, myself, and one other person in business.

Pre-departure beverages were provided and after a few more minutes, we buttoned up, taxied, and took off. I was lucky to be sitting on the left side and had great views of Beijing International Airport, a palace(?), and the Olympic Green area including the quite-prominent Bird’s Nest. The flight was uneventful – no amenity kit provided, decent food, bad IFE, and friendly service but with a definite language barrier. After the meal service was complete and cabin lights dimmed, I enjoyed the view out my window some more – we had a nearly full moon and it reflected nicely off the South China Sea. There were thunderstorms below us and I was captivated by the flashes of light that would periodically light up the sky in the distance. An hour or two nap completed the trip and I awoke to the cabin crew preparing the cabin for landing in Singapore.

We landed, taxied to the terminal, and within no more than five minutes were standing in line at immigration. Another short wait for the bags and then off through customs and to the taxi queue. I must give Singapore credit – so long as you get a close-in gate, you can go from being onboard your inbound aircraft to in your hotel room downtown in 30 minutes. Not bad at all. As usual, we were allocated an Executive Floor room, but disappointingly for the Conrad, were not provided the customary fruit or chocolate selection. Oh well – no big deal. Wesley quickly scooped up the rubber ducky and Conrad bears for his kids, as well as the slippers for his girlfriend and then we went downstairs to see what options existed for a late-night dinner since it was now about 10:30pm.

After some discussion with the concierge, it was suggested that we check out Lau Pa Sat. We hopped in a taxi and in less than five minutes were dropped off at the street entrance. We spent about ten minutes investigating our options before settling on an Indian place and getting beer from another stall. Dinner for both of us, including several Indian dishes and a big pitcher of Tiger beer was perhaps $11 USD (and could have been even cheaper still). We were quite full and decided to walk outside and head back to the hotel. As soon as we walked out the door we were in the outdoor section of Lau Pa Sat and a vendor quickly approached and asked if we’d like some satay. Since I hadn’t had any yet on this trip, I decided to give it a go. One stick of your choice of meat was $0.75 SGD and that included the peanut dipping sauce. I tried a stick of chicken and I must say, it was very tasty. I regretted eating inside the food court now. I thanked the vendor and he gave me a business card for my next trip back (his stall is appropriately named, “Best Satay”). We began walking back in the direction of the Conrad, and after a few blocks hailed a cab to take us the rest of the way (it turns out it’s probably easily walkable, but we didn’t know at the time).

It was approaching midnight and we were tired from a whirlwind day at the Olympics, so we both pretty much crashed in the hotel room without further adieu.