9/27/2006 China Day 2: Urumqi, Xinjiang - Uighur Women Are Hot!!
because they all look like Elif! Sorry for those of you who don't know Elif - you are very unlucky.
Uighurs are the original inhabitants of Xinjiang before the Han Chinese seized control in the late 1860s. They came from Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and other regions, and their faces are a mix of central Asian and Chinese features. Very sexy. This is what i see in Elif, even though she is Turkish.
Today, I woke up at 6 AM, did some pushups, and ate an American breakfast (16 RMB) at the hotel. At breakfast, I sat with Jo, an English girl finishing up her travels in China. She likes nature and traveling off the beaten path like me. Coincidentally, she traveled to the same 2 places where I'm starting my journey - Xinjiang province and Tibet. She gave me some tips and told me about her adventures hitching through Xinjiang and Tibet.
Jo's entering her 4th year of college in England. She's studying Sports Engineering. I didn't know what that was, so I asked her. She told me that she's studying to create new types of sports equipment. She visited China this year during her summer break. She loves Asia for its cultural differences and inexpensiveness. She's already visited Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and more, and she'd like to come back to visit India soon.
Jo also told me about a Japanese guy she met who rode his bike across Japan and China. He was headed through Tibet, Nepal, and India. Awesome!
So after breakfast, I caught a cab (14 RMB) to the airport bus (16 RMB). Once I was on the bus though, I realized I forgot to return my keys to the Beijing hostel for my 50 RMB deposit. So once I got to the airport, I bought an envelope (1 jiao = 0.1 RMB) and asked a stranger to address the envelope for me back to the hostel. The stamp cost 1 RMB, but I have no idea if the envelope will arrive and I'll get my $6.25 deposit back :-).
On the 4 hour flight to Urumqi, I met a couple of government workers going to visit Xinjiang province with a few of their coworkers. The youngest one had been to Tibet a few year previous, so he gave me a few tips. We also talked about music some, and I let them listen to some African hip-hop and some psytrance on my iPod.
I mad the mistake of not having my lodging for the night picked out before arriving at Urumqi - that is to say, I didn't know where the local Hostelling International (HI) hotel was in Urumqi. I had such a good experience with the HI hostel in Beijing that I'll try to stay in the HI hotels in any city I visit where they have one. In this case, I decided to try one of the non-HI hostels recommended by Lonely Planet.
Although the guide book indicated that this and other nearby hostels were near the train station, it neglected to mention how forlorn the area was. It was well-removed from the center of town, and there didn't seem to be any restaurants, convenience stores, or anything else to do. Nevertheless, I took a look at the recommended hostel. But it was a rip-off. 80 RMB for a dorm style bed (which was otherwise fine) but it was in a shitty part of town and no shower was provided! I wasn't going to pay 20 RMB more in Urumqi for way worse accommodations than in Beijing.
This is for Jake
So I took a Taxi to a real hotel recommended by the guide book. The good thing about real hotels versus hostels is that you get hookers calling you from check-in and through all hours of the night asking if you want a massage. Here is what you can get for $25 U.S.:
So on my way up to my room (160 RMB), I share the elevator with this provocatively (by Chinese standards) dressed woman. I think, hrm, that's strange, I've never seen such a provocatively dressed Chinese woman. Maybe she's Westernized, or is going dancing tonight. I smile at her (why not?) and she turns away and giggles.
Later, while walking back and forth from the front desk, I see her again from a bit of a distance. After I get to my room, the phone rings. I am intrigued, since I know no one in China, and no one significant to me in the world knows my exact whereabouts. I pick up the phone, and it is her.
"Do you want a massage?" she asks in Chinese. Hrm, I know where this goes. I say no, I am going out (for dinner and to arrange tomorrow's excursion). She persists and says, "Then why did you look at me that way before?" I see she is in her element here, playing the sly fox.
I tell her because she is pretty (well, sort of) and she tells me I am pretty cute too, and are all American boys as cute? I say no, truthfully, thinking of Jake.
So I invite her up to my room for a 50 RMB ($6.25) massage. This would have been a great deal, if only she knew anything about massage. As it were, however, it was the worst, most useless massage of my life. She obviously didn't graduate from a very prestigious school of massage.
That's OK. I learned some new words, like "hang out" and "make love". She was actually embarassed to have to explain to an adult the meaning of the latter. I asked her how much and she said 300 RMB. I said no, so she said, OK, 200 RMB ($25)? I didn't bother bargaining further because I really wasn't interested.
