Kenny Rogers Roaster
Xi'an, China
Postscript on Beijing, which I left today for Xi'an:
Last night I decided to sample what passes for nightlife in Beijing. Getting out there was a chore, the cab drivers in Beijing, as in many parts of Asia that I've visited, either don't know where a damn thing is or try to scam you if you're Western, which makes for a nasty combination. The guy who drove me to the bar district, which I colorfully described to him in Spanish ("Bar! Cerveza! Borracho!"), since he wasn't going to understand anyway, inexplicably dropped me off several blocks away, which is odd considering that the bar district is denoted with a 20 foot tall beer mug on the street corner. Technically, he did drop me off close to one bar, the aptly named "Music Bar Sport Restaurant", which promised "Nordic Style Cuisine Eating" - which gave me a mental image of some Asiatic Thor figure smashing up dim sum with a war hammer - regardless I passed on that.
The acutal bar district is a joke. It's just a row of cookie cutter pseudo-American style places, all with awful chinese bands, expensive (for China) budweiser & food, and acres of empty tables. The establishement that I patronized was particularly happy to have an actual american as they proudly positioned me in the window seat, and they were crestfallen when I declined their offer of American style popcorn (served in the microwaveable bag).
The exterior of the street is even worse, as pimp like figures offer you "pretty girl bar massage 100 yuan" Obviously, that sounds like hot concubine action on offer, but with the lengths to which people will go to scam you, I'm guessing that even that offer is a scam of sorts. The thing was sort of like a bad Chinese knock-off of Bangkok - I mean how much open street hooker-ing can there be in a quasi-totalitarian police state? Not much I bet. But anyway I didn't stick around to find out. The whole thing was only the second most ridiculous thing I saw that day however, with the first being the Chinese Miltary Museum (FYI, Mao won WWII, in case you didn't know)
So now I'm in Xi'an, aside from a Kafka-esque experience of being ferried around town (in omnipresent 40c weather) in search of mythical train tickets to Lanzhou -- where I actually don't even want to go, it's just on the way west -- I settled for the less mythical and slightly pricier option of flying - which was had its own Kafka-esque sequences (I had to sit in three different chairs - the ticket booking chair, the hotel booking chair, and the change -getting chair - mind you, this is a small 10x10 foot office with three desks and three chairs).
Postscript on Beijing, which I left today for Xi'an:
Last night I decided to sample what passes for nightlife in Beijing. Getting out there was a chore, the cab drivers in Beijing, as in many parts of Asia that I've visited, either don't know where a damn thing is or try to scam you if you're Western, which makes for a nasty combination. The guy who drove me to the bar district, which I colorfully described to him in Spanish ("Bar! Cerveza! Borracho!"), since he wasn't going to understand anyway, inexplicably dropped me off several blocks away, which is odd considering that the bar district is denoted with a 20 foot tall beer mug on the street corner. Technically, he did drop me off close to one bar, the aptly named "Music Bar Sport Restaurant", which promised "Nordic Style Cuisine Eating" - which gave me a mental image of some Asiatic Thor figure smashing up dim sum with a war hammer - regardless I passed on that.
The acutal bar district is a joke. It's just a row of cookie cutter pseudo-American style places, all with awful chinese bands, expensive (for China) budweiser & food, and acres of empty tables. The establishement that I patronized was particularly happy to have an actual american as they proudly positioned me in the window seat, and they were crestfallen when I declined their offer of American style popcorn (served in the microwaveable bag).
The exterior of the street is even worse, as pimp like figures offer you "pretty girl bar massage 100 yuan" Obviously, that sounds like hot concubine action on offer, but with the lengths to which people will go to scam you, I'm guessing that even that offer is a scam of sorts. The thing was sort of like a bad Chinese knock-off of Bangkok - I mean how much open street hooker-ing can there be in a quasi-totalitarian police state? Not much I bet. But anyway I didn't stick around to find out. The whole thing was only the second most ridiculous thing I saw that day however, with the first being the Chinese Miltary Museum (FYI, Mao won WWII, in case you didn't know)
So now I'm in Xi'an, aside from a Kafka-esque experience of being ferried around town (in omnipresent 40c weather) in search of mythical train tickets to Lanzhou -- where I actually don't even want to go, it's just on the way west -- I settled for the less mythical and slightly pricier option of flying - which was had its own Kafka-esque sequences (I had to sit in three different chairs - the ticket booking chair, the hotel booking chair, and the change -getting chair - mind you, this is a small 10x10 foot office with three desks and three chairs).
posted by Miguel V | 5:20 PM
4 Comments:
Oh the ancient and honorable 'chair' system. The primary advantage being at least you know where you stand...I mean, sit.
You should have gone for the Nordic Cuisine. I bet they make a mean Swedish meatball-type thingy.
hey bro next time a pimp comes up to hassle you just shove some muy thai in his face. love kate
Olá,
I had access its blog, when it consisted of the panel.
Amused its trip!
When it will have time, has access mine blog of messages.
Bye,
Mara
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