Saturday, June 27, 2009
Monday dawned clear. However, it soon started turning foggy. Rain was forecast. Work was work. The day went by in the usual manner. I had dinner back in my room. I was getting to hate this hotel’s in-room dining menu. A salad is about all I could eat and a dessert. Gotta have dessert.
Tuesday dawned smoggier than the day before. I had an email from Kevin, his flight was delayed due to a volcanic eruption near Japan. They would be re-routing to San Francisco, and then on to Beijing. He didn’t think he would make it in that day. Later in the day, another email from him, sitting in the San Francisco airport. Poor chap. It would be a long day for him. I didn’t hear from him, but I was certain if anything untoward happened, or he didn’t make it out of Japan that night, I would hear from him.
The next morning, I saw him on IM – he was in Beijing, and funnily enough, right next door to me! Evidently, they had held up the Beijing flight so he could get on it! Nice service!! Jay was also here, and I would be meeting him for the first time at breakfast. And Siraj would be arriving late on Friday. It was worth all the heartburn to have the whole group there.
But the weather was getting ugly. The smog had gotten thicker and thicker. We could barely see the hotels across the park. The Pan Gu was invisible from my window. See the pics for yourself.
http://picasaweb.google.co
Once in the street you could smell the smoke in the air. It was very unpleasant. Wonder what they would have done if it had happened during the Olympics! I was starting to feel uneasy with the smog. It felt like I was in a c-grade horror movie and some guy or THING was going to jump out of the smog at me… some horribly mutated THING! By Friday the smog finally lifted.
We dined well that week – finally!
I had also brought with me two bottles of ice wine along with a box of maple cookies, which I was digging into along with my morning coffee. That first night with all of us there, we chilled a bottle of ice-wine and had it during our 10pm status call. Cheers! (gotta learn how to say Salud in Mandarin).
So let me talk about Jay. He is hilarious and so very American. While Eric is always trying to be culturally correct, and Kevin is somewhere in between, Jay makes no apologies for who he is. Not that he is rude or obnoxious – far from it. He is very careful that way. But otherwise, he loves his ‘concubines’ or the hostesses at the Palm Gardens bar in the hotel. They are all pretty girls and know these guys and their drinks pretty well.
So this one night, we are at the lounge (see pics), and the girls all have new outfits on. Their summer uniforms, as they explained to us. A sleeveless full-length maroon outfit, with a slit up the side – a very high slit, hair piled up high, and a broad silver armband on their right arm. Kevin and Jay and Bob were all excited. They wanted those armbands – for their wives or ….. So I played wingman. As one cute girl did her stir-once-stir-twice-pause
In between, we met Bob’s latest girl friend. A Chinese woman in her 50s named Li, who had hair down to her knees, and dressed like a twelve-year-old American girl, extremely short skirts, see-through blouses, and tights! In 90 degrees heat! I guess the language constraints made it hard for her to converse with us beyond the ‘ni hao’ and ‘xie xie’. I did not know what to make of her.
We had decided to go to the Made in China on Friday. Peking duck is now officially a tradition for me. I have to have it in China. And the next time I do, I am hoping Sam will be there to join me. It will be fun to introduce her to it. I did have Peking duck at another restaurant the other night, but there’s something about a duck cooked specifically for you, that appeals way too much to me. Or maybe I am just a snob! Sitting in the intimate and not so inexpensive atmosphere of the restaurant appeals to my sense of … shall we say… well being? At least, it made up for a day that had gone horribly wrong from early in the morning, and which I don’t want to record here. After all, this blog is to remind me of the good times, not the bad ones!
Siraj arrived on Friday night, so Saturday morning we let him sleep in. Eric had left on Friday. So that left Jay, Kevin and I to go to the Summer Palace. I had already been here before, but knowing how vast the complex was, I was eager to explore some more. I knew where I wanted to go, across the 17-arch bridge to the South Lake Island, across the lake in a boat, and to the Temple, and finally the theatre. We left early, and were there by 8:15 – though crowds had already started coming in. The day was beautiful – sunny, bright, and no sign of the ugly smog though a slight haze lingered in the breeze. We bought tickets and maps and strolled through the gates.