However, I did find out how the trade works. The prostitutes either work directly for the hotels, or in close association - I don't know which. For each massage, the house keeps 30 RMB, and she keeps the rest. For sex, the house keeps 100 RMB. After an hour, her boss called up to say time was up. I paid her her 50 RMB and she left.
Well, it almost happened like that. Right before she left, she noticed the white, leaf-decorated journal that Arti gave me for this trip. At the time, it was still empty because I wrote my first journal entry directly into my blog. She said she wanted it, would I give it to her? I said I couldn't because a very dear friend had given it to me. Nevertheless, for the next 10 minutes, she tried to cajole me into giving it to her. Finally, I had to forcefully remove it from her hands. For the rest of the night, I was left with a profound sadness for this person's immaturity and lot in life.
At this point, it was 8 PM and I got ready to go out to eat dinner. It was too late now to make arrangements to go to Kanas Lake, as I had originally planned. That's OK, because my alternate plan was to hike the nearby and more easily accessible Tian Chi. There, I might meet some other travellers interested in sharing a taxi to the more distant Kanas Lake afterwards. So I just went to the Wuyi night market for dinner.
Even in the taxi on the way to the Wuyi night market, I was already feeling so tired that I felt like I could easily sleep without eating. But another side of me knew I was leaving at 9 or 9:30 AM the next morning for Tian Chi, and if I didn't eat both the evening and morning before, things would turn out very badly. So I got out at the night market and looked for something to eat.
I first tried to find a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet. I walked around trying to find the right streets, asking people for help, and comparing Chinese characters to try to find this restaurant for over 1 hour! It was really hard for me to keep looking for this place beacuse I was really tired and hungry, and there was so much delicious kebabs and other food all around in the night market! I persisted because I didn't want to eat kebabs every night. I wanted to try something different. Finally, I found someone who knew that the restaurant had closed up shop some months ago. Argh!
So if there's one thing I learned, it's that it's fucking hard to find something specific if you can't fucking read. :-(
So yeah, I broke down and had kebabs again. They were delicious, but I ordered too much food. I had pork ribs, beef, fish, eggplant, mushrooms, and a beer (65 RMB). It was a little lonely eating alone, though.
Took a taxi (8 RMB) home and crashed at 11 PM. Goodnight, Fluid People.
Uighurs are the original inhabitants of Xinjiang before the Han Chinese seized control in the late 1860s. They came from Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and other regions, and their faces are a mix of central Asian and Chinese features. Very sexy. This is what i see in Elif, even though she is Turkish.
Today, I woke up at 6 AM, did some pushups, and ate an American breakfast (16 RMB) at the hotel. At breakfast, I sat with Jo, an English girl finishing up her travels in China. She likes nature and traveling off the beaten path like me. Coincidentally, she traveled to the same 2 places where I'm starting my journey - Xinjiang province and Tibet. She gave me some tips and told me about her adventures hitching through Xinjiang and Tibet.
Jo's entering her 4th year of college in England. She's studying Sports Engineering. I didn't know what that was, so I asked her. She told me that she's studying to create new types of sports equipment. She visited China this year during her summer break. She loves Asia for its cultural differences and inexpensiveness. She's already visited Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and more, and she'd like to come back to visit India soon.
Jo also told me about a Japanese guy she met who rode his bike across Japan and China. He was headed through Tibet, Nepal, and India. Awesome!
So after breakfast, I caught a cab (14 RMB) to the airport bus (16 RMB). Once I was on the bus though, I realized I forgot to return my keys to the Beijing hostel for my 50 RMB deposit. So once I got to the airport, I bought an envelope (1 jiao = 0.1 RMB) and asked a stranger to address the envelope for me back to the hostel. The stamp cost 1 RMB, but I have no idea if the envelope will arrive and I'll get my $6.25 deposit back :-).
On the 4 hour flight to Urumqi, I met a couple of government workers going to visit Xinjiang province with a few of their coworkers. The youngest one had been to Tibet a few year previous, so he gave me a few tips. We also talked about music some, and I let them listen to some African hip-hop and some psytrance on my iPod.
I mad the mistake of not having my lodging for the night picked out before arriving at Urumqi - that is to say, I didn't know where the local Hostelling International (HI) hotel was in Urumqi. I had such a good experience with the HI hostel in Beijing that I'll try to stay in the HI hotels in any city I visit where they have one. In this case, I decided to try one of the non-HI hostels recommended by Lonely Planet.
