Helgens, Russians, and Old Friends pt.2
Now where were we? Ah yes. I just got back from Beijing. Two days later, I was on a plane to San Yan, in the Hainan province.
Hainan is basically the Hawaii of China. It has great beaches, an active night life, and caters to tourists quite nicely. You never forget you're in China, but this China has palm trees and Pina Coladas. The sand was warm, the water was refreshing, and the naked children...well, there was a lot of them.
One thing that took us by surprise was the fact that much of the city devoted itself to Russian tourists. Dinner menus came in Chinese, English, and Russian. Most of the bars held up the word "Pectopa" in glowing neon, which we are almost positive means "bar" in Russian. Most of the crackers that we saw at the beach were Russian. The city was downright saturated in Russian-ness.
This was a suprise to us because we haven't seen this anywhere else in China. It makes sense, I guess. Russia doesn't have any beaches of its own and before the 90's, I imagine it was difficult to hop over to Thailand, ect for political reasons. That probably set a precedent that keeps bringing people back year after year.
The first night we went out, we came across a bar/grill named RAINBOW. I insisted we check it out, but Phil and Andrew were convinced that it was a gay bar and that our drinks would be filled with gay pills. Yet, as I shouted on the streets of San Yan, "GAY BARS DON'T ADVERTISE HOW TASTY THEIR DOUBLE CHEESEBURGERS ARE!"
After much prodding and poking, we checked RAINBOW out, it was sweet, and we ended up spending a minimum of a few hours each day there. Sometimes I wonder if it is a curse to always be right. This place had a menu full of chicken wings, onion rings, cheap drink specials, and 20 kinds of cheeseburgers. I know, I know...I talk about Western food more than I should on this blog, but stumbling upon a menu that has potato skins is like striking gold here in China.
Rainbow is also the place that Phil and I were able to watch the Super Bowl at. They opened up the bar at 6:30am for the many Americans that were pushing for such a showing. It was great. The Yanks that were in attendance bonded over their collective love for football and getting tipsy before the sun rose. There was, however, one annoying girl that showed up who was born in Chicago, but currently lives in Indianapolis. As you might guess, she brought this fact up 32 times before the kickoff. "OH MY GOD! I don't even know what to do! I mean I LOVE the Bears, but the COLTS! I MEAN Payton is like totally due, you know!?" This went on for the entirety of the game. She would loudly cheer for whichever team was losing at the time and then celebrated like she was on fire when the Colts won. Ah well, I guess it wouldn't be the Super Bowl if there wasn't at least one annoying person there with you.
On one particularly invigorating night, we ended up forming an international coalition of the willing (to party) with a bunch of random foreigners. The Scottish, the English, ze Germans, the Russians, the Americans, even some god damn Kyrgyzstanians...all united in conversation, drinking, and occationally song. We stood outside this posh bar and sort of converted the street into "the place to be". Better yet, we picked up some beer at the local market for about 40 cents to the bottle, nearly 1/6 of what we were paying inside.
We talked about Hitler, we talked about democracy, we talked about Bush, we talked about how everyone besides France seems to hate France. It was sweet. Also, among the 20 or so people who filtered in and out of this group, there didn't seem to be a dick among them. Around 5am, someone decided that we needed go swimming in the ocean, so that happened. As I sprinted into the sea, surrounded by people I just met, from different corners of the world, I couldn't help but feel like this was the "good times" scene in some movie. You know the kind; where everything connects and the main charachter forgets himself. It was special, and I get the feeling that if I can add up as many of these night as possible, I will have used this life wisely, or at least my youth wisely.
So here I am, having traveled many places, still trying to decide where I'll go next. Life seems to be about collecting stories right now and if that's true, then I'm living well. The pressures of becoming an affluent adult may crash down on me as soon as I get back to America, but for now, I'm just going to enjoy things.
-T
Also, who are these mysterious acronyms that fill my page with comments? Even worse, "anonymous"? Who are you sneaky people?