Now Kevin forgot his camera, and Jay’s was out of battery. I had my two cameras with me – the little Cannon and my big-ass Sony alpha both loaded with 4GB memory cards, enough to go around. I handed one to each of them and said ‘run away and go play, boys!’ They were so happy with the toys, it was funny. I’d already done a whole bunch of pics here with Jane, but this was a different walk. Along the lake, by the paddle boats, and lotuses along the edge of the Kunming Lake, weeping willows swooping into the waters along the walk. We headed to the 17-arch bridge. A bronze statue of a Sitting Bull stands next to a pavilion. We took pictures beside the bull and then noticed that there was this woman, rubbing her back up and down the railings – was she doing a ‘cow’ thing – scratching her back? An old man sat on a bench nearby with his wife. His bearded face was a composition in serenity and Kevin captured it perfectly. I watched people playing with ribbons, and a big screen – a movie screen – in front of which men and women practices T’ai Chi with fans. We could hear the sound of music from the pavilion leading to the 17-arch bridge. We headed to the pavilion. There was an old man narrating the story, a man playing a flute. I could hear a singer. I walked around the pavilion and noticed this woman who was singing the songs, sitting on the railing around the pavilion, her back to her audience. I whipped out the Canon and started filming her, pretty rudely I might add, as I was right in her face. The flautist turned around and played for me as I filmed him. It was beautiful. Sitting the in shade of the pavilion, the breeze blowing through my hair, the lake in front of me, I could have sat their for a while. Kevin noticed a man filming us – Tourists!! How strange it is to be inside the cage instead of outside. I suggested we give him something to film. But Kevin and Jay wouldn’t play along, so that idea died. Scaredy cats!
We walked over to the bridge. People were flying kites. The clear skies above the lake are perfect for flying kites and there were dozens of them floating over our heads, in bright colors and shapes and sizes. Strolling across the bridge we came to the Temple of Extensive Rain. Not much to see there, so we headed around the island to where the boats went across the Lake to the other side. Kevin and I chose to sit on the inner row, while Jay chose to sit on the sunny outer side.
Suddenly, there was a tap on Kevin’s shoulder. Our trio had caught the attention of a family of tourists from inner China. The lady wanted to speak to Kevin. ‘Will you speak to me?’, ‘Of course,’ he replied; and soon there was a tap on my shoulder. Now I am used to the white folks getting the tourist treatment. With my short height, dark hair and skin, I blend in with a lot of Chinese people (especially with a baseball hat on), unless you look at my face. So I was surprised at the tap on my shoulder. It was the daughter. She asked me where I was from, and I said ‘Canada’, she looked puzzled and I said it slowly ‘ Ca-na-da’. And them? She wanted to know. ‘They are from America’ . A few more questions later, they asked us if we would take pictures with them. So Kevin and I posed with them. I looked at the pictures and said ‘hung how!’ (very good!) they were delighted that I could actually say two words in Mandarin - literally!! We ‘xie xie’-d and ‘Qai tzen’-ed our way off the boat. It was a surreal experience for me to be really treated like a tourist. Of course, Jay got a big laugh out of it. So I had to tell them about Jane’s fan club after that. (See my note on Girls’ Day Out).
We walked along the Long corridor, and I got a little disoriented. The boat had actually dropped us off a little further north than I thought it would. But it was all good. A kindly stranger with a map told us where we were. So we walked along till we came to the Temple of the Fragrance of the Buddha. The last time I had climbed those stairs I’d been on treadmills for a few days and was in a little better shape. This time though, I was back to my old level of non-fitness. So I was a little worried that I would not be able to make it all the way up. Kevin offered to carry my big camera bag, and I gladly gave it to him. We climbed to the top, stopping to take pictures along the way - lots and lots of pictures.
http://picasaweb.google.co
Around the back of the temple, I decided to sit for a while. Jay was busy playing with exposures and apertures. Kevin wanted to explore further, why were the people walking up the hill along THAT path? I told him it was the toilets. He was not convinced. So he had to go explore. From my vantage point on the railing, I could see him walking up the path. I waited for him to reach the top and then called him. He had reached the Hall of Supreme Feces, he said – it WAS the toilets. Jay had followed him up, and I went to join them. We walked along a winding path under the trees, heading downhill. A dirt path took us to a little turret with a magnificent view of the lake. Siraj called then, he was up and about! Down the path, exploring a little cave that had been used as an improvised bathroom, yuk! Finally we reached the Hall of Harmony and Longevity (I think that’s what its called). And sometime in between, Jay asked us where we were in the Sausage Palace (how does summer palace become SAUSAGE palace??). and then… were we in the Hall of Harmonious Incest? I will never look at those pictures again without think of Sausage Palaces and Incest… YIKES!!
