The Goofster departed and we shopped around for a bit (shocking).
On the way to security line a ton of people we just walking up to trash cans and dumping out their water bottles in them. I've never seen that in the states haha. Once in line for security, I looked up and saw 4 flat screen, 3-D televisions! You have to realize that we are in a super crappy airport in the armpit of China and there are 4 brand new, glasses free, beautiful 3-D flat screen televisions. China with the win. And also... I HATE 3-D tvs... they hurt me eyes, (that was supposed to say "my" but I mistyped and thought it was funny in a " don't touch me Lucky Charms" kind of way) you have to wear funky glasses (except in super trendy chinese airports) and they generally freak me out. I don't like mind games. BUT THESE were kind of awesome.
Moving on... Bettie's passport got bomb tested on every page in security. She definately looks like a terrorist. Point China.
We met some people in the airport who were from Dallas. Duh. Had a nice chat about missing good ole texas food. They told us they had done to a restaurant with a factory that had cages of chickens (easy), squirrels (what!?) and SKUNKS ( oh no they didn't) for you to pick from for them to cook it up for you. I think its safe to assume they all went for the chickens. Lets just say I would have DIED if we had walked in somewhere like that. I mean dead on the floor kind of dead. You know the kind.
We boarded the airplane early (Point China) and it was gorgeous. Clean, spacious, trendy. (Again, point China... are you seeing a trend here?) And we were off.
I don't know how long the flight was... but eventually we arrived in Ningbo. Just Jack, factory gimp, picked us up at baggage claim. Then ensued the usual routine, drop by hotel... check in... freshen up... our hotel name was Hotel SMILE AND NATURE!!!!! (S&N for short) While we were checking in, a GIANT tourist bus full of chinese tourist pulled up... they don't understand personal space, as I was nearly stood on top of at the check in counter (point America, whew... we were due).
The hotel's thing must have been having really cool chair everywhere... because they had AMAZING high back chairs all over the place... hence this photo shoot....
and then I thought the hallway by our room was really gorge...
Ningbo isn't exactly what you would call a pretty city. There was construction EVERYWHERE! And also shantys. That was really hard to see. This was one place where they were obvious extremes right next to each other. EXTREME wealth and oppulence, then EXTREME poverty... They were building new highways but along side and in the esplanades were gorgeous flower beds, unlike anything I've seen in the states. There were workers gardening for MILES and MILES. I cannot exaggerate this. It was definately another 'there are 2 billion people in China' kind of moment.
So this night we stayed in at the hotel and hung out... ate dinner at the super "not western friendly" buffet. There was "boiled bull frog" and and all time classic "steamed yellow croacker clinical" (Point America). Lets just say we ate a lot of rice and bread the next few days.
The next morning Just Jack picked us up from the hotel to take us to the factory. We met with him and the owner, Mac Daddy for a while then took a tour of the show room. This mostly meant Bettie doing serious work, and me playing with all the fun gadgets they had just waiting for me to mess up!
Mac Daddy and Just Jack took us back to the hotel for lunch. Instead of eating at the wicked scary buffet they took us to the seafood restaurant. I was terrified. Now, I normally LOVE seafood...but chinese seafood is a little different. First, its all in tanks when you walk in and second, if could still be a little alive when they bring it to you (AAH). Fortunately, Bettie has been playing this game circa de 10 years and knew what to tell Mac so that our food would be white people friendly. Anytime we were offered seafood, she would first tell them we didn't like it... then tell them we would eat it if was was fried and very well cooked. (The fried part would ensure that it was DEAD!)
So Mac Daddy did an incredible job of ordering and we had a delightful meal in a private dining room (which is pretty much what you do in China). The waitress had on long skirts with almost longer slits, up the their bums in fact, I might have caught a glimspe of panty here and there. classy.
Back to work. Somehow we got started talking about cars. In china, cars cost about 2x what they do in the states because of all sorts of taxes thrown on top. Mac Daddy was asking me about my car and what I would get if I were to get a new car. The conversation turned to Porsche's and he told me how Porsche Cayennes aren't expensive and that I should go for something better (not that I'm trying to get a Porsche.) Point China.
After a few more hours of being business-y it was back to the hotel to hunker down for the night and pack for our morning departure.
 |
| ah, correctitude. |
No comments:
Post a Comment