2004-11-06 - 12:50 p.m.
Ah china, either you are bored out of your skull, or you are so busy you can't even think straight. It has been one of those kinds of weeks. (I'll update it later) back to the Kaifung trip.
So we went and checked in to our hotel. Called the Hotel Ritz. (You notice things in english all over the place, but usually the english is so bad it actually hurts you to read it. There was a sign for handisapped individuals to use the elevator, and it actually said in english, "no two bad individual dress can here stay") Well we checked into our rooms. I had a room on the 4th floor, and it was easier and probably safer to use the stairs then to use the elevator. The room smelled like cigarette smoke even though there was a large sign saying no smoking. Ok. So the guy I bunked with (his name is Alan, really nice guy) and I opened up the windows to air it out, and we found the AC and turned it on. Only one problem. The AC made the smoke smell worse. So Alan is using the bathroom, adn I decide the filter must be full of cigarette smoke, so that is why the room is fillign up with the smell.
I reached up to the filter, raised the panel and just removed the filter. Within in 10 minutes the room smelled so much better. ah... I love being just forceful, and deciseful.
So I sit on the bed. It was as hard as a rock. I actually then laid on the floor, and discoverd the carpeting was softer. If every chinese bed is that hard (the ones we have at the foreign teachers flat are almost that hard) then no wonder I always see frowning, unhappy looking chinese people.
We decied to go out and try the "famous" kaifung night market. So to get the picture. Think of the biggest swap meet you have ever been to. This makes that look tiny. It covered about 1 mile in each diretion on the roads. it was packed with people, and lining the roads were food vendors of every sort and type. I mean everything, chicken, rabbit, squid, fish, goat, lamb, beef, and even cicada's. (yes you read that right, june bugs, deep fried served on a stick).
So I'm walking with 2 delightful young female foregin teachers. One is from France, and the other is from Kansas. We are having a good converstation, and the teacher from france asks if I'm willing to try the cicada's. Sure. I'm up for anything once!! So she buys a stick o bugs. There are 4 cicada's on the stick. They are deep fried in front of us, and if you pop them into your mouth without thinking about it too much it is just like popcorn! Crunchy. We all shared that one stick of bugs, and I decided to get another stick. Crunchy, not gooey.
So we manage to find some other foods, mainly meat on a stick (not sure what it was, but it was tasty), some flat bread, and some beer. We try to get a seat, but each set of tables is for a particular stall. So we give up on that, and go to KFC (yes kentucky fried chicken) and walk in and take one of their booths!
After a delightful converstaion, some beer, and being able to sit down, we decide to join another group from SIAS who is going to a local tea house. So we tromp up the stairs to the third floor, and sit down. We are served some boiling hot, weak tea, and given three plates of different seeds. Then the entertainment starts. Imagine keroke, now imagine each person singing off key and shrieking for a reason. That is Peking Opera. it feels like someone is driving an ice pick into your ears. That was our entertainment.
So we started a collection thinking that if we paid them enough they would shut the hell up. No luck. we couldn't bribe them. so we did the next best thing. We took our napkins, rolled them into balls, and shoved them into our ears. (imagine the scene, about a dozen foreingers, with paper napkins sticking out of their ears. Add in the beer and we had a party.
Some food for thought.
1. I ate bugs
2. I was taken advantage of (the tea house charged each of us 20 RMB for the piss poor tea, 3 plates of seeds, and the "entertainment")
3. My sense of hearing was assaulted by this entertainment.
4. I smelled badly
5. I had to sleep on a very uncomfortable bed
Prisoners of war are actually treated better than this, and I had the honor of paying for it myself!! ;)
Will
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