January 28th: Chengdu underground shopping
[ posted by mcdeviltoast ]
Day 134
Woke and set out to get some shopping done. Found a place to have coffee on the fifth floor of a downtown mall,a ritzier UBC with damn fine coffee. Mike accidentally burned a chair with his cigarette and he sat in it to conceal it, pretending to watch a fashion show that was preparing to start.
A busboy came over and asked if he could practice English with us, pointed out words like "complimentary" and "unusually" and worked through the pronunciation. It's odd being an expert at something and being sought out for our expertise wherever we may be. It's as embarrassing as it is flattering. The boy grinned widely, thanked us for our help. We left before someone noticed the scarred chair fabric and made our way to Pizza Hut. We figured a lot of bread and cheese would block us up, ease the symptoms of the Satanically spicy huo guo the previous night. I met a Brit named Andy in the WC and we chatted briefly about American vote fraud, China and such.
Mike and I still searching for our elusive outdoor free market, stumbled onto a long underground market just by trying to get to the other side of the street. A great deal of gifts were procured. After a beer in an odd bar at the far side of market corridor, we returned above ground, wandered around trying to get our bearings, but ended up more lost.
The daylight, which earlier was barely enough to get a photo of Darby with a Mao statue, was rapidly evaporating. Male pride swallowed, we boarded a taxi who took us in the opposite direction and got us back. We ventured out later for some KFC (guts still reeling from huo guo) then called it a night.
Woke and set out to get some shopping done. Found a place to have coffee on the fifth floor of a downtown mall,a ritzier UBC with damn fine coffee. Mike accidentally burned a chair with his cigarette and he sat in it to conceal it, pretending to watch a fashion show that was preparing to start.
A busboy came over and asked if he could practice English with us, pointed out words like "complimentary" and "unusually" and worked through the pronunciation. It's odd being an expert at something and being sought out for our expertise wherever we may be. It's as embarrassing as it is flattering. The boy grinned widely, thanked us for our help. We left before someone noticed the scarred chair fabric and made our way to Pizza Hut. We figured a lot of bread and cheese would block us up, ease the symptoms of the Satanically spicy huo guo the previous night. I met a Brit named Andy in the WC and we chatted briefly about American vote fraud, China and such.
Mike and I still searching for our elusive outdoor free market, stumbled onto a long underground market just by trying to get to the other side of the street. A great deal of gifts were procured. After a beer in an odd bar at the far side of market corridor, we returned above ground, wandered around trying to get our bearings, but ended up more lost.
The daylight, which earlier was barely enough to get a photo of Darby with a Mao statue, was rapidly evaporating. Male pride swallowed, we boarded a taxi who took us in the opposite direction and got us back. We ventured out later for some KFC (guts still reeling from huo guo) then called it a night.
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[ posted by mcdeviltoast @ 1/28/2005 04:20:00 AM ]
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The dumbtronica act Montana & McDeviltoast, along with their friends, keep each other updated on their activities. Much fun having by all, and Pockys fear for their lives!