Ba Da Guan

December 1, 2, 3 2006



Qing Dao: Days 2, 3, 4

I wake up, take a cold shower and go find the Red and Black Cafe, a place I spotted during the previous evening's excursion. It is a posh three floors of polished wood, leather chairs and big soft couches. I am momentarily transported. The coffee comes in a nice grande-sized serving, the tiramisu is flat (the tomoatoes were an interesting touch though). I liberate a city walking map from the book rack.



Back at the hotel I grill the staff about net bars, buses, and what there is to do in Qing Dao. We make notes on my map and write things on post-its. I feel eager and excited about being in a new place.



I walk around a few streets close to the hotel, getting the lay of the land, then hop a bus to Qing Dao University where I find a net bar, post to the blog, and download reams of information on Qing Dao. I read about a place called Ba Da Guan that was occupied by the German army before the first wolrd war and still houses some classic European architecture. Somewhere around this time the weather drops severely.









I hop a cab to Ba Da Guan and stumble around in the cold for a few hours. Despite the now bitter cold there is massive wedding photography going on, women in strapless, sleeveless gowns fearlessly posing for posterity.

I take a taxi to another part of town and search for a travel guide. After sufficient confusion I find a bookstore that has only the barest selection of English books. Conversely I did find a DVD store that had an incredible selection of American film classics. I loaded up on films I've always been meaning to see.

After that I walked to the Tsing Tao brewery and picked out a restaurant on bar street to eat dinner and sample their fine brew. I feast on fish, shrimp and beef and am unable to finish a large pitcher of beer.

Back at the hotel, Hu informs me that he is going to Yentai for the evening but leaves me in his friend Li's charge. Li and I take a taxi to the Paulaner Bar to see some unspecified musical performance.

The Paulaner is top shelf, leopard print furniture, lava lamps, continuous techno party looping on the flat screens. A Filipino cover band takes the stage and tears through searing renditions of Say You, Say Me, I Just Called to Say I Love You, and With or Without You. I fall in love with the beautiful Russian bartender who stands behind the bar making little hearts out of clay.



Li tricks me into thinking we are going to another bar. Instead we go back to the hotel. I go to sleep and wake up two hours later with food poisoning. I will spare you the gory details, but let's just say that both sides suffered heavy casualties. I spend the next day alternately writhing in bed and watching such cinema classics as Double Indemnity and Casablanca. I make brief harrowing forays into the freezing cold for medicine, pizza and Coca-Cola. I boil water in my electric water heater and soak my feet in the sink to warm myself. One of the medicines has the unexpected side-effect of making me bloated.

I don't sleep for the first 24-hour period. The second night is make or break. It is obvious to me that if I don't sleep I won't kick the sickness, and if I don't shake it off by the next day, the bus ride back to Rong Cheng could be particularly traumatic. I wake feeling warm and only slightly ill.

I pack my things and surf the hotel office internet and find a cafe on the ocean that serves Western cuisine. Upon arriving I find that the Western menu they advertised was really a Western menu item, a steak. I bail and go to the Crown Plaza where I shell out for pastries and a seriously bungled eggs benedict. I attempt to buy Christmas presents in the town market and forfeit relatively early, realizing the impracticality of the situation. I catch a taxi to the bus station and manage the bloated 4-hour ride back to Rong Cheng.