June 16, 2011
*Throughout the journal comments made in real time, while on the ground in China, are designated in italics. Everything else was written after returning. Side notes are random thoughts I had that do now particularly fit in anywhere.
We had two company visits, to Ogilvy & Mather and Peking University.O&M was a great presentation. I did everything I could not to fall asleep during Prof. Zhao’s lecture. He seemed like a nice man.
Lunch was alright, except the tiny tables, and pickled chicken feet in a bowl.
Waiting around outside of the back of the University took quite awhile as well. Making us late to get back before the Kung Fu Show. As for the Kung Fu Show, it was easily my least favorite part of the trip. Where the acrobatics were entertaining and fun, the Kung Fu show was too over rehearsed and just felt forced, not to mention there wasn’t one actual Chinese tourist in the building, leading me to believe that there is nothing genuine about it. The best part of my night was sitting in the lobby have a couple glasses of wine, catching up on emails, and talking to everyone on the trip as they walked through. It was a very pleasant evening.
June 17, 2011
Two presentation for the day: ABB and Airbus. The first was entirely more interesting than an presentation about converters should have been and the second was a sh*t show. Here are my notes from both.
About a week after we got back from the trip there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about how the government in China was gumming up the works of Airbus’s A380. I’d imagine if Mr. Lim had known something about that than his life would have been very difficult and he wouldn’t have been the most pleasant person to be around. His presentation was still a joke, but maybe that explains the attitude.
When we finally got back from presentations and had several hours left before we were getting picked up at 9pm.
So a bunch of us went out and ate scorpion. It tasted very similar to a thick potato chip. I also had some octopus and squid, which was good too. We wandered around for awhile. I did my all of my shopping, which I hadn’t bought a thing up until that point. Lady vendors tried to drag me to the stall with had all the same crap as the woman next to them. It was good though. After awhile we stopped at an outdoor cafe on the concourse and had a couple of beers as we watched Chinese people watching us. It was so nice out. We all agreed we were hungry so Chris M., James, Jose, and myself we to Pizza Hut to have some grease food to coat the stomach before going out for the evening. The bus arrived at 9pm and we were off to the races.
I met a Chinese man name Mike, he promised us Karaoke, but there was no Karaoke. Just three people on stage singing an international variety of hits. The male vocalist in the band had a rat tail.
I’m getting ahead of myself. Caitlin had an idea after our first night in Beijing, seeing as how we couldn’t get a cab to Houhai because the fair wasn’t as large as the cab drivers wanted, we weren’t sure how the rest of the week would go. After a few beers at Molly Malones we decided to ask Isabella about renting out the bus for a night so we wouldn’t have to worry about transportation. We decided on Friday – it only turned out to be ¥300… ¥20 per person… for our own bus. Awesome!
Armed with some recommendations from the woman at O&M we were ready for a night out, Hangover style. I fully expected to be a wounded pup on Saturday morning w/ my delusions of grandeur. I’m anything if not ambitions when it comes to partying.
Our first stop was the Workers Stadium. A bar district built into an old stadium. We were looking for a place called Fubar. Unfortuneately we never found it. It was supposed to be a speak easy, it may have actually been there, but we never got to it. Instead we, well some of us anyways, went to a place called George’s. There were only a few people there, but it was good. Only a few of us stayed there for more than one drink. We finished quickly because the bus was leaving at 10:30 to take us to the next place, a stretch of bars along a single road. I cannot recall the name. Everyone got back to the bus except Lacey and Jakeria. Luckily I spotted them rounding a corner and we stopped the bus to get them.
This street is where we met Mike. He said he could offer us good deals on drinks. “Well alright” we thought. Plue he swore up and down there would be karaoke. Mike lied… about everything. We ordered several round of beer. Some folks got a huka. When the bill came Mike has screwed us, but Caitlin got him to throw another round on the house. We drank those and headed out.
Several folks ran off to pursue this or that, but a bunch of us stuck together. We hit another two or three places before we headed back to the first bar. It was right next to the cab stand. We ordered another round, had a bathroom break and sure enough everyone else started rolling in. Karaoke never came. Pretty soon everyone started to feel a bit tired and we thought we’d call it a night.
We hit the cab line and no one was willing to take us home. When we had been dropped off the bus driver went home because he was picking us back up the next day. The cab drivers started point towards the motorized rickshaws. Seeing has how most of us were thinking through an alcoholic haze, this seemed like a good idea.
Marlon, James, Caitlin, and I took two motorized rickshaws all the way back to the hotel. It might have been the greatest idea we ever had in China. The weather was beautiful and the streets were empty. It was amazing.
We had agreed on ¥50 for the ride, but the poor old guys had busted their asses getting us back to the Novotel. So Caitlin handed him ¥100. That wasn’t good enough though. He actually started following me back into the hotel. So I reached in an gave him whatever I had loose in my pocket. That seemed to satisfy him. Our driver and he friend pedaled off into the night. Everybody else got back and we headed over to the 24hour McD’s. Jose spilled my drink… Sarah disappeared… we left without her. I crawled into bed and fell into a deep sleep. When I got up the next morning at 7:45am I felt great. I am a freak of nature when I travel.
