October Holiday Plans

Every year, the first week of October in China is considered a national holiday - to celebrate the establishment of the country, the glory of communism, and the wonder that was Mao.  Most people (especially white collared workers) get the week off.  This of course, translates into: everyone who can and has the means will go on vacation, leaving most desirable destinations in and around China packed with millions and millions of domestic tourists (regardless of whether the desirable destination is a big city or a rural province).  For example, just imagine the Forbidden City packed with a sea of little black heads (well, not really I guess - 3/4 of them will be wearing tour company baseball caps), followed by thousands of umbrellas and then hundreds of tour group flags, and the sporadic foreigner with a look of bewilderment permanently plastered on their faces.  I'm being dead serious. 

 

As for myself, after what seemed like an eternity of fickleness, the plans for October holidays is finally set (meaning finally decided on a place worth going to that might not be completely flooded with people).  The plan for right now is going with Adam, Michelle, and another Brit, Adam's friend Chris, to Eastern Gansu Province and maybe Qinghai Province for a week.  Since we're young, poor, and more or less backpackers, our itinerary is not concrete.  The plan, though, is to to make our way to Xiahe (home of one of the 6 most important Tibetan Gelugpa monasteries in the world), maybe stopping at some grottoes along the way, and then eventually either heading to Langmusi (another area that was part of the old Tibetan kingdom) or Qinghai (the largest salt lake in China), or maybe even Dunhuang (part of the Silk Road).  It is true, I just can't get over Tibet.  :)

 

Getting train tickets to Gansu was a huge challenge in itself.  On Monday night, Adam went and stood in line for 1 hour with no luck (apparently, experience was similar to my first time trying to get tickets for the Potala - the que did not move).  A second attempt last night achieved better results - but barely.  The good news: he got 4 tickets.  The bad news...

 

*drum roll*

 

They're HARD SEATS!!!!!  That means, it will be at least a 20 hour hard seat train ride to Lanzhou!!!

 

I know how to more-or-less express my reaction to this news in several languages:

 

Vietnamese: Oi choi oi!

Turkish: Oha cus!

Korean: Aish!

Portugese: Merda!

French: Merde!

Hindi: Chote!

Chinese: Kao!

 

It's okay.  I just have to think, it could havve been worse.  It could have been standing tickets!!!  But to be honest, it's worth it to even go remotely close to Tibet and the Silk Road.

 

I leave Saturday evening.  Will try to take decent pictures...

Taxi Humor

While I was in a 1.20rmb cab today on the way to work, sitting in near stand still traffic on the third ring road, the taxi driver turns to me and asks:

 

Driver: Do you know what day today is?

Me: No...(I'm thinking Thursday?) What is today?

Driver: Today is September 22nd.  Worldwide No Driving Day.

 

At this, we both burst out laughing.  He went on to tell me that the other day, while at Xidan (a big shopping area in town - promoting capitalism to everyone and anyone), two girls were handing out little free gifts to drivers if they promise not to drive on September 22nd.  The cab driver then said: "Who cares about these little gifts?  If they bought me a McDonald meal, then maybe I'll think about it." 

 

At the pace of a crawl, it took another 15 minutes to get to work.

This Ain't Your Mummy's Pony!

It is true that in China, the rich is getting richer and the poor is getting poorer.  Last night, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, I got a first experience of how wealthy the noveau riche really are. 

 

It started when my Mother's friend asked me if I wanted to spend the afternoon at a race track.  Having never been to a race track, I readily agreed.  After an hour of driving to the outskirts of Beijing (about 15 minutes past the airport to anyone who knows Beijing) and driving through a tree lined street, we arrived at a seemingly modest ranch entrance.  What a disguise!

 

After being fascinated for a few minutes while we drove past some beautiful, well-fed horses, I was told that those weren't the nice horses at the ranch.  A few minutes later, after driving through a good sized man-made pond (I later found out it's where the racehorses exercise), we drove into a little parking lot filled with various models of Porches, Mercedes, and the likes.  I was already impressed - it was the first time I've seen a Porch in Beijing.

