Just a few things.

CHANGE OF PLANS

Previoulsy I posted that when I left here I was headed to Chengdu then Li Jiang, China by train and then I was going to Laos. Well a change in plan has taken place. Laos is out and Cambodia is in. Why? 1. the train ride from Beijing to Chengdu is 30 hours. I was under the impression that it was something like 12 or 13 hours. Not bad considering you can go to sleep and wake up next morning at your destination. Thirty hours, however, is a completely different story. I spent a long time on an Amtrak train last summer going to Cary and Savannah and while I didnt have a sleeper it was fairly comfortable but long and that trip was only something like 15 hours. We were even delayed because of something going on on the track which made it trip even longer. If I'm being honest with myself seeing the Chinese countryside from a trip while it does have its appeal is not worth 30 hours of a train in any country for me. 2. I thought that me going to Chengdu was going to small city. A sleepy little village even. Yeah right. This is China you idiot where that sleepy little city has a population of 15 million! And more likely 15.2 milliion after that 30 hour train ride! Right now I need to get away from so many people and big metropolitan cities. So I go to Cambodia where the population of the entire country is 15 million and Siem Reap, the first city I'm going to, 158,000. I'll spend a week in Siem Reap then head to the south coast and the city of Sihanoukville pop. 77,000!!! Yeah baby. Will spend a week in Sihanoukville soaking up the sun and water on the beaches. (That big roar you heard was me shouting for joy at finally getting sun and surf this summer.) I will take tons of pictures.

The only downside to this trip to Cambodia is that my flight on Malaysia Airlines is taking me past Cambodia to Kuala Lumpur where is land at 11pm and have an 11 hour layover in KL. Anyone know anything good to do in KL other than seeing the Patronus towers. If so please let me know. Not sure if I'll stay at the airport and camp out a la Amazing Race contestants or if I'll seek out a hotel for a good night's sleep.

Where to after that? Hmm, good question. Might be Thailand.

NAME CHANGE

One of the activity classes that I attend when I first got here was a chinese name class where the instructor looked at your name and consulted some book of ancient chinese names and characters (yeah right) and came up with your name. Good, fine and lovely. The only thing with that is that this instructor didn't know me and I didn't know her. After getting to know my Chinese teacher these last 9 weeks she finally told me that my chinese name Kong Wan Liang was bu hao (not good.) She said that it didn't represent me because the person who gave it to me didn't know me. I wrote my name down for her and she came back the next day with my new chinese name that takes into consideration my personality and in my case the Chinese zodiac animal and that name is Chang (second tone for you chinese out there) Wei (first tone). Chang being the family name and Wei meaning powerful like my chinese zodiac animal the tiger. The name actually works for me. I like it as soon as I heard it. Goodbye Kong Wan Liang and heddo Chang Wei. LOL.

SLICE OFTHE BIG APPLE IN THE RICE BOWL (IS THAT OFFENSIVE?)

I mentioned in an earlier post that my friends Jennifer and Anindya are in town from NYC. Well I met them at Q-Bar on Tuesday night. Q-Bar is a bar that I've been to before and talked about in this blog. It's full of ex-pat from around the world and could easily be accomodated on the upper east or west sides. Mostly non-asians 30 somethings who probably don't speak a lick of chinese. So I meet Jenn and Anindya there because some guidebook told them it's the place to be. Blah blah blah, the drinks are too expensive for the measure ounce they give you and the place gets too smokey for my almost 3 years non smoking ass. So I get there and there they are sitting at the bar the image of a very respectable marriage couple sipping their expertly mixed blah blah munching on some provided peanuts. Fashionable NYC clothing, bags, electronic equipment; they had just come from Tian an men and Forbidden City and dinner I think. A full day for them. Hugs and kisses all around and Absolute and orange for me. The really like the bar. What's not to like it's a very nice place for sipping drinks and chatting and smoking but not a lot going on in terms of activity. I want to take them to a place where they are guaranteed to have a great time and I tell them as much. We leave Q-bar a short time later and hop in a cab and head out to Sanlitun. Yeah. I take them off the main drag of Sanlitun to Kai bar where the drinks are 10 yuan, 20 for my absolute and orange. The music is pumping, the drinks are flowing we are dancing and having a great time. We bump into Angie and Cher from Canada who I had met on Friday night and proceed to have a really good time. The tequilla shots are flowing and a great time is being had by all. At one point this really hot song comes on and Jenn and I hit the dance floor where she proceeds to drop it like it is HOT. I'm mean she is dropping it down to the ground and shaking it like I never knew Jenn could. She was gritty personified. I never knew she had it in her. I'm mean yeah she's a sista and all, but never seen her git real like dat. She got all old school and was like "owwww" as she was dropping it. So we dropped it together to the looks of amazement and awe from the patrons looking on. SO MUCH FUN! Anindya doesn't dance but at one point he was out there as well on the dance floor.

Fast forward to Thursday night. We met up again in Sanlitun this time we went to Butterfly right next door to Kai. Music was pumping. Jenn and Aninyda already had their drink on from being at The Smallest Bar in Beijing (all of 12 square meter) where they were drinking Manhattans. So they were a little tipsy when they met up with me. Music was pumping at Butterfly as well. We were drinking beer and having a good time. I had introduced them to my Spanish friends and were all having a blast dancing and carrying on. No one was expecting it when Jenn started to do the Robot on the dance floor and I followed suit. I mean we already stand out being tall and Jenn has bazzooms that has been making the folks in China break there necks to get a look at, and now here we were doing the ROBOT. The ROBOT of all possible dances. It was a sight. People came up to me after saying how cool it was. I promise you we did not plan it.

Friday night we went to Li's Family Restaurant. The Li family, so the story goes, has the distinction of cooking for the Emperors of China. The family recipes have been handed down and a restaurant opening in the Huotong area of Houhai lake. Don't know if the story is true but this is where we went to dinner on Friday. The menu consist of make a choice of a complete menu ranging in prices from 230 rmbs to 3100 rmbs. We chose the menu that was 300 rmb or around $45 dollars and had 15 small dishes and 6 or 7 large dishes. The food was ridiculously incredibly delicious. No partying this night, we just went back to their hotel room and had some wine and beer and talked since they were leaving the next day. It's been a really good visit. I'm glad they were able to make it over to see Dorothy (Jenn's mom) and me. It was really good having a slice of the big apple in the rice bowl. (I hope that doesn't sound offensive.)

Take it easy folks. - Wil