Then we reached the Grand Theatre – I was determined to get some video footage of the inside of that hall. So I set the camera and walked around, providing a commentary along with it. Not the best video, but it will do.
We headed out, and lo and behold, none of the taxis would go on the meter. A lot of bargaining later, we finally found a cab that would take us back to the hotel for 40 RMB. We headed to the Palm Lounge, and Siraj joined us for lunch. The rest of the after noon we worked. That night we were going to a Chinese restaurant with Allan and Yaw.
Sunday morning, Siraj and I headed to the Silk Market. And now may I announce the king of bargaining, my friend Siraj! We had little time in which to shop and I had a list of things that I wanted to buy. So we ran around picking up silk robes, sunglasses - a pair of Prada and a pair of Oakley for 100 RMB or about 7USD each, - scarves. I was thrilled. Siraj was able to bargain very effectively with them. Plus the fact that we would speak to each other in Hindi and they could not understand what we were speaking about, gave us the edge. I was so pleased with my purchases. And we were back at the hotel by 12:30. Lunch and then we headed back to work.
That night we had decided to have dinner at the Tandoor, but first drinks at the Pan Gu – the 7-star hotel that looks like a dragon. I wanted to pay tribute to my Indian heritage, so I donned a sari – much to everybody’s amazement I might add, and I think it had the desired effect :-P Mostly shock and awe!! Big earrings, a slight touch of make up and my shit-kicker shoes completed the outfit. To our disappointment, the restaurant in the Dragon’s Tail was closed, so we had to make do with sitting in the Karma lounge and having drinks there. Then off we went to Tandoor. Chetan, Bob and Li would be joining us there. It was a wonderful evening. The food was good, the conversation was excellent, the company outstanding. I couldn’t have asked for a better outing. Later that night I had to pack, I knew, for now, I was just going to enjoy myself. And I did.
That was my last night in China for a while. The next day, I flew back to Canada. I’ve packed so many memories into these trips. I hope to have a few more. I know I am not going there this month. Who knows where my next trip will lead me?
Tuesday dawned smoggier than the day before. I had an email from Kevin, his flight was delayed due to a volcanic eruption near Japan. They would be re-routing to San Francisco, and then on to Beijing. He didn’t think he would make it in that day. Later in the day, another email from him, sitting in the San Francisco airport. Poor chap. It would be a long day for him. I didn’t hear from him, but I was certain if anything untoward happened, or he didn’t make it out of Japan that night, I would hear from him.
The next morning, I saw him on IM – he was in Beijing, and funnily enough, right next door to me! Evidently, they had held up the Beijing flight so he could get on it! Nice service!! Jay was also here, and I would be meeting him for the first time at breakfast. And Siraj would be arriving late on Friday. It was worth all the heartburn to have the whole group there.
But the weather was getting ugly. The smog had gotten thicker and thicker. We could barely see the hotels across the park. The Pan Gu was invisible from my window. See the pics for yourself.
http://picasaweb.google.co
Once in the street you could smell the smoke in the air. It was very unpleasant. Wonder what they would have done if it had happened during the Olympics! I was starting to feel uneasy with the smog. It felt like I was in a c-grade horror movie and some guy or THING was going to jump out of the smog at me… some horribly mutated THING! By Friday the smog finally lifted.
We dined well that week – finally!
I had also brought with me two bottles of ice wine along with a box of maple cookies, which I was digging into along with my morning coffee. That first night with all of us there, we chilled a bottle of ice-wine and had it during our 10pm status call. Cheers! (gotta learn how to say Salud in Mandarin).
So let me talk about Jay. He is hilarious and so very American. While Eric is always trying to be culturally correct, and Kevin is somewhere in between, Jay makes no apologies for who he is. Not that he is rude or obnoxious – far from it. He is very careful that way. But otherwise, he loves his ‘concubines’ or the hostesses at the Palm Gardens bar in the hotel. They are all pretty girls and know these guys and their drinks pretty well.
