Kunming, briefly
Odd to think that I haven't posted here in a week.
The end of Wuhan:
I eventually did find Patrick. He left the room because two Chinese boys in the bunk below me were in the act of making love to each other when Patrick stumbled into the room after spending nearly all night at an internet cafe. Taken rather aback, he decided to bolt and take one of the unlocked "star dorms" in the attic of the hostel (these rooms are actually quite nice, featuring large sunroofs for stargazing at night). Because he already paid in advance for his nights at the hostel, switched rooms without telling the front desk, and switched to a room where he wouldn't need to exchange keys, the key to the cupboard that held captive my laptop remained in his possession until the last day. Once I retrieved my computer, having done nothing in Wuhan except eat local food and meet an Australian and a Japanese guy, I got on my 2-night train to Kunming, loaded up with vittals, fed up with the urban butthole where I'd wasted three days.
The train to Kunming went smoothly enough. Luck blessed me with a clean, quiet, smokeless hard sleeper car--practically unheard of. I continued and finished Nocturnes for the King of Naples, a terribly sad book with an unforgiveable narrator who--bluntly--fucked up his best relationship because of fear of love, or fear of being loved, or both. It felt odd reading such a narrator, like listening to a criminal confess his guilt. I had no compassion or even pity for him. Just a distanced distaste, a "you knew what you were doing when you did it, but you did it anyway. you knew it was wrong, but it didn't stop you" blaming. Made me feel so heartless to read his truth. I moved onto a lighter novel, Live from Golgotha: The Gospel According to Gore Vidal, which I think he wrote maybe 5 years too late for his punchline to stick. The ending seemed very dated, even in consideration of its publication date; so, though the "surprise" did its job at revealing the unexpected dishonorable nature of a character, the cultural criticism seemed facile. Still, Gore Vidal as usual wrote the novel well. Beautiful prose and sex galore, perhaps the talk show version of Julian. Bah. Anyway, I'm out of books to read now.
PICS: Me in Scott's apt, Scott, Scott's (ex-)gf
I arrived in Kunming early in the morning, around 5:45. I called Scott and asked him to meet me at the bus stop he specified in about a half hour, when I'd be in his suburb. We had breakfast, I met his girlfriend Shayao (sic? Xiayao?) and his friend Sam, and spent the day together, briefly tea tasting and visiting his tea storage units. The following days have been similar, although I've also met his friend Aaron and spent time watching Scott put orders together. His business appears to busy him constantly; he has had little time to dedicate to showing me around the tea market. Instead, I visit tea stores that he needs to visit to purchase items for his orders. We did manage to visit the Haiwan factory store, which has little stock right now because their 2006 goods sold very well, and I purchased their Meng Pasha xiao bing, one of Haiwan's premium cakes from this year and a real winner, IMO. I also picked up some roasted oolong for a friend, and a gift for another.
PIC: The wholesale tea market, view from upstairs.
Tea, for the most part, dominates my visit here. Of course, I am getting to know my gracious host Scott, enjoying the clean air and fabulous weather in The City of Eternal Spring, relishing the spicy local cuisine, and even watching a movie or two. DVDs here, of course, are only 6 kuai (under $1), so to date I've watched Death of a President (bad), Pirates of the Carribean 2 (entertaining), La Mala Educacion (even better the second time, but did they cut the drag scene short on the DVD? WTF?), and Volver (started great, ended with too many loose ends. Rather lazy, Pedro!). I tried watching 120 Days of Sodom tonight, but the subtitles were only in French or Chinese, and the audio track only Italian. Odd considering it's a UK release (*ahem*Copy*coughcough*).
I haven't seen anything of the city yet, done nothing in the way of sightseeing. I will get there, eventually. Really, though, I'm in love with this city, and I hope to stay that way. Day by day I consider seeking employment here of some sort, inevitably English teaching, because I could live like a king. A 2500 square foot house runs all of 2000 kuai/month to rent. Divide that by 8 for USD conversion. For a mere $100/month I could have a 2-bedroom place in a highrise. The food is cheap, the furniture is cheap, the everything is cheap cheap except imported goods. I mentioned opening an "authentic" Mexican restaurant to Scott and Aaron, and they surprised me by saying they've been talking about same for some time. It's rather easy and inexpensive to open a restaurant here because labor and construction is so cheap right now...all we'd need is some imported equipment and an imported chef, perhaps. *Gears turning* It would be nice to have as many enchiladas as I'd like--for free!
Yet staying in Kunming would stop my travels. So my second idea is to look for employment starting the next school year, which I think begins in fall (?), so I could finish my travels and enjoy Kunming without the guilt of kidnapping my wanderlust.
Odd to think it's almost Thanksgiving. Odd to think it's only a short time until Xmas. My first holidays away from home. To be honest, I'm surprised it never happened sooner. I suppose our family did a good job all these years, keeping us together for most every holiday. Hrm.
I'm sure there's more to say but I left my notebook at Scott's tea market storage, so until then.
