6-30

Man, I'm almost out of space in this journal. I had no idea I'd be so verbose.

We're back in Luoyang now -- it's all downhill from here. Sightseeing today, fly to Guangzhou tomorrow and then to HK and home. No more demonstrations so there's no more stress from that. I didn't have to perform anything special so I shouldn't talk, I guess. I'd almost rather skip Luoyang and most of Guangzhou and go straight to HK and then home, but we don't have that option. It's been a very pleasant trip -- after a couple of days I totally forgot about all the stuff going on back at work that I was worrying about. Of course it will probably be hell when I get back, but oh well.

We just finished up at Longmen (Dragon's Gate) caves. Over a thousand small and large caves carved out of the rocks by buddhist priests and then inlaid with carvings of Buddhas, etc. One had one large Buddha in the center, then thousands of smalle 2-inch high buddhas lining the side walls. Pretty damn impressive. I would have been more impressed if it weren't all outside in 38°C heat, sunshine and high humidity. Haven't I sweat enough on this trip already? So I'm pausing in the restaurant after lunch, dallying under the A/C unit to scribble something in my journal. Now I feel a lot better.

Longmen Caves. More Longmen Caves.
From A Distance. Most of the Caves.

One lady at Longmen sold me a bottle of water from the freezer for 4 RMB through the window of the bus as we were waiting for the rest of our group. I didn't notice right away that the bottle was cracked down the side from the water expanding, and didn't look too clean inside as a result. I took it back to her stall and tried to get another one. Hah! Not likely! First she wanted me to dump it in a spare ramen bowl and eat it that way. Then she stuck a straw in the gash and said I could drink it that way. When I insisted I wanted another one, suddenly she was all out of water. I settled for substituting for a slightly chilled Coke. She was out there when we left, a straw in the gashed bottle, still trying to sell it. I guess one man's bug is another man's feature.

I've heard a lot of stories about inedible food in China, but I just haven't seen it. Only the restaurant in Wudang and the one on the train was really poor. Otherwise all the food has been quite good. I'm probably gaining weight instead of losing it. Then again, they're probably taking us only to restaurants cleared for foreigners so the food has probably been Americanized. All the restaurants have foreigner-approved gift shops attached, which is a clue.

Back at the hotel and I'm feeling much better. Amazing what a little protein can do.

After Longmen Caves, we hit another couple of temples. I'm just about templed out, but the White Horse Temple was interesting just because it's the first Buddhist temple in China. First built in 68 AD, it's been razed by various dynasties and then restored so it's not exactly the same temple, but still pretty cool to think about. Nearly 2000 years...

Brian Devor "lifts" General Kwan's kwandao.

I got a bit fed up this afternoon, though. We got out of White Horse Temple 30 minutes early but they wouldn't let us back on the bus to get going. Instead we were forced to sit in the gift shop for 30 minutes until the appointed time. The driver was there, just wouldn't unlock the bus for us. Struck me as a pretty obviously ploy to bleed the Americans for some more dollars. We finally got back on and headed back to town -- our instructors decided to just hit the Friendship Store to buy locks for the bags we'll be shipping our weapons in, but that plan was silently vetoed by our guides, who instead took us for a ``tour'' of a local ceramic factory. Guess what? Gift shop time! This was especially galling because there wasn't even any tour. It's Sunday, so presumably the workers have today off. I'm assuming so because they didn't have anything to show us but the showroom floor. So I'm sitting there grinding my teeth as we listlessly wander around the store until they let us go again. Finally I just go to one of the main instructors to find out what the plan is. As far as she knows we'll be going to the Friendship Store next and then to the hotel. I'm sick of stores by this time so I ask if it's all right to just walk back to the hotel, which is all of 2 blocks away. She says fine, so I head out.

Just as I'm leaving the group comes back outside and gets on the busses again. ``Back on bus!'' The guide calls after me but I ignored him and kept walking. After all, who knows what other stores they were planning to take us to against our will? Turns out they just headed straight back to the hotel anyhow, arriving just after I did, so I probably pissed off our guide for no good reason. Oh well. It felt good.

After we relaxed for a bit, I met my roommate in the Western Cafe in the lobby to check out the menu. The rumors were true! Hamburgers! My roommate and one other from the group were there and were already eating -- one look at that burger and fries and I had to order one too. The same pattern was repeated at least 8 more times as others from our group saw us and came over and saw what we were eating. Their jaws would drop and their eyes would get wide.

``Are those... hamburgers?''

``(Munch) Yep!''

``Are they any good?''

``(Munch munch) Yep!!''

``Is it really beef?''

``Don't know, don't care! I'm happy!''

After that they'd be sitting down and ordering their own. At 16 RMB (about $2) each, it's a total bargain. I skipped the Chinese dinner and may go back down there tonight to order the 40 RMB sirloin steak. We're in the middle of China and we can get a steak here. Finally I can be content. My mood is much improved.

(I found out later on that, as I expected, the kitchen ran out of hamburgers that evening. Not sure if they ran out of steak or not. Probably 45 of our group of 60 had dinner there that evening instead of the chinese restaurant, and many of them probably had more than one burger.)