So this one night, we are at the lounge (see pics), and the girls all have new outfits on. Their summer uniforms, as they explained to us. A sleeveless full-length maroon outfit, with a slit up the side – a very high slit, hair piled up high, and a broad silver armband on their right arm. Kevin and Jay and Bob were all excited. They wanted those armbands – for their wives or ….. So I played wingman. As one cute girl did her stir-once-stir-twice-pause
In between, we met Bob’s latest girl friend. A Chinese woman in her 50s named Li, who had hair down to her knees, and dressed like a twelve-year-old American girl, extremely short skirts, see-through blouses, and tights! In 90 degrees heat! I guess the language constraints made it hard for her to converse with us beyond the ‘ni hao’ and ‘xie xie’. I did not know what to make of her.
We had decided to go to the Made in China on Friday. Peking duck is now officially a tradition for me. I have to have it in China. And the next time I do, I am hoping Sam will be there to join me. It will be fun to introduce her to it. I did have Peking duck at another restaurant the other night, but there’s something about a duck cooked specifically for you, that appeals way too much to me. Or maybe I am just a snob! Sitting in the intimate and not so inexpensive atmosphere of the restaurant appeals to my sense of … shall we say… well being? At least, it made up for a day that had gone horribly wrong from early in the morning, and which I don’t want to record here. After all, this blog is to remind me of the good times, not the bad ones!
Siraj arrived on Friday night, so Saturday morning we let him sleep in. Eric had left on Friday. So that left Jay, Kevin and I to go to the Summer Palace. I had already been here before, but knowing how vast the complex was, I was eager to explore some more. I knew where I wanted to go, across the 17-arch bridge to the South Lake Island, across the lake in a boat, and to the Temple, and finally the theatre. We left early, and were there by 8:15 – though crowds had already started coming in. The day was beautiful – sunny, bright, and no sign of the ugly smog though a slight haze lingered in the breeze. We bought tickets and maps and strolled through the gates.
Now Kevin forgot his camera, and Jay’s was out of battery. I had my two cameras with me – the little Cannon and my big-ass Sony alpha both loaded with 4GB memory cards, enough to go around. I handed one to each of them and said ‘run away and go play, boys!’ They were so happy with the toys, it was funny. I’d already done a whole bunch of pics here with Jane, but this was a different walk. Along the lake, by the paddle boats, and lotuses along the edge of the Kunming Lake, weeping willows swooping into the waters along the walk. We headed to the 17-arch bridge. A bronze statue of a Sitting Bull stands next to a pavilion. We took pictures beside the bull and then noticed that there was this woman, rubbing her back up and down the railings – was she doing a ‘cow’ thing – scratching her back? An old man sat on a bench nearby with his wife. His bearded face was a composition in serenity and Kevin captured it perfectly. I watched people playing with ribbons, and a big screen – a movie screen – in front of which men and women practices T’ai Chi with fans. We could hear the sound of music from the pavilion leading to the 17-arch bridge. We headed to the pavilion. There was an old man narrating the story, a man playing a flute. I could hear a singer. I walked around the pavilion and noticed this woman who was singing the songs, sitting on the railing around the pavilion, her back to her audience. I whipped out the Canon and started filming her, pretty rudely I might add, as I was right in her face. The flautist turned around and played for me as I filmed him. It was beautiful. Sitting the in shade of the pavilion, the breeze blowing through my hair, the lake in front of me, I could have sat their for a while. Kevin noticed a man filming us – Tourists!! How strange it is to be inside the cage instead of outside. I suggested we give him something to film. But Kevin and Jay wouldn’t play along, so that idea died. Scaredy cats!
We walked over to the bridge. People were flying kites. The clear skies above the lake are perfect for flying kites and there were dozens of them floating over our heads, in bright colors and shapes and sizes. Strolling across the bridge we came to the Temple of Extensive Rain. Not much to see there, so we headed around the island to where the boats went across the Lake to the other side. Kevin and I chose to sit on the inner row, while Jay chose to sit on the sunny outer side.