The end of Wuhan:
I eventually did find Patrick. He left the room because two Chinese boys in the bunk below me were in the act of making love to each other when Patrick stumbled into the room after spending nearly all night at an internet cafe. Taken rather aback, he decided to bolt and take one of the unlocked "star dorms" in the attic of the hostel (these rooms are actually quite nice, featuring large sunroofs for stargazing at night). Because he already paid in advance for his nights at the hostel, switched rooms without telling the front desk, and switched to a room where he wouldn't need to exchange keys, the key to the cupboard that held captive my laptop remained in his possession until the last day. Once I retrieved my computer, having done nothing in Wuhan except eat local food and meet an Australian and a Japanese guy, I got on my 2-night train to Kunming, loaded up with vittals, fed up with the urban butthole where I'd wasted three days.
The train to Kunming went smoothly enough. Luck blessed me with a clean, quiet, smokeless hard sleeper car--practically unheard of. I continued and finished Nocturnes for the King of Naples, a terribly sad book with an unforgiveable narrator who--bluntly--fucked up his best relationship because of fear of love, or fear of being loved, or both. It felt odd reading such a narrator, like listening to a criminal confess his guilt. I had no compassion or even pity for him. Just a distanced distaste, a "you knew what you were doing when you did it, but you did it anyway. you knew it was wrong, but it didn't stop you" blaming. Made me feel so heartless to read his truth. I moved onto a lighter novel, Live from Golgotha: The Gospel According to Gore Vidal, which I think he wrote maybe 5 years too late for his punchline to stick. The ending seemed very dated, even in consideration of its publication date; so, though the "surprise" did its job at revealing the unexpected dishonorable nature of a character, the cultural criticism seemed facile. Still, Gore Vidal as usual wrote the novel well. Beautiful prose and sex galore, perhaps the talk show version of Julian. Bah. Anyway, I'm out of books to read now.
PICS: Me in Scott's apt, Scott, Scott's (ex-)gf
I arrived in Kunming early in the morning, around 5:45. I called Scott and asked him to meet me at the bus stop he specified in about a half hour, when I'd be in his suburb. We had breakfast, I met his girlfriend Shayao (sic? Xiayao?) and his friend Sam, and spent the day together, briefly tea tasting and visiting his tea storage units. The following days have been similar, although I've also met his friend Aaron and spent time watching Scott put orders together. His business appears to busy him constantly; he has had little time to dedicate to showing me around the tea market. Instead, I visit tea stores that he needs to visit to purchase items for his orders. We did manage to visit the Haiwan factory store, which has little stock right now because their 2006 goods sold very well, and I purchased their Meng Pasha xiao bing, one of Haiwan's premium cakes from this year and a real winner, IMO. I also picked up some roasted oolong for a friend, and a gift for another.
PIC: The wholesale tea market, view from upstairs.
Tea, for the most part, dominates my visit here. Of course, I am getting to know my gracious host Scott, enjoying the clean air and fabulous weather in The City of Eternal Spring, relishing the spicy local cuisine, and even watching a movie or two. DVDs here, of course, are only 6 kuai (under $1), so to date I've watched Death of a President (bad), Pirates of the Carribean 2 (entertaining), La Mala Educacion (even better the second time, but did they cut the drag scene short on the DVD? WTF?), and Volver (started great, ended with too many loose ends. Rather lazy, Pedro!). I tried watching 120 Days of Sodom tonight, but the subtitles were only in French or Chinese, and the audio track only Italian. Odd considering it's a UK release (*ahem*Copy*coughcough*).
I haven't seen anything of the city yet, done nothing in the way of sightseeing. I will get there, eventually. Really, though, I'm in love with this city, and I hope to stay that way. Day by day I consider seeking employment here of some sort, inevitably English teaching, because I could live like a king. A 2500 square foot house runs all of 2000 kuai/month to rent. Divide that by 8 for USD conversion. For a mere $100/month I could have a 2-bedroom place in a highrise. The food is cheap, the furniture is cheap, the everything is cheap cheap except imported goods. I mentioned opening an "authentic" Mexican restaurant to Scott and Aaron, and they surprised me by saying they've been talking about same for some time. It's rather easy and inexpensive to open a restaurant here because labor and construction is so cheap right now...all we'd need is some imported equipment and an imported chef, perhaps. *Gears turning* It would be nice to have as many enchiladas as I'd like--for free!
Yet staying in Kunming would stop my travels. So my second idea is to look for employment starting the next school year, which I think begins in fall (?), so I could finish my travels and enjoy Kunming without the guilt of kidnapping my wanderlust.
Odd to think it's almost Thanksgiving. Odd to think it's only a short time until Xmas. My first holidays away from home. To be honest, I'm surprised it never happened sooner. I suppose our family did a good job all these years, keeping us together for most every holiday. Hrm.
I'm sure there's more to say but I left my notebook at Scott's tea market storage, so until then.