Hainan is basically the Hawaii of China. It has great beaches, an active night life, and caters to tourists quite nicely. You never forget you're in China, but this China has palm trees and Pina Coladas. The sand was warm, the water was refreshing, and the naked children...well, there was a lot of them.
One thing that took us by surprise was the fact that much of the city devoted itself to Russian tourists. Dinner menus came in Chinese, English, and Russian. Most of the bars held up the word "Pectopa" in glowing neon, which we are almost positive means "bar" in Russian. Most of the crackers that we saw at the beach were Russian. The city was downright saturated in Russian-ness.
This was a suprise to us because we haven't seen this anywhere else in China. It makes sense, I guess. Russia doesn't have any beaches of its own and before the 90's, I imagine it was difficult to hop over to Thailand, ect for political reasons. That probably set a precedent that keeps bringing people back year after year.
The first night we went out, we came across a bar/grill named RAINBOW. I insisted we check it out, but Phil and Andrew were convinced that it was a gay bar and that our drinks would be filled with gay pills. Yet, as I shouted on the streets of San Yan, "GAY BARS DON'T ADVERTISE HOW TASTY THEIR DOUBLE CHEESEBURGERS ARE!"
After much prodding and poking, we checked RAINBOW out, it was sweet, and we ended up spending a minimum of a few hours each day there. Sometimes I wonder if it is a curse to always be right. This place had a menu full of chicken wings, onion rings, cheap drink specials, and 20 kinds of cheeseburgers. I know, I know...I talk about Western food more than I should on this blog, but stumbling upon a menu that has potato skins is like striking gold here in China.
Rainbow is also the place that Phil and I were able to watch the Super Bowl at. They opened up the bar at 6:30am for the many Americans that were pushing for such a showing. It was great. The Yanks that were in attendance bonded over their collective love for football and getting tipsy before the sun rose. There was, however, one annoying girl that showed up who was born in Chicago, but currently lives in Indianapolis. As you might guess, she brought this fact up 32 times before the kickoff. "OH MY GOD! I don't even know what to do! I mean I LOVE the Bears, but the COLTS! I MEAN Payton is like totally due, you know!?" This went on for the entirety of the game. She would loudly cheer for whichever team was losing at the time and then celebrated like she was on fire when the Colts won. Ah well, I guess it wouldn't be the Super Bowl if there wasn't at least one annoying person there with you.
On one particularly invigorating night, we ended up forming an international coalition of the willing (to party) with a bunch of random foreigners. The Scottish, the English, ze Germans, the Russians, the Americans, even some god damn Kyrgyzstanians...all united in conversation, drinking, and occationally song. We stood outside this posh bar and sort of converted the street into "the place to be". Better yet, we picked up some beer at the local market for about 40 cents to the bottle, nearly 1/6 of what we were paying inside.
We talked about Hitler, we talked about democracy, we talked about Bush, we talked about how everyone besides France seems to hate France. It was sweet. Also, among the 20 or so people who filtered in and out of this group, there didn't seem to be a dick among them. Around 5am, someone decided that we needed go swimming in the ocean, so that happened. As I sprinted into the sea, surrounded by people I just met, from different corners of the world, I couldn't help but feel like this was the "good times" scene in some movie. You know the kind; where everything connects and the main charachter forgets himself. It was special, and I get the feeling that if I can add up as many of these night as possible, I will have used this life wisely, or at least my youth wisely.
So here I am, having traveled many places, still trying to decide where I'll go next. Life seems to be about collecting stories right now and if that's true, then I'm living well. The pressures of becoming an affluent adult may crash down on me as soon as I get back to America, but for now, I'm just going to enjoy things.
-T
Also, who are these mysterious acronyms that fill my page with comments? Even worse, "anonymous"? Who are you sneaky people?
posted by The Friendly Liberal at
10:01 PM
3 Comments:
i read
By
Anonymous, at 4:37 PM
update your blog!
By
Adam Fetcher, at 11:32 AM
I still read your blog, but I wish you'd spend more time talking about all the hearts you're breaking over there. I'd like to know I'm not the only one in the world who can't live without you but tragically can't have you...
By
Unknown, at 8:12 PM
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