Hangzhou Continental Hotel
I read in Time magazine a while back an article about how China was slowly weaning itself onto this new-fangled thing called the 'internet'. Of course, there would be limitations [I hope you understand what I'm saying, and realise that I'm scared... I'm scared of being woken up tonight by the sound of the secret police crashing my door down and dragging me out of bed to take me to the Ministry of Love, or something along those lines, if I am any more specific in saying what I'm thinking... you know? Comment if you don't understand, and I possibly can reply an explanation in more peaceful circumstances...], so I find I can't load this website, advarp, or Barbara, or whatever you or I want to call it. I find I can't load anybody else's blog, either. However, I am able to log into the account, albeit in what appears to be the Spanish version of the site, to post these thoughts. And, hopefully, they will make it out of this country.
Tonight, I'm staying in room 706 of the above hotel. Can I say that I haven't ever experienced such luxury. Will be leaving for God knows where tomorrow, so you'll have to wait until I have a semi-permanent residence in Hong Kong in a couple of days before you can contact me. I hate tours.
I'm going to see if my 200 yuan will stretch to a Martini [or a glass of Moet] in the hotel bar before midnight. My sister, the bore, is asleep already. Look at me, drinking alone [Does God count as a person?].
It's cold here.
Oh, look, it's 2006 in Sydney. Happy.
Do you understand? I'm bored. I'm getting sick of my parents, my sister. Stuff isn't happening; I'm tired. And I'm just thinking of all the fun I'm missing out on, at this moment, in Sydney.
No, it isn't that bad. In fact, it's pretty good. I'm not in Sydney! I'm in China!
For a split second, I considered taking advantage of the hotel pool, but remembered I didn't pack my swimmers for this leg of the trip, due to the fact that it would be, and is, very cold outside.
posted by Martin at 01:15
2 comments
2 Comments:
Don't worry, at least you aren't in Room 101. Now that, would be a little bit scary.
Or should I say "weren't"? It's the eighth day of January and suddenly I seem to have forgotten how to spell "eighth". It looks right, on screen...
So you must be back! Welcome home, soldier. I have Leica photos to show you. Will post them up on Flickr - some are a bit blah, but I'm telling myself these are practice rolls....
CLA, note that I managed to make it home without resorting to telling any older [or, in fact, larger] siblings that I love them.
So, could you afford that martini?
And, a beer, plus tip [I keep forgetting that it is most customary to give them more money than is 'required', hiding behind the 'poor student' rank for too long]. Too bad they don't know what a martini is on the mainland. Maybe it wasn't worth the tip, after it all.
What other mischief did you get up to?
I went to a bunch of places. I felt rather at home in Hong Kong. We stayed in the dingiest hotel on Nathan Road of the peninsula, facing an enormous portrait of Jackie Chan.
Bought a bunch of stuff. I dunno, I did stuff, it was fun to be in other countries. I keep forgetting that I look Chinese, and get annoyed when someone comes up to me and talks to me in this gibberish language.
I took photos. Hope to share them with you soon. They're slides, so if i can get my hands on an actual projector, I might have a slideshow [work has one...]. Fuck it, just upload them.
It was weird, but everything I did reminded me of something in Seinfeld.
Good to be home.
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