Although the guide book indicated that this and other nearby hostels were near the train station, it neglected to mention how forlorn the area was. It was well-removed from the center of town, and there didn't seem to be any restaurants, convenience stores, or anything else to do. Nevertheless, I took a look at the recommended hostel. But it was a rip-off. 80 RMB for a dorm style bed (which was otherwise fine) but it was in a shitty part of town and no shower was provided! I wasn't going to pay 20 RMB more in Urumqi for way worse accommodations than in Beijing.
This is for Jake
So I took a Taxi to a real hotel recommended by the guide book. The good thing about real hotels versus hostels is that you get hookers calling you from check-in and through all hours of the night asking if you want a massage. Here is what you can get for $25 U.S.:
So on my way up to my room (160 RMB), I share the elevator with this provocatively (by Chinese standards) dressed woman. I think, hrm, that's strange, I've never seen such a provocatively dressed Chinese woman. Maybe she's Westernized, or is going dancing tonight. I smile at her (why not?) and she turns away and giggles.
Later, while walking back and forth from the front desk, I see her again from a bit of a distance. After I get to my room, the phone rings. I am intrigued, since I know no one in China, and no one significant to me in the world knows my exact whereabouts. I pick up the phone, and it is her.
"Do you want a massage?" she asks in Chinese. Hrm, I know where this goes. I say no, I am going out (for dinner and to arrange tomorrow's excursion). She persists and says, "Then why did you look at me that way before?" I see she is in her element here, playing the sly fox.
I tell her because she is pretty (well, sort of) and she tells me I am pretty cute too, and are all American boys as cute? I say no, truthfully, thinking of Jake.
So I invite her up to my room for a 50 RMB ($6.25) massage. This would have been a great deal, if only she knew anything about massage. As it were, however, it was the worst, most useless massage of my life. She obviously didn't graduate from a very prestigious school of massage.
That's OK. I learned some new words, like "hang out" and "make love". She was actually embarassed to have to explain to an adult the meaning of the latter. I asked her how much and she said 300 RMB. I said no, so she said, OK, 200 RMB ($25)? I didn't bother bargaining further because I really wasn't interested.
However, I did find out how the trade works. The prostitutes either work directly for the hotels, or in close association - I don't know which. For each massage, the house keeps 30 RMB, and she keeps the rest. For sex, the house keeps 100 RMB. After an hour, her boss called up to say time was up. I paid her her 50 RMB and she left.
Well, it almost happened like that. Right before she left, she noticed the white, leaf-decorated journal that Arti gave me for this trip. At the time, it was still empty because I wrote my first journal entry directly into my blog. She said she wanted it, would I give it to her? I said I couldn't because a very dear friend had given it to me. Nevertheless, for the next 10 minutes, she tried to cajole me into giving it to her. Finally, I had to forcefully remove it from her hands. For the rest of the night, I was left with a profound sadness for this person's immaturity and lot in life.
At this point, it was 8 PM and I got ready to go out to eat dinner. It was too late now to make arrangements to go to Kanas Lake, as I had originally planned. That's OK, because my alternate plan was to hike the nearby and more easily accessible Tian Chi. There, I might meet some other travellers interested in sharing a taxi to the more distant Kanas Lake afterwards. So I just went to the Wuyi night market for dinner.
Even in the taxi on the way to the Wuyi night market, I was already feeling so tired that I felt like I could easily sleep without eating. But another side of me knew I was leaving at 9 or 9:30 AM the next morning for Tian Chi, and if I didn't eat both the evening and morning before, things would turn out very badly. So I got out at the night market and looked for something to eat.I first tried to find a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet. I walked around trying to find the right streets, asking people for help, and comparing Chinese characters to try to find this restaurant for over 1 hour! It was really hard for me to keep looking for this place beacuse I was really tired and hungry, and there was so much delicious kebabs and other food all around in the night market! I persisted because I didn't want to eat kebabs every night. I wanted to try something different. Finally, I found someone who knew that the restaurant had closed up shop some months ago. Argh!So if there's one thing I learned, it's that it's fucking hard to find something specific if you can't fucking read. :-(
So yeah, I broke down and had kebabs again. They were delicious, but I ordered too much food. I had pork ribs, beef, fish, eggplant, mushrooms, and a beer (65 RMB). It was a little lonely eating alone, though.Took a taxi (8 RMB) home and crashed at 11 PM. Goodnight, Fluid People.
posted by Coquin at 12:38 AM
4 Comments:
oh..... i wish i had given you both of mine. so she could have had one...
and i feel kind of sad for her, too.
and this is why I love RT.
http://eekshop.com
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