Memoirs of Beijing

The FIBA Asia Championship is currently ongoing in Tianjin from August 6 to 16.  As Team Pilipinas is one of the contenders, my friends and I decided to show our support by watching the game live. 

Normally, a train ride to Tianjin takes 25 minutes via Beijing South Station or 1 hour via Beijing Main Station.  However, as the game starts at 9pm.  We won’t be able to make it back to Beijing and catch the last train at 10pm. 

So, we have two other options.  One is to join the bus organized by the Philippines Embassy and the other is find someone with a car who would be willing to drive all the way there.  When you take a road trip to Tianjin, it will normally take you 2 hours without traffic and 3-4 hours if an accident happened.

At 2pm, my friend Jun called me and said that his friend will be driving us to Tianjin.  Woohoo!  comfy car and free!  We left Beijing at 330pm and arrived around 5pm.  We dropped by the team’s hotel, King Hall Hotel but the players are still resting in the room.  We were only able to get a glimpse of the Indian team.

Disappointed, we went near the venue for dinner.  Seafoods!   Actually, the fish ordered wasn’t fresh but the scallops and crabs were great!  At the end of the meal, each person shouldered RMB 100.  We even brought doggy bags home as we didn’t realize that the servings are huge.

Around 8pm, we went to the gym to try and negotiate the tickets.  As the China-Qatar game is still ongoing, ticket scalpers were asking for much.  In the end, we were able to bargain down the RMB 150 ticket to RMB 100.  We were also able to move to the ringside area to watch the game.  Sweet!

Philippines vs South Korea

The Filipinos who watched the game were really pumped.  One corner was waving a big flag while the others were waving a small flag.  Cheers were met for every shot made and groans for every miss. 

However, even if we cheered ourselves hoarse, Team Pilipinas still lost the game to South Korea.  They missed a lot of shots, turnover was high, Korea’s rebound is quite good and I’m not sure why the good players were not sent in all at the same time.  Hey!  I’m not a coach so I can’t complain.  I’m just  frustrated that nothing is happening.  The only good thing about the game is Baguio.  His really like a whirlwind of action in the court.  James Yap whom a lot of the Filipinas were wanting to see fouled out of the game.  It wasn’t a thrilling game.  It was a disappointment.

After the game, we waited for the Team to come out.  We waited for half an hour and they’re the last team to leave.  We had some photo opportunities and the players were friendly. 

I hope that their game against Jordan will be better for them to reach the semifinals.  Go Team Pilipinas!

Heading Back to Beijing

Our trek to Beijing started at 11pm.  As there was construction ongoing on one area and the trailers are out en masse, we arrived in Beijing at 230am.  That was tiring.  There were times where we close the engine as it wasn’t really moving.  In any case, it was fun in the beginning but really, train is the way to go.

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