Jolly Old Men

October 03, 2006

Spent a quick morning in Taiyuan - quick by Chinese travel standards that is - but the day was a beautiful one and we couldn’t complain too much.

Shannon, Adam & I ended up forgoing return bus tickets and purchased flights back to our respective cities. A one-hour flight seemed pretty luxurious compared to another 18-hour busride. On top of that we couldn’t actually buy bus tickets more than a single day in advance…

Grabbed a bus to Taihua - a hotbed of Buddhism and snuggled between the 5 mountain peaks of Wutai Shan. The Chinese ingenuity never ceases to amaze as we passed a mountain on the way to Wutai that was labeled shan - that’s right it had a huge label on it. Other highlights of the ride included catching a quick nap with a Buddhist nun - going to live a few hundred more lives for that picture - and the scenic approach to the mountains.

After settling in to a hotel on the main drag of Taihua - much haggling and fake walking away involved - we stumbled upon a back-courtyard concert going full tilt. A sizable crowd had gathered, but as soon as the foreigners showed up it was a real show. Seats cleared and announcements were made welcoming us. No low-key observing - we were part of the show now. A few rounds of song later, a fairly intoxicated and overly jovial local forced all of us up to the microphone.

An ear-wrenching round of Row Row Row Your Boat later we tried sitting down.

No such luck.

Scott, Adam & I ended up in a huddle - arms locked - with our inebriated lao pengyou. And we were about to get closer.

The next thing I heard was a groan from Scott.

I look over to see our friend kissing - or more aptly, dragging his lips across - Scotts cheek.

Then it was Adams turn. This was headed nowhere good.

I didn’t make it away in time.

A set of, mostly dry, drunk-Chinese-man-lips planted themselves on my neck. The lip schmear continued up my cheek and by an act of the benevolent Buddha stopped just short of my own lips.

It still sends shivers up my spine… yikes.