We’re up really early, around 4:00 am.  The taxi picks us up at 5:15.  The hotel provided us a breakfast box since we were leaving before the regular breakfast is served.  We arrive at the airport, get checked in, and eat our breakfast.  The airport security was really quick and not nearly as thorough as we’ve become accustomed to.  I’m not sure if I’m glad, or I should be concerned about how lax it was.  I guess I’ll let the airport people run their own airport.

The rest of the flight to Bangkok is quick and painless.  We make the transition to our Beijing flight with a really long walk.  This is a big airport.  We’re on a 747 to Beijing.  Man, it’s a big plane.  The flight is about 4 ½ hours, and it as easy a flight as we’ve had since we began our Asia adventure in July.  Thai Airlines gets a recommendation from us.  Everything at the Beijing airport is smooth.  We’re home 45 minutes after we get off the plane.

We begin the tedious process of unpacking and washing 9 days worth of clothes.  We’ve heard about the fireworks during the Chinese New Year, and we’re experiencing it tonight, while we unpack. Lots of fireworks everywhere we look.  It’s pretty steady.  The last ones I remember, just before I went to sleep at 9:00 pm., were just below our apartment.  They were star shells that went off just below our floor.  This is a little different than my past fireworks experiences.  This is one of the reasons I’m loving living here right now.