Me Ol' China 2010: days 4 & 5

Day 4 was a very sunny and hot one. We decided to take it really easy, actually easier... The alarm went off at dawn, 9 to be precise, but until 11, my daughter didn't seem to be in her body so I waited for her to be back from her visit to Morpheus before going for breakfast... well, half day was gone already and we had to try to make the best out of the other half so we managed to squeeze in, breakfast/lunch, 110 minutes massage sessions (I might have a potential young son in law starting a line), a shopping spree, a few drinks, a lovely dinner, some Japanese sweets and a final drink in the hotel lobby where I found out that there is a free WiFi, just the day before we are leaving. Well, it wasn't me to find it out, to be honest, it was my daughter.

The day was very pleasant and we went back to one of our favourite restaurants that we used to call “The Midgets'”. I am sure I mentioned this restaurant in the 2008 blog. Still same quality but a new menu with two of my favourite dishes out: some rice pancakes and some meatballs with noodles that were out of this world.

Discussing with my daughter we were saying that China is changing, quickly but, she reckons, it's still a fantastic places and even if the shopping malls show more and more western names “there are still chinese people around that make the difference”. And, she added “I hope that it will be Chinese people to change Big Noses and not vice-versa”.

Tonight was really a cool evening, as it usually is in June, and it's just a pleasure walking around the streets especially with a beautiful young lady like my daughter. I hear the comments of the people passing and those who tell me/her straight Fei Chang Piao Liang (Very beautiful) and it makes me proud of that, pointless saying, even if this is a sign of the time passing for me as well as for her.

Tomorrow is another day, once again we will get up late as it is already 1 AM and daughter is watching Slumdog Millionaire, while I am here writing these thoughts. Gym, lunch, check out, taxi to airport, plane to Chengdu, hopefully, taxi on the other side and no issue in checking in in the hotel booked by a colleague that will be our guide locally. She has already warned us that eating is the main sport in the food capital of China. The weather is going to be pretty bad, according to the forecast. It should be bad for the whole period we will be there... that wouldn't stop me from going around, for sure but it will stop us from going hiking on some mountains to avoid unnecessary risks. I can certainly say that this is the first time in my own life that I am not in command of the situation as I am entirely in the hands of a colleague about nearly everything. It feels really odd but, I must say, that this period of my life is revealing to be odd under quite a few points of view.

Day 3, anyway, is nearly closing and I am stopping here.


Usual taxi ride with the driver deciding whether listening at your conversations or increase the volume of his radio station where, inevitably, there are two or more people chatting, discussing, laughing and, perhaps, arguing. The cars on your side are always packed with people amused by out looks. Smiles, laughters and some incomprehensible signs that seem to be more a way to seek for attention than a way to mock us. Traffic, traffic and more traffic. 115 yuan later at the airport where the check in desks seem to be packed with people. Miraculously the queues go down fast. The person in charge at the check in doesn't even look at the luggage you are carrying and she even forgot to do daughter's check in. When told she didn't even bother looking at me or her: she just assigns her a seat, behind mine, and gives me the passports and boarding cards back. Liquids. The 100ml rule applies to China too but, over here, there is no plastic bag to fill. The document checking is very fast but the man in charge makes sure that you stand right in front of him, looking at him and his camera and would not take any shit from you. The yellow line is a must and my daughter is not allowed to stand by me, she has to wait there for her turn. That's the law!

Once in T3 it's just an orgy of luxury. You would expect this in NYC perhaps, not in a Communist country. Boarding the plane is very smooth and the attendants seems more surprised than pleased in seeing us on board. They greet us as if we were going to be the only non-Chinese on that plane (and that's how it was). Same for some local people that keep smiling at us while we take our seats at the end of the plane. They have been showing us thumbs up and saying HAO (equivalent to good). Once again, being a westerner seems to be an achievement rather than a mere coincidence, condition, fate, state.. You name it. The plane is beautiful and new. A large Airbus and made me wonder how come they put such great planes on the local routes while on the international routes we had the shittiest plane on earth! Seats were large enough to accommodate two average chinese men in each chair! Stewardesses go up and down the aisle for the whole flight offering drinks and some pork buns. While I listen to Vinicio Capossela (an italian singer) I am wondering what to expect when I will land. I know for sure that the hotel I booked as an early check in cutoff time, hence I was diverted on another hotel not too far. (What far means is another story) there will be no taxi driver waiting for us as the plane is delayed by an hour and they can wait only for 30 minutes.

While the flight attendants go up and down distributing drinks, blankets and pillows and the unmissable smiles, I think how lucky I have been in my life having had the opportunity of fathering a great child and lived in so many places, met so many cultures and still being curious and look forward to whatever comes next. I wrote once, as teenager “he who is tired of playing is tired of living”. With age I don't really fancy playing so much but, for sure, I am not tired of living life as if it was a reality game, a role playing one. I am fine now with my personage and the role I decided to play for the years to come. I am a happy person, despite some issues and I would not exchange my life with any other personage and I would not go back to another period of my life or skip a single day to come. Asia changed me in 2008. 2010 is changing me again and this isn't due to Asia but to some personal circumstances and the feeling that I am growing up, at last, just when I thought I would have never become an adult and go straight from youth to old age.

The arrival in Chengdu was rather bumpy. The last part of the journey scared the shit out of us... anyway, we managed to land safely and in no time we were out of the plane in a long queue waiting for a taxi. All these adjectives,”long” “many” “a lot”, in China they have a different meanings. They do not mean slow or heavy or too much, they are just to quantify and to explain to those who do not know China that a queue with 100 people, in this country is a normal queue, but it gets sorted in no space of time! In a few minutes we were in the taxi riding through some long motorways till downtown. The way down seemed very much like Beijing but the difference of scenery, around midnight, were considerable. Old communist blocks and majestic buildings, all carrying a name before the word “Club” made me thing of a sort of Las Vegas or, better, a gentlemen paradise. But, probably, the word Club is more for Bar or Disco or even Karaoke club. The hotel room I am currently typing from is massive, a 2 bedroom room (Four Seasons chain) for 60 pounds per night including breakfast for up to 4 people. A huge bathroom, two big TV sets and all comforts.

We decided to go for a walk to buy something at a local convenience store and... 3 baozi, 1 sausage, 70 eurocent. I stopped to have dinner (00:30) at a local place: around 30 “courses” on a kebab plus 2 beers, 5 pounds... All sort of spicy delights, from chicken to pork belly to seaweed to all sort of tofu... you name it... It was there...

I cannot sleep tonight.