A Fascinating Holiday

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Trip Start Nov 29, 2008 Previous
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  Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Monday, December 1, 2008

Youch. The light's bright today. I'm in the A+ hostel now, after a one-night stint at the Haihua Manlong Resort. I'm in 309 and Al and Kitty are in 210. I'm alone, thank God. I was quite drunk last night and full of holiday cheer. Anything could have happened.
 
We may have moved to less expensive accommodations after the wedding, but my room is funky and comfortable. The floors are hardwood. There's a gold runner across the end of the bed. Nice touch. I like the bathroom sink, a blue and white porcelain bowl. It's like splashing my face in a giant teacup.
 
Outside my window, a phalanx of bicyclists go by. Hangzhou morning rush hour. 
 
Last night I made up for missing the wedding. Sort of. The remaining wedding party--Al, Kitty, a couple of other journos, Barclay and Peter, and I--went to the Banana Leaf restaurant and had our fill of southeast Asian cuisine (nothing new for me there) and a few Tsing Tao beers while a Filipino band wandered between the tables playing cover tunes on request.
 
I didn't know that Al could sing. He wouldn't win an Idol contest but he can hold a tune and play guitar. He borrowed one with a sticker of a muscle-bound Garfield on it and sang White Wedding.

Ever the entertainer, Al amused us with excerpts from Hangzhou's English-language travel guide. "'Travel around West Lake, remain in a tea house, enjoy foot bath and taste delicious cuisine........ What a fascinating holiday!' Honestly, I mean there's no shortage of adjectives in this thing."  
 
We went to a bar called Night and Day for a few. Hangzhou has a lively nightlife. The road around West Lake is ringed with restaurants, bars and cafes where expats mingle with the locals. I've noticed the mingling is mainly between expat men and local girls. Always up for bucking a trend, I ended up at a table of Chinese partygoers for a while, and now my visage remains happily embedded in their mobile phones. At the other tables, the locals played drinking games, filling the bar with the enthusiastic rattle of dice.
 
Our friend Russ, who returned to Hong Kong yesterday, recommended a bar named Koko's. He said it's the kind of place where posing is minimal and everyone's there to have a great time. Al and Kitty booked off early to enjoy their wedding night. Barclay, Peter and I piled into a cab to find Koko's, but when we arrived it was closed (it was, after all, 2 am) so we ended up in this strange place nearby where clearly a party had gone on but now all that remained was a man shouting at his employees in Mandarin as they sat respectfully, heads bowed, hanging on to every angry word. Big balls of rosettes hung from the ceiling. A stage was set up with rose petals strewn over it. A stone carving of a naked woman stood next to the bar. We sipped our beers and watched the scene, getting off our heads. 
 
The rest is fuzzy, though I did find my way back to the A+ in a taxi without the benefit of having the hostel's business card or its name written in Chinese characters. I also managed to have a tipple of the Chivas that was in my backpack before I hunkered under the green comforter, still unused to the winter cold after so many months in the tropics.
 
Somewhat revived from my morning shower, I head down to the lobby to meet Al. Kitty has already gone to her parents' house down the street for some pre-honeymoon errands. They plan to take the next three months off to travel around Asia, and will be coming to Sumatra to visit me in February. But first we are going to spend the day together and go for a walk around West Lake.
 
In the lobby, Al grabs a guitar propped up by the couch. At the wedding reception he had sung the theme song to the Mary Tyler Moore Show for Kitty. Everyone's been talking about it. He sings it again for me, I think so that maybe I won't feel so bad about missing it. That's the thing about Al. He's a really good guy. He's the one who has kept our journalism classmates in touch over the years, when we could have so easily drifted apart.
 
You can turn the world on with a smile.   
You can take a nothing day
And suddenly make it all seem worthwhile.
Well it's you girl and you should know it.
With each glance and every little movement you show it.
Love is all around, no need to waste it
You can have it all, why don't you take it
You're gonna make it after all.

(Musical interlude)

You're gonna make it after all.

Hats off to him.
 
***
 
TIP: If you don't know Mandarin, ask someone who does to write out your destination in Chinese characters. When you show it to your taxi driver, his face will alight with understanding, and you're off. It's also helpful when asking people for directions.

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