May 13-17
What a busy week! We’ve had some posts prepared but with the scurry to get the finishing touches on our car we were too exhausted to get them out. Here's a large update from us on the beginning of the rally.
May 13th
We started the cloudy day at the airport Fairmont with news that our connecting flight to Incheon was delayed. Just before checking in we had our final interview on Canadian soil with Jay Durant of Global News BC. You can find that interview here:
https://globalnews.ca/video/10501801/this-is-bc-father-and-son-drive-peking-to-paris/
and our other interview with Global Okanagan here:
The flight was beautiful. We flew right over Tokyo with views of the rolling mountains that sit beneath Mt Fuji. The hotel near the Incheon airport was lovely but a small consolidation for missing a day where we could be preparing in Beijing.
May 15th
We lost a day because of the timezone switch. After arriving and struggling to pay our cab driver with Alipay we checked into the Shangri-La hotel in downtown Beijing. The hotel was filled with competitors from all over the world, but we were the only Canadians. Within an hour of arriving we were in a bus trip to the police station to pickup our chinese drivers licenses.
The lamination is uneven and the photo extends past the frame but it was unreal to have this card in my hands.
May 16th
The next day was car collection. We haven’t seen the Austin since March so it was quite exciting to reunite after both of our journies across the Pacific. The guard at the gate warned us against smoking inside the hanger and we immediately understood why when the small of gasoline hit us the moment we entered. We reconnected the battery and she started up instantly to our relief. That boat trip is not kind to cars of her age. I had the daunting task of driving it out of the dockyard and back to the hotel parking lot through Beijing rush-hour highways. Traffic here is very different than back home. The Chinese treat cars very much like bikes and move fluidly through lanes, which is difficult to get used to.
May 17th
We spent the penultimate day preparing the car and double checking our fluids. The stickers came out quite nice on the car, particularly the one from our generous sponsor Maynards.
We have received such amazing support for this cause. If you haven’t had a chance to donate yet we would really appreciate your support. You can find the link in the menu section of this blog.
In the evening as we were continuing our work a few locals approached us, curious about our car. Our talk was limited by how little we knew of each others languages but there was an unifying sense of profound love for cool cars that made the language barrier not as bad. Many of the kids spoke great English though and peppered us with questions about our journey and the car as we worked away. It was so much fun to talk with everyone we barely got any work done at all. We called it quits around midnight getting most of what we wanted done.