Days 8-11: Working Man

After a day off in Hong Kong to regroup and “relax,” it was back to the Mainland and back to work. I knew that it was only a few more days of work before I would be heading out, so the week’s tasks took on a new sense of urgency. We were making progress, but things were slow and a bit frustrating. Typically for lunch, we would try and grab something quick. There was a small restaurant right around the corner from the office I was at, and we made a habit out of hitting that spot. The food is decent there, but it is the one place that has caused me some… “intestinal discomfort” in the past. So now it always makes me a little nervous whenever I go there.

In order to assure you that the utensils are clean, it is common for the servers to dip them in boiling water tableside. That gives me confidence.

A typical quick lunch - char siu chow mien (BBQ pork fried noodles)

As I said before, on this trip I was staying in Humen Town, a part of Dongguan City in Guangdong Province (got that?). I’ve already told you how “beautiful” this area was, but this week I had a chance to get out a bit and look around myself. Since our hotel was centrally located, we had decided to walk to dinner one night. We had to cross over this river which had the nastiest, rank smell. It was full of floating… stuff. From then on, when we would drive by that river, we would see people just hanging out near it and it made us wonder why they couldn’t find a nicer spot. Then again, restaurant dishes featuring stir fried animal intestines are quite normal here. Go figure.

One day after work, I decided to walk to the mall, only a block away from the hotel. Of course, this involved crossing this enormous street with tons of traffic. There’s also a huge bus terminal in the mall parking area, which was mad busy at the end of the workday. There were also hundreds of motorized scooter taxi guys waiting to drive people around. I decided the best strategy was to follow the locals. There was a mom with young children – perfect. I would stand behind them and tag along. No way she would lead her kids into oncoming traffic!

I made it into the mall without incident. Inside, there were hundreds of small stores packed in side by side. There were massive crowds of people milling about, but I did not see a single Westerner besides myself. I have to admit, it was a little intimidating to be there alone. As I walked around, I felt like the center of attention. Kids stared at me as I walked past. Shop owners tried to lure me in to make lots of money courtesy of the American shopper. I was clearly different and was watched by everyone I passed by. I wanted to go into a couple of the stores, but was afraid to draw too much attention to myself (I most certainly would have invited salivating shop owners to descend on me and yell incomprehensible things to try and make me buy something).

I eventually found my way to a mega-mart type place stocked with everything from clothes to food and health care products (kind of like a super Wal-Mart, but a Chinese version). I picked up some snacks and drinks (Pocari!) to help get me through the tough afternoons. I also hit up the produce section and grabbed a bunch of dragon eyes (lóng yǎn, similar to lychees but smaller and with smoother skin) and rambutans .

After returning back to the hotel, I was feeling sticky from the walk outside in the summer heat and humidity. So I put on my skin tight swimsuit that I bought for $1 in a Hong Kong street market (One size fits all! – Well, not really. Don’t worry, no photo coming.) and headed up to the top floor for a quick dip in the pool. I figured, for $1, I had better at least use it once. After a nice refreshing swim, it was time to head back to the room for my nightly ritual – a video chat with my family back home. It’s great to be able to not only talk with, but actually see them while I am gone. I miss them, but this helps to bridge the distance. Thanks, Eyeball Chat.

Hi Hollis and Elisabeth! Love you guys!