 

So it turns out that this was not just an average day at the racetracks.  The event was actually a dinner party held by the man (and his family) who owns the ranch (and of course, all the animals in it).  Along with my Mother's friend's family, there were also a few other guests as well as a German jockey and his family (he later turned out to be quite a wanker!) all hanging around the large clubhouse porch that overlooks the racetrack and stable.

 

Before we sat down, we went for a little tour around the racehorse stable.  After passing enclosures filled with geese, ostrich, various kinds of pure bred dogs, and a tennis court (and that was just a small part of the ranch), we finally arrived at the racehorse stable.  I've been to a few stables before, but this is definitely the pimpest stable that I've been to.  Think Kentucky derby stables.  That's how nice it was.  The stable keeps about 20 racehorses (like I said before, all owned by the one guy).  I've never seen a racehorse before yesterday - what beautiful animals!  They're huge animals, larger than most normal horses, and the ones kept at the stable were all very nicely groomed - extremely sleek coat and well trimmed manes and tails.  Very impressive!

 

After the stable visit and a bit of tennis (it felt so country club - only we were in the middle of China!), we formally started the dinning.  The dinner was a five course meal AND a barbeque!  You had your typical salad (ceaser), soup, spaghetti bolognese, steak, and cake, all while having really nice chicken wings, beef fillets, and lamb kebabs (served with English mustard, of course) served to you every 5 minutes.  And this was just dinner - I haven't even talked about pre-dinner oer deurves!  Of course, with good food, there also comes good drinks.  Long story short, the night was filled with many glasses of nice wine (red & white), champagne, cognac, and cold beer.

 

While the evening was very, very nice, at the end of the night I couldn't help but think...if I ever come across that much money in my lifetime, I would certainly never invest it in horses, of all things! 

The One That Got Away...

Yes, as Kirstin said, it's time for an update...

 

After a short consultation session with Steprincess, she SMSed me with the a message that said: "I realize now everyone has someone they never get over..."  After that, she gave some examples using various people that we know, including her own person that she never got over. 

 

I wonder now how true that theory is to the rest of the world.  So if anyone who's reading this blog right now has some ideas on this theory or something to say, please share and let me know! 

 

I'm curious... 

Bark Bark Bark...Yawn!

For the past weekend, Beijing had the pleasure (or was it a curse? Haha!) to play host to Devrim and Drake. Accompanying them was Tee...I still don't know how Digs talked such a nice girl into babysitting him for the weekend. It was all three's first time in Beijing. It's boring to chronical everything that happened - besides, someone else will probably write about it. But here's the highlight:

- The picture of Digs passed out at No Name Bar.
- Drake being pretty much useless for TWO nights! Only 30% there? WTF is that??? :)
- Bark bark bark...yawn!
- Bar Blu & Digs convinced that he will make me sorry for taking a picture of him passed out at No Name Bar. Pfffff...
- Finally meeting Devrim's wife - and hearing how he makes fun of the poor girl! Bastard!
- Babyface. Enough said! :)
- Foot message at Bodhi's!!! It was heavenly...
- Laying around at Alfa's and having Drake buy us drinks.

So in conclusion, it was a great weekend, but not everyone can handle it. Oh well, what can you do? :)

Autumn in Beijing

After what seemed like an eon of hot, muggy, & humid weather in Beijing, yesterday finally took a turn for the better. For the first time in a long time, the sky was a brilliant blue (not as blue as Lhasa, but what can yyou do?). The air felt a little bit cleaner than usual, and the cool breeze mixed in nicely with the still-warm sun. On the my way to meet up with the two visiting POSes, I even saw the outlines of the distant mountains. It's so lovely to be out on days like these!

In other news, I started my internship this past week. The two POSes have been keeping me busy every night since they've been here. More to report later...