Awesome Asia Adventure Day #9 - Working on our Resumes

It is reassuring to know that silliness
spans cultures, politics, and languages

It was little more than a narrow alley in Zangzizhonglu. On one side was the Dragon King Hostel and on the other side was a restaurant whose name translates to "Hot Bean" and yes it was "hot" as in bright, loud, lively, and filled to capacity by a young vibrant crowd. We peeked inside on the first night and we knew we had to come back the next night. That next night we tried to get in for dinner and were told they had no room and we had no reservations. We left but did manage to slip in later that night for a light snack and drink and to make a reservation for our last night.

That last night we got a table in the overflow room and ordered a couple beers and just about everything on the menu. It was sort of a Chinese take on a tapas bar - small entrees for two served on skewers which came to our table 1-2 at a time. The beers and the food kept flowing and when the overflow room emptied we moved ourselves to the main room and switched to some sort of fortified rice wine (40% alcohol instead of the 50% firewater we had the night before).

It was getting late and the crowd continued to thin when I made a casual comment to Dan that we should think about heading over to the hostel bar. Without hesitiation Dan said "Let's stay until they kick us out."  I did a double-take and he repeated "We'll stay until they tell us to leave. Trust me. It will be great."  I racked my brains and realized that I had never been kicked out of a bar in a communist country before so in the interest of adding to my resume, I said "Ok, that sounds like a good idea" even though it didn't really.

But it was.

When the last of the patrons left, they locked the door and began cleaning up. We kept drinking and picking at our food.  The kitchen help came out to the dining room to have their dinner. We drank and chatted. The owner joined them for dinner while the waiters finished cleaning up. Finally when their dinner was done and it was obvious they were ready to switch off the lights, we got a glance and a polite gesture towards the door.

This is when it got really good.

We stood and situated ourselves on either side of our waiter and handed the phone to his (obviously) brother "asking" him to take our picture. Then the owner and another waiter decided to jump into the picture and next thing the owner and I were standing back to back so we could be measured to determine who was taller. More pictures ensued and then we were on our way out the door with our drinks (and their blessing) having made three new friends and rounding out our resumes.

Dragon King Hostel Bar

We took our show to the hostel bar across the alley. It was a little jarring because it was filled with mostly young Europeans and a Chilean trust-fund student who had just gotten off the trans-Siberian railroad (he has been travelling continuously for two years now). All of the discussions were engaging and centered around politics and travel and philosophies but eventually I realized that I had to get up and function the next morning and that I had somehow lost my wingman so I worked my way back to the room to crash.

I am out of breath just thinking and writing about that evening. It is so vivid and surreal at the same time, with amazing people and conversations and food and drink. An incredible ending to an amazing day I will not ever forget.

Chris

"Little hand says it's time to rock and roll."
     -- Bodhi

Awesome Asia Adventure Days #7-10 - Making the Best of It

Fashion Forward Face Masks

We knew it would be bad just before the wheels touched the ground.

Rewind about 10 hours.

Dinner was over and we were somewhere over the north Pacific. It was pitch black outside so I cleaned up and curled up for a good night's sleep. About six hours later I woke up somewhere over China and peeked out the window to see what looked like a beautiful sunrise. Except that it was a sunset!

After the meal (I don't remember if they served breakfast or dinner) we started our descent into Beijing. At about 2,000 feet I noticed a faint odor similar to an over heated clutch (I know that smell because I have a 17 year old who is learning to drive). The wheels touched and looking outside as we taxied to the terminal it appeared as though a light fog was blanketing the airport. But it wasn't fog I was smelling and seeing, it's the notorious pollution. We could even see it inside the massive airport, a heaviness to the air.

It was still there (obviously) when we returned a few days later. It is not a huge factor for a tourist, but by the third day we noticed some irritation in our throats. I'm sure living with it is a big deal, but I'm equally sure that once China decides to clean it up they will do it and do it quickly. One of the advantages of a command society is that decisions can be made and resources mobilized quickly.

We also saw evidence that the Chinese can make the best of a difficult situation when they have to. I'm sure the genesis of eating scorpions and centipedes was rooted in hardship. Likewise, the stylish face masks that we saw Beijingers wearing around town were an opportunity to make a fashion forward statement in a difficult situation.

12 million people going about their lives, comporting themselves with humor and grace.

So in the end, not so bad.

Chris

"No man lives without jostling and being jostled; in all ways he has to elbow himself through the world, giving and receiving offense. And that's just the bike messengers."
     -- Unknown

Awesome Asia Adventure Day #7 - Doing the Hustle

The Happy Traveler Gets Duped

Our first night in Beijing. The flag dropping ceremony in front of the Forbidden City had just ended and the festive crowd was taking pictures and heading off to the restaurants and tea houses next to Tiananmen Square.  A Chinese woman was practicing her English with Dan.  She asked if we’d like to visit one of the nearby tea houses to continue the conversation.  The short stroll to the team house was non-stop conversation with her and her two friends.  We found a table the next 30 minutes was nonstop tea (and eventually some wine) and conversation about life in China and the US, families, must-see sights in Beijing, types of tea, American cars, schools, etc.  We picked up the bill for 240 yuan (about $38) before they showed us back to the metro and gave us directions back to Zangzizhonglu (first night, we were still getting our bearings).

