Yesterday was a long day, considerably more so for the others, who true to their word went on a 20 mile trek around the city.
I arranged to meet them at five fountains terminus in order for us to have lunch at the Japanese restaurant. By now the other three must have been gagging for a cold beer and I was quietly confident we would not be disappointed because the Brothers Boat eatery always has cold beer. Somehow, despite my climbing the stairs and scanning constantly for over half an hour to spot their approach, they managed to sneak in using a moving bus as cover, climbed the stairs up to the next level and then called me to ask where I was! We took a bus to my teaching campus and Steve declared it was the first bus he had taken in China!
Jokingly, as we neared the restaurant, I said I hoped it wasn’t closed for lunch. It wasn’t but to our collective disgust they had no cold beer! With the time approaching 1430 nobody could be bothered going off in search of iced refreshment so we resigned ourselves to using ice to cool our drinks. Then came the bombshell. They told Shona (being from Taiwan she speaks the language) we needed to order quickly as the kitchen was closing in five minutes! That did it for Steve, come on, we’re out of here. They lost what would probably have been a 600-700y sale.
Out we trooped, passing an ice bucket with four beers in it as it went upstairs for us (I can guess what the waitress thought) and we strode off to find a taxi to take us to a “bar” street. We found a bar called Charing Cross and they had plenty of beer. None in the fridge though! Being a bar area it wasn’t too difficult to find another, one that had cold cans and also, spotted by eagle-eyed Steve, draught chilled Hoegaarden weissbier.
A mini-barrel complete with tap was ordered (the first of three - maybe four - that were ultimately consumed) and it was pure nectar. At some point (no names) someone decided to stage a photo with the barrel atop my head, creating a bizarre scene of a pantomime Napoleonic hat. Earlier ill-feeling over the Japanese disappointment soon evaporated and the others started to look forward to visiting a night market. Steve wanted to buy some knickknacks for his staff, as he always does wherever he goes.
Well the night market was impressive and jam-packed with customers, except it was purely for food. Steve never got his souvenirs and none of us had any lunch or dinner. The others had some snacks from the food stalls - “manto” with pork and vegetables, barbecued chicken wings and legs etc and of course a warm beer but from a street stall we weren’t expecting anything else. The array of food on offer was impressive, ranging from chicken skewers to sheep heads to large crabs and prawns. For my part I simply wasn’t hungry at the time and accordingly ended up eating nothing the entire day. I may have lost weight.
Having tarried for half an hour, the itchy feet constantly displayed by my visitors (who showed me more of where I live than in two days than I have seen myself in 8 months!) it was off on the hoof to pastures new. We chanced upon a bar with outside tables and cold beer along with a live singer and band. Very pleasant and the time flew by. It wasn’t far off midnight when Steve declared a halt and everyone left. They went off walking whilst I approached a taxi. Jens shouted to me to ask if I was not walking back with them? It’s only 7km he said. ONLY????? I am meeting Steve at the hotel at 1400, his flight is 2000 but Shona and Jens took off at 1000. It would not surprise me in the slightest if he informs me they walked the 30 miles to the airport this morning!
One very useful fact I learnt was that taking Spring Airlines rather than a mainstream carrier would be a bonus. Spring are the Chinese equivalent of EasyJet or RyanAir and by all accounts the stewardesses parade up and down the plane in flight selling gadgets and trinkets. More importantly, you can buy cold ale in flight for 10y a throw. Thirty or forty yuan on beer is a damned sight better than spending 800y to fly first class just to get a drink!
With luck I shall be a guest in their city in a couple of months. It was with regret I learnt Casey’s has closed, the owner now resides in Thailand I think but Heidi’s is still there and of course there will be no issue with warm lager………….
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