May 30, 2008

Friday, May 30, 2008
We left the hotel this morning for an optional excursion; tour of the Temple of Heaven, rickshaw ride through a Hutong, and a matinee performance of the Chinese Flying Acrobats. With us were two of the families who will be traveling with us to Ellie’s province. Edson, Keri and their twins, Madison and Megan, hail from Orange County, CA; Eric and Jacinda are from rural KS. All of us are getting baby girls! All of our girl’s surname is Bo; and at least two of us are keeping Bo as some part of our baby’s English name.

Event of the day: Finished with the tour of the Temple of Heaven, we made our way to lunch…a Chinese, Chinese restaurant. Lunch was a mixture of perfectly steamed rice, fried noodles, kung-pao this and kung-pao that.

Having eaten our fill, our guide and CHI employee, Dennis, suggested we visit the bathroom before loading the bus. I knew better to accept his suggestion; local restaurants tend only to have Chinese toilets, a.k.a. “squatters.” So I relaxed in my chair. The power of suggestion can come at the most inopportune; no sooner had a few of my table mates headed to the bathroom, that the Chinese preserved egg experiment I was still recovering from fought back.

It had been a measure of pride that I’d been able always to find a Western toilet while traveling in China. Consider, 2005…days using a Chinese toilet: 0; days using a Western toilet: 15. 2008…days using a Chinese toilet: 0; days using a Western toilet: 9…until that very moment.

Needless to say, the “squatter experience” was not that bad, save for having to hang my shirt, my cargo shorts, and my pride on the door hook in the stall in order for this cultural transaction come to its conclusion.

Quote of the day: At 10:45 p.m., I awoke having fallen asleep before I’d completed charging all the camera batteries. (Caroline was fast asleep.) Still recovering from the Chinese preserved egg experiment, I was feeling the need for a bit of potassium; I left the hotel and walked along Wangfuling Street looking for a vendor still open that still had bananas for sale. After a few blocks it became clear that most of the fruit vendors had closed.

As I made my way back to the hotel, walking this time on the opposite side of the street, a young, attractive sharply dressed Asian woman approached me. After the obligatory, “Ha-lo, Ha-lo,” the woman uttered words I’ll long remember, “You want hotel room with night of romance?”