It was a memorable half hour, made more so when we got back to the hostel and were reading a poster in the hallway. It was one of a series of posters to educate travelers on local sights and hustles and yes, one of them was the “tea house” scam where you are invited to a local tea house and end up paying a ridiculously inflated price for the experience.

We looked at the picture that Dan snapped outside the tea house and confirmed it. They weren’t eager to have the picture taken in the first place (kept saying “not here, better pictures at the Square”) and the ring leader had discretely obscured her face the moment the shot was taken.

We chuckled and agreed that while we didn’t appreciate being hustled, the experience was still well worth the $38 so I guess everyone won on that one.

Chris

P.S. Even weirder (and this just occurred to me as I wrote this blog post), the next day as Dan and I were walking through town I started whistling that old disco standard "The Hustle" by Van McCoy. It's a catchy tune and soon I had Dan on board with it. It seemed like one of those random moments at the time but looking back at it now, maybe not so much!

"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever." 
     -- David St. Hubbins (This is Spinal Tap)

Awesome Asia Adventure Day #9 - Let's Get Sober for a Minute

We’ve read about it, we’ve argued about it, we’ve been indignant about it, and we (most of us anyway) have no idea what it really means. Government oppression. As a casual 3-day tourist I barely scraped the surface but I saw evidence of it and honestly it was chilling.

It started as a minor inconvenience. I could (seemingly) browse the Internet but certain sites were blocked. No Facebook! For 3 days I was unable to see or update my precious timeline. YouTube would not work for me. Like Americans, the Chinese are glued to their social media but it is a state-sponsored service where they are tracked, edited, or blocked. The NSA debacle has spawned outrage in America, but doesn’t come remotely close to this.

On our first visit to Tiananmen Square we got a taste of state intimidation. A large crowd was in front of the Forbidden City (a “public” area on the square) watching the nightly flag ceremony while police were randomly administering pat-downs and demanding government identification just for being in the square. They didn’t bother with us Westerners, it was directed at their citizens and it seemed excessive but it was nothing compared to the last day.

The morning of the last day we headed to the Forbidden City. This is the giant walled compound with the famous painting of Chairman Mao over the main entrance. We approached the entrance on a long narrow walkway, lined on both sides by soldiers at attention, precisely spaced, wearing stern expressions and crisp uniforms. At first I was puzzled but then horrified as I realized every 3rd or 4th soldier (same spacing, same attention, same expression) was in plain street clothes. The message was unmistakable – “We in at the table next to you, in your work place, in your family room. We are everywhere and we are watching you.”

The Facebook thing was sobering and the random ID checks were chilling. But the plainclothes spies on display and the knowledge of what could happen if you crossed the line with them was horrifying.

It’s not hard to see past this if you choose. The city is bustling with families, young adults, seniors, teenagers, and Chinese tourists. Lovely people. They are enjoying the sights, the food, the shopping. They are riding bikes and laughing and sipping tea. It actually seems much like home in so many ways. I really don’t know how they live their lives in the shadow of this oppression. To a lightweight American like me it seemed like such a contradiction.

We are so incredibly lucky and we don’t even know it.

Chris

Awesome Asia Adventure Day #9 - Tastes Just Like Chicken

The Wangfujing area is known for a crowded outdoor market with all sorts of inexpensive trinkets and weird street foods. We knew we found the right place because the bustling crowd was all locals and we had broken the “never eat street food” rule the prior day with no consequences so we were feeling lucky...and we were very hungry.

The sights, smells, and sounds were amazing. All sorts of food was being prepared on the spot in boiling pots and sizzling stoves. There were food stalls with whole cooked chickens (by “whole” I do not mean a Purdue oven stuffer, I mean a chicken complete with eyes, beak, and feet, plucked and cooked and ready to eat on the spot). There were dumplings and piles of noodles. There was squid and octopus. There were lizards, seahorses, centipedes, snakes, and even pupae on a stick. As I turned the corner, a vendor was handing Dan some change and a stick with three fresh scorpions. They had had been alive 5 seconds before, had just been flash fried for a couple seconds and were (like the chickens) ready to eat. He shoved the stick into my hand and started the video (below).

We’d been eating all sorts of unidentifiable things for breakfast lunch and dinner, so I was in the right frame of mind, except, well, this thing had a stinger! I pushed that thought aside (actually I pushed all thoughts aside) for two seconds and then shoved it into my mouth. It was crunchy on the outside and of course gooey on the inside. The taste was mild, quite good actually. Dan downed the next two and we agreed they were BY FAR the best scorpions we had ever eaten, did a fist pump, and dove fearlessly back into the bazaar.

