First Impressions Filtered Through a Time(zone) Traveler
Wow. Today was a commute. A disorienting commute to the Orient. Taking off from San Fran to Beijing, I saw in passing the iconic Golden Gate. But what I wasn’t expecting was to glimpse Superman’s ice cavern.
You see, to fly to Beijing, they fly through Alaska and over the Bering Strait and down through Russian airspace. It was a sight to see mountains of solid ice, and ice flows. My retinas seem to have managed to burn even from 30000 feet.
Hey, and I upgraded my flight service, or figured out a way to “cut in line.” I guess I’m too impatient to wait for the stewardesses to go down the rows…it makes my stomach grumble. So I feigned dietary needs, and asked for Kosher meals when I bought my ticket and I got served before everybody else. Only drawback was the meals were hermetically-sealed, so I spent ten minutes opening them. Maybe next time I try “Vegetarian” or “Vegan” and see if I can get some better eats. Because I do think the Chicken Ziti I got was better than the usual grub.
Landing in Beijing, the air looks smoggy at 10,000 feet (and I think I might have already gotten a pack’s worth of cigs without having a cig). Going through customs and passport was a breeze, didn’t even check anyone’s bags that I could see. After that, you have to fend off the usual taxi hustlers. A good thing is that at the lines to wait for the official taxi cabs, they give you a brochure that explains the rules for what taxi cabs can charge, and where to complain.
The thoughts in my jet-lagged brain at this moment are that of pinball machine, bouncing all over the place at the sight of the set of Blade Runner. And every other building is lit up like a pinball machine. Vegas ain’t got nothing on gaudiness. But what a sight t’is the strange gaudiness juxtaposed with Soviet-style industrial ugliness mixed with “American dream” style billboards showing suburban American-style upper-middle class houses. [Insert Thomas Freidman balderdash here.]
For once I got a congenial cabbie, but I really was being too chill when I thought that I could go without a phrasebook. I broke out into Spanish and a little Arabic (!) as I was searching for the right word in my one-hundred word Mandarin vocabulary. I was planning to go the Convention Center at the BLCU, and for all I know we passed it since we did get to the campus (just not that particular building which I tried to point at five times). But I couldn’t figure out what the hell he was trying to say about whether I had to walk to get there or what, so I finally said to go to another nearby hotel.
And not sure if it is a clueless“Waiguoren” tax, but magically the cheapest rooms aren’t available, but they can get me a “discounted room” for $100, that probably is worth $80 in America, and really I shouldn’t have paid more than fifty if I had my senses about. I’m still trying to figure out if rock-hard cushions are custom here.
My logical brain was telling me to go get another hotel, but was overridden by weariness and this interesting state of mind I get after not sleeping for over twenty-four hours. I’m not complaining, after 16 hours in an airplane I’d buy a freaking room at the Waldorf if it shrunk my net worth by half. (Now that I’m officially an unemployed bum it’s not so far off.)
Well, I’m tempted to collapse and sleep, but I hear they have a bowling alley and a jacuzzi, and I have free net access until checkout. I really need to organize what I need to do tomorrow so as not to burn cash like this and move to a long term place.
Oh, and what you’re all wondering….what’s on the tube on the other side of the earth? The first thing I seem to have come across is a soap opera where half the characters are in the People’s Army. And a “Chinese Idol.” I’ll keep on flipping and update y’all. But this sleep thing seems like a good idea, even if I’m in the giddy mode at the moment.
And I’ve confirmed that this very webblog is blocked by the Great Firewall of China, as I assume all other blogs hosted at blogspot. But luckily, blogger itself isn’t blocked so I should be able to continue to post.
You see, to fly to Beijing, they fly through Alaska and over the Bering Strait and down through Russian airspace. It was a sight to see mountains of solid ice, and ice flows. My retinas seem to have managed to burn even from 30000 feet.
Hey, and I upgraded my flight service, or figured out a way to “cut in line.” I guess I’m too impatient to wait for the stewardesses to go down the rows…it makes my stomach grumble. So I feigned dietary needs, and asked for Kosher meals when I bought my ticket and I got served before everybody else. Only drawback was the meals were hermetically-sealed, so I spent ten minutes opening them. Maybe next time I try “Vegetarian” or “Vegan” and see if I can get some better eats. Because I do think the Chicken Ziti I got was better than the usual grub.
Landing in Beijing, the air looks smoggy at 10,000 feet (and I think I might have already gotten a pack’s worth of cigs without having a cig). Going through customs and passport was a breeze, didn’t even check anyone’s bags that I could see. After that, you have to fend off the usual taxi hustlers. A good thing is that at the lines to wait for the official taxi cabs, they give you a brochure that explains the rules for what taxi cabs can charge, and where to complain.
The thoughts in my jet-lagged brain at this moment are that of pinball machine, bouncing all over the place at the sight of the set of Blade Runner. And every other building is lit up like a pinball machine. Vegas ain’t got nothing on gaudiness. But what a sight t’is the strange gaudiness juxtaposed with Soviet-style industrial ugliness mixed with “American dream” style billboards showing suburban American-style upper-middle class houses. [Insert Thomas Freidman balderdash here.]
For once I got a congenial cabbie, but I really was being too chill when I thought that I could go without a phrasebook. I broke out into Spanish and a little Arabic (!) as I was searching for the right word in my one-hundred word Mandarin vocabulary. I was planning to go the Convention Center at the BLCU, and for all I know we passed it since we did get to the campus (just not that particular building which I tried to point at five times). But I couldn’t figure out what the hell he was trying to say about whether I had to walk to get there or what, so I finally said to go to another nearby hotel.
And not sure if it is a clueless“Waiguoren” tax, but magically the cheapest rooms aren’t available, but they can get me a “discounted room” for $100, that probably is worth $80 in America, and really I shouldn’t have paid more than fifty if I had my senses about. I’m still trying to figure out if rock-hard cushions are custom here.
My logical brain was telling me to go get another hotel, but was overridden by weariness and this interesting state of mind I get after not sleeping for over twenty-four hours. I’m not complaining, after 16 hours in an airplane I’d buy a freaking room at the Waldorf if it shrunk my net worth by half. (Now that I’m officially an unemployed bum it’s not so far off.)
Well, I’m tempted to collapse and sleep, but I hear they have a bowling alley and a jacuzzi, and I have free net access until checkout. I really need to organize what I need to do tomorrow so as not to burn cash like this and move to a long term place.
Oh, and what you’re all wondering….what’s on the tube on the other side of the earth? The first thing I seem to have come across is a soap opera where half the characters are in the People’s Army. And a “Chinese Idol.” I’ll keep on flipping and update y’all. But this sleep thing seems like a good idea, even if I’m in the giddy mode at the moment.
And I’ve confirmed that this very webblog is blocked by the Great Firewall of China, as I assume all other blogs hosted at blogspot. But luckily, blogger itself isn’t blocked so I should be able to continue to post.
brainfart by Daniel at
6:41 AM
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