Suddenly, there was a tap on Kevin’s shoulder. Our trio had caught the attention of a family of tourists from inner China. The lady wanted to speak to Kevin. ‘Will you speak to me?’, ‘Of course,’ he replied; and soon there was a tap on my shoulder. Now I am used to the white folks getting the tourist treatment. With my short height, dark hair and skin, I blend in with a lot of Chinese people (especially with a baseball hat on), unless you look at my face. So I was surprised at the tap on my shoulder. It was the daughter. She asked me where I was from, and I said ‘Canada’, she looked puzzled and I said it slowly ‘ Ca-na-da’. And them? She wanted to know. ‘They are from America’ . A few more questions later, they asked us if we would take pictures with them. So Kevin and I posed with them. I looked at the pictures and said ‘hung how!’ (very good!) they were delighted that I could actually say two words in Mandarin - literally!! We ‘xie xie’-d and ‘Qai tzen’-ed our way off the boat. It was a surreal experience for me to be really treated like a tourist. Of course, Jay got a big laugh out of it. So I had to tell them about Jane’s fan club after that. (See my note on Girls’ Day Out).
We walked along the Long corridor, and I got a little disoriented. The boat had actually dropped us off a little further north than I thought it would. But it was all good. A kindly stranger with a map told us where we were. So we walked along till we came to the Temple of the Fragrance of the Buddha. The last time I had climbed those stairs I’d been on treadmills for a few days and was in a little better shape. This time though, I was back to my old level of non-fitness. So I was a little worried that I would not be able to make it all the way up. Kevin offered to carry my big camera bag, and I gladly gave it to him. We climbed to the top, stopping to take pictures along the way - lots and lots of pictures.
http://picasaweb.google.co
Around the back of the temple, I decided to sit for a while. Jay was busy playing with exposures and apertures. Kevin wanted to explore further, why were the people walking up the hill along THAT path? I told him it was the toilets. He was not convinced. So he had to go explore. From my vantage point on the railing, I could see him walking up the path. I waited for him to reach the top and then called him. He had reached the Hall of Supreme Feces, he said – it WAS the toilets. Jay had followed him up, and I went to join them. We walked along a winding path under the trees, heading downhill. A dirt path took us to a little turret with a magnificent view of the lake. Siraj called then, he was up and about! Down the path, exploring a little cave that had been used as an improvised bathroom, yuk! Finally we reached the Hall of Harmony and Longevity (I think that’s what its called). And sometime in between, Jay asked us where we were in the Sausage Palace (how does summer palace become SAUSAGE palace??). and then… were we in the Hall of Harmonious Incest? I will never look at those pictures again without think of Sausage Palaces and Incest… YIKES!!
Then we reached the Grand Theatre – I was determined to get some video footage of the inside of that hall. So I set the camera and walked around, providing a commentary along with it. Not the best video, but it will do.
We headed out, and lo and behold, none of the taxis would go on the meter. A lot of bargaining later, we finally found a cab that would take us back to the hotel for 40 RMB. We headed to the Palm Lounge, and Siraj joined us for lunch. The rest of the after noon we worked. That night we were going to a Chinese restaurant with Allan and Yaw.
Sunday morning, Siraj and I headed to the Silk Market. And now may I announce the king of bargaining, my friend Siraj! We had little time in which to shop and I had a list of things that I wanted to buy. So we ran around picking up silk robes, sunglasses - a pair of Prada and a pair of Oakley for 100 RMB or about 7USD each, - scarves. I was thrilled. Siraj was able to bargain very effectively with them. Plus the fact that we would speak to each other in Hindi and they could not understand what we were speaking about, gave us the edge. I was so pleased with my purchases. And we were back at the hotel by 12:30. Lunch and then we headed back to work.
That night we had decided to have dinner at the Tandoor, but first drinks at the Pan Gu – the 7-star hotel that looks like a dragon. I wanted to pay tribute to my Indian heritage, so I donned a sari – much to everybody’s amazement I might add, and I think it had the desired effect :-P Mostly shock and awe!! Big earrings, a slight touch of make up and my shit-kicker shoes completed the outfit. To our disappointment, the restaurant in the Dragon’s Tail was closed, so we had to make do with sitting in the Karma lounge and having drinks there. Then off we went to Tandoor. Chetan, Bob and Li would be joining us there. It was a wonderful evening. The food was good, the conversation was excellent, the company outstanding. I couldn’t have asked for a better outing. Later that night I had to pack, I knew, for now, I was just going to enjoy myself. And I did.
That was my last night in China for a while. The next day, I flew back to Canada. I’ve packed so many memories into these trips. I hope to have a few more. I know I am not going there this month. Who knows where my next trip will lead me?
The 17-Arch Brige at the Summer Palace
Drinks at the Karma Lounge in the Pan Gu Hotel
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