Chris

"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot"
     -- unknown

Awesome Asia Adventure Day #7 - Lost in Zangzizhonglu

Dan working his magic with
the locals (and help of the Internet)

With our abrupt exit from Philippines we didn't have time to properly pack or print directions to hotel. So when we popped out of the Zangzizhonglu subway stop, we had no idea where/how to find our hostel. It was a coin toss to decide which way to go. We glanced at each other, turned right, and started dragging our roll on luggage down the street.

The next hour was spent strolling down blind alleys past small shops and restaurants, drinking in the sights, sounds, and smells of this strange place and looking the Dragon Hostel or someone that might speak a lick of English. Along the way there were so many locals who tried to help us by walking us across town to find someone who might know a lick of English, or to find some random small hotel (our bags were universal language for someone needing a place to stay). Some just wanted to practice their English (“hello” was the extent of it).

Our home for the next three nights

Eventually we met our lifeline. He was huge weathered fellow who had just parked his motorcycle in a narrow alley. He had shoulder length hair and was wearing glacier goggles and a long dusty trench coat. I will call him “Mad Max." Max spoke English and used his smartphone to point us in the other direction and we soon found Dragon Hostel tucked about a 100 yards down another dusty alley, and received a lovely warm welcome from the bi-lingual kids running the hostel.

This would be the winning formula for the next few days in Beijing - avoiding the safety of tour guides and western establishments - eating, drinking, putting ourselves in challenging situations and generally hanging out with the locals. I've done this sort of thing before in Europe but never in an environment as alien (to me) as Asia. It guarantees a vacation full of surprises and indelible memories and this week would be no exception.

Chris

"Keep riding, Nancy. It's just water and dirt." 

     -- Huck And Roll

Awesome Asia Adventure

Tienanmen Square and The Forbidden City

Getting hustled in Tiananmen Square, eating unspeakable things at a street bazaar, and getting kicked out of a Chinese restaurant/bar are just a few of the memories from last week’s awesome Asia work/pleasure adventure. It is too much to cover in a single blog post, so I’ll start with this chronology post and follow up with posts expounding on individual related topics ranging from bathrooms to political oppression (we saw shocking examples of both).

The chronology:

• #1 Friday - Philly to Manila via San Francisco and Beijing. About 24 hours in the air, six shuffling through airports.
• #2 Saturday – Still flying and shuffling.
• #3 Sunday – Explore Manila, lovely outdoor dinner with the local management team as US based team members trickle in (they were delayed by LAX shooting and Tokyo earthquake).
• #4 Monday – Get fitted for custom tailored pants and a Barong. Workday starts at 9:00 pm and ends the next morning at 5:00 am. The Manila team greats us at the front door with corsages and take us upstairs where they perform a Philippine folk dance for us. This is followed by all day meeting with the entire 50+ person team where they just knock our socks off with their energy and intellect. They are a formidable team that will do great things with us, very exciting.
• #5 Tuesday – Second workday. The typhoon is in all the local papers and is a topic of conversation but not a real concern. Yet. Another incredibly productive day with the team. They continue to impress us.
• #6 Wednesday – Third workday. The approaching storm has been dubbed a “Super-typhoon” and is scheduled to hit Friday night. We’re scheduled to fly out early Saturday morning. We have morning meetings with the management team but by lunchtime (just after midnight) it is suggested that we consider evacuation due to the typhoon. We reluctantly change our arrangements to leave early Thursday morning. Both teams are a little emotional over the decision. 
• #7 Thursday – The US based team enjoys some time together at Manila airport before heading our separate ways.  Dan and I head north for a couple days in Beijing. We get lost in Zangzizhonglu, visit Tiananmen Square, and get hustled by two school teachers and an accountant.
• #8 Friday – We risk food poisoning with some street food, make friends with a 6 year old on the train, and visit the Great Wall.  Dinner and a 100 proof bottle of something unspeakable ensures we have a good night sleep.
• #9 Saturday – Forbidden City, Olympic Village, and a food bazaar near Wangfujing where we eat something gross that was still alive 15 seconds earlier. Dinner at a very loud and hip restaurant packed with young Beijing locals. Another bottle of something strong, only 80 proof this time but a bigger bottle. We eventually kicked out by the owners (past closing time) but not until we get our picture taken with them. We end the night at the hostel bar talking politics with a Chinese and a Chilean student who has been on the road for two years.
• #10 Sunday – A very long haul home, made even longer because travel agent or airline bungled reservation so we have to buy one-way tickets on a later flight in order to get home. We’ll have to sort out the finances later. Trip ends on #11 Monday with a redeye from LAX back to Philly.

Those are the basic facts but the actually experience was intellectually and emotionally powerful in many ways which I will attempt to explain in subsequent posts. It was a trip of a lifetime.

Chris

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose"

     -- Dr Seuss