2010 - Day 4 - What the heck was that gelatinous stuff?

Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 9:40 AM

Subject: China - Day 4

I woke up and looked at the clock – Dammit! – Its 2:00 AM.  This is getting really annoying.  I did manage to fall asleep again after a couple of hours, but a decent night’s sleep would really help.

I believe I have said this before, but I cannot get over how ridiculously hard the beds are in this hotel - It doesn’t even feel like a mattress, but more like a table with a blanket laid on it.  You might as well sleep on the floor.  Southern China is sub-tropical and has a rainy season, of which May appears to be the peak.  It seems to rain a little every day and some days, like today, it rains a lot.  My clothes feel damp when I take them out of the suitcase.  The locals don’t seem too keen on using their air conditioners either – I guess they are just used to it. 

Shenzhen Sea World

Today is a working day and I gave my training presentation to the Southeast Asian distributors – Mostly from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Korea.  I won’t bore you with the details, but things seem to have gone well.  Dinner was another story.  As before, this was a formal dinner in a private room with groups seated around large round tables of 10-12 people with a glass lazy susan in the middle, around 30 people total this time.  The guest of honor, me unfortunately, is seated opposite the door and to the right of the host, the company president in this case.  The goal of the entire group appears to be honoring the “guest of honor” by making him drink waaaaay too much Baijo – the Chinese rice liquor which is usually around 100 proof and served in small shot glasses.  The participants all want to toast the guest of honor “one by one”, downing the shot at the end.  Do the math – not a good game!  I was lucky in two ways: half the group this time was from Muslim countries (Indonesia and Malaysia) where alcohol is prohibited, and second – everybody else weighs about 120 pounds.  Because they are toasting each other too, I was able to leave the party with a clear head – not all could say that, especially Larry.  It was 8:00 PM and Larry was already done.  Two shots and his face turns red as a lobster. 



You gotta love this one.



I know you all enjoy hearing about the food here so I won’t disappoint you.  Tonight’s menu included stomach (not sure the animal), tofu (not bad), duck feet along with some gelatinous stuff I could not identify, fish with the head present – fortunately no one made a point of honoring me by making me eat the head, and chicken – I know it was chicken because when I was fishing around in the bowl with my chopsticks for a good piece I found its head. 

After dinner, those who were still able wanted to continue, so we headed back to Beatles Bar until around midnight.  Well sedated, perhaps I will sleep better tonight – at least maybe the bed will feel a bit softer.