March 22, 2005
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…back on the road again…
…five hours later, and I’m in…TOKYO!!!
Yup, one quiz, one all-nighter paper, and one losing battle with a cold, and I’m finally back in Japan! The last time I was here was with my whole family when we had just left the refugee camp in Thailand, ah memories. Speaking of which, I have lots from just this past weekend alone…
My friend, John, came to visit me for the week, and so the vacation began, or shall I say debauchery…
He first introduced me to Hong Kong a year ago, and is thus responsible for me studying abroad here now. Anyhow, he got in on Thursday night and we totally went out to Lan Kwai Fon to meet up with some of my friends even though it was already some 2am. We didn’t get back in until 5am or so, and there was still lots to do on Friday. We spent most of Friday shopping at Kowloon Tong, then went out for the evening, again, to Lan Kwai Fong. We actually went to Propaganda this time, and the music was actually a little better, although still quite crappy. I miss the US clubs, actually, just the music. Anyhow, the scene hadn’t changed much since the last time I went a couple of months ago. Hong Kong guys are still playing stupid cat and mouse games and I’ve grown accustomed to it I suppose. I met this one guy there though and we started up a conversation, but of course, he wasn’t a local. Leave it to me to attract non-locals in a club full of locals! Ugh! Anyhow, the guy had a really fobby Thai accent, and really could’t speak much English, and I couldn’t speak any Thai, so that evening’s conversation consisted of assumptions of what the other person was saying. Needless to say, the interaction went nowhere. Note to self: quit going after foreigners and find a good local!
We left for Guangzhou on Saturday, and both of us were absolutely dead tired from clubbing the evening before. Guangzhou was a trip though! We stayed at the Guangzhou Youth Hostel in Shamian, where all the expatriates were at. It was pretty nice, and the weather was wonderful there. I actually felt the sun! After crashing the moment we checked in, we decided to explore the scene in Guangzhou, assuming that there was one. Stephen referred us to this place called Rich Club and I was pleasantly surprised at how lively it was there. John was, of course, the only white guy there, and there was very little to no English to be heard there. I immediately noticed that mainland guys are much cuter than the Hong Kong bois I had been seeing though. Most of them were taller, had better hair styles, and were definitely more outgoing and extroverted than the typical Hong Kong boi. This is both a good and bad thing as I’ll explain later. This night, alone, wound up being one of the most intense experiences I’ve ever had…
When we got into the club, we were fortunate enough to meet a local who actually spoke some English. His name was Winfield, and he would definitely prove useful later. Anyhow, I’ll skip the long drawn out description of the whole evening and highlight some of the more interesting incidents and epiphanies that happened that night…
So as usual, John went out on his search for a boi, and left me to seek out a boi for myself. I still have to work on this though, I’m just not aggressive enough. I did find out the hard way that mainland guys are incredibly aggressive though. I got hit on by several guys that night, all of whom thought they owned me. The first guy asked me to dance, and I said ok. Merely two seconds after that, he was all up on my neck and pulling me closer into him. He was pushing himself onto me so much that I was leaning back and falling into other people as I was yelling “Bu yao!” The guy asked me why I was afraid of him and I told him that I wasn’t afraid of him, but that I simply didn’t like him. Anyhow, the next couple of guys were kind of the same thing, except not quite as aggressive as the first. There was one that just couldn’t take a hint though. I would walk to another side of the room and sit elsewhere, and the guy would follow, repeatedly! Ugh, take a hint buddy! So after a fair amount of this and waiting around for John for about an hour or so, I decided that I wanted to go home. John had left the club with some guy, and I wasn’t sure when he’d be back, but I figured he’d know how to find his way back to the hostel since he had stayed there before. Anyhow, so as I’m trying to figure out how to get back, I come to the realization that I don’t know how to get back to the hostel. I don’t know how to say the name in either Mandarin or Cantonese, and I definitely don’t know the directions as to how to get there either. Shit, I was stranded. This is the moment when I had my second intense moment of the evening…
So picture this: I look Chinese, although most have guessed Japanese or Korean first, but I’m not completely fluent in either of the main languages–Mandarin or Cantonese. I can get by, but I have to switch between the two because my vocabulary in each is so limited. So I’m standing in the lobby waiting for John to come down because I figure that he has to come down at one point or another, when the guard starts yelling at me and telling me that I can’t loiter in the building. I try to tell him that I’m waiting for a friend and that I don’t know how to get home. He starts yelling at me some more. I tell him that I’m an American and I can’t really understand or speak Chinese. He starts yelling at me more rapidly in Mandarin, saying that it’s impossible to be Chinese and not be able to speak Chinese. Shit, I can understand what he’s saying, but it’s so damn frustrating because I can’t really respond. Ugh, anyhow, after a couple moments of me staring blankly at him, he finally believes me and says he’ll try to help me. Right at the moment though, Winfield came down and I just asked him to help me get home. Thank goodness he was there, he and his friend stuck around with me trying to get a hold of John, and trying to get me to the hostel. It took us another half hour before John finally showed up, and we were finally able to go back to the hostel. At that point, I was just so tired and fed up with the whole night, all I wanted to do was get into bed and sleep. Winfield and his friend decided to go with us in the taxi so they could explain the directions to the guy though, and of course, after a long night of clubbing, they were hungry. Once we got to the hostel, we decided to treat them to a late night dinner to thank them, but on the way, this retarded guy totally proved why smoking is stupid! I was walking right past him on the sidewalk and I know he saw me, but he decided to push forward regardless, as if he was going to be able to walk through me or something. Anyhow, as he did that, I guess he must have forgotten that he had his cigarette in his hand because he burned the damn thing straight into my arm! WTF?! ARE YA BLIND, STUPID, OR BOTH?!?! This was not my night! After much walking and no food to be found–not surprising since it was like 3:30am, we decided to give up on the food and just head to bed. Once we got into the room though, John explained why he was gone…
He had met a local boi who had expressed interest and they decided to take a walk outside of the club together. Not smart. Some time during their walk, the local boi demands that John give him money. He supposedly holds onto his shirt and has John’s fingers spread out ready to be broken. Hmm, not good. He demands the money again. At this point, I’m getting impatient with John and I borrow Winfield’s cell to call him up. When he picks up, he’s supposedly struggling with the guy, but he doesn’t tell me or ask me to get help. Um, maybe he can’t think clearly because of what’s happening. At this point, let me just point out that the local was half the size of John and unarmed–of course you could never tell if he was armed or not though. In any event, John opens up his wallet and eventually gives him 1000 RMB before the kid takes off in the other direction. So some insight after the fact; first moral of this story, don’t think with the wrong head. Second moral of this story, screw being polite, when your life is threatened, kick ‘em in the crotch and run like a bat out of hell! Third moral of this story, face-saving rules do NOT apply when your life is threatened. And so the night finally ends…
I’ll continue the next day’s adventures later, it’s 3:30am now. Time to get some much needed rest!
