A Day with The Bao

We made it to take Melinda and her boyfriend to go with us to Kaifeng.
The train was sick. It was sooo crowded. I don’t know how but we had to stand about 2 hours before we get to the destination station. It’s the city with the Legendary Judge Bao. The city has more cultural ambience than most developing cities in China. We went around the town then had a lunch at a crowded restaurat. We had to wait a long time to get our seats then shared it with other guests, but for my first time taste of xiao long bao, it was definitely worth it.
We went to this tallest pagoda tower. They said it’s the tallest, but I don’t know if the tower was the tallest in the world, in asia, in china, or in the city. But it was tall enough to get a visit.
At this place we went in to a fortune teller. I had to pick a stick then he read my fortune (with William translating for me, like he did for the whole of this trip). I mostly take fun of every fortune telling or horoscope or every kind of mystical magic. So I don’t really remember what the monk said about my life. I remember that he knew both of my parents are still alive (that’s like 25% chance he won the guess), that my parents are expecting much from me (100%), I was there for study (50%) and I have good luck in life (2%). I didn’t or didn’t want to remember the bad stuff he said, so I don’t. I think it wasn’t that much anyway.
We went to a busiest streets at Kaifeng, saw so many foreign tourists at the area. I got myself a stone carved with my name. it took 2 hours to make it, at that time I was shopping brushes, inks and water books for my calligraphy practice (which I barely ever really use until now). The store owner taught me some writing characters skills I could use after then.
After picked up the stone we continued to the main site of the town. The Judge Bao palace or something like that. There were some of the left historical made stuff. Like old books. And prison. There were some show attractions too where people wearing traditional clothes and did dancing’s. It was nice to see.
In the afternoon we didn’t get the tickets back to Henan so we decided to separate ways from the couple. We went straight back to Beijing.
If I was thinking the train to get to Kaifeng was crowded, man I didn’t have any idea about it. We were so lucky we got to buy tickets with seats. I don’t now if there were tickets without seats, but most of people were standing like sardines and they did have tickets. When the train was there the situation was like. Was like on a start line at 100m sprint on the Olympic game. But with 300 people pushing you from behind. I literally hold on William’s backpack my thumb got a scar just because I wanted to stay close to him. People climbing the window to get in and jumping it off to get down. I don’t know what they have with them but whatever it is everyone was bringing something bigger than their body size.
When we got to our seats (about 30 minutes later) there are people who already sat there. Gladly we showed our tickets to make them gave the seats to us. But then it was too crowded to not share the seat with them. The seat was supposed for 3 people but everyone shared it for 5 to 6 people. The train departed after one hour later. On that trip I saw the most unimaginable positions for a human to sleep. But they were so tired I was thinking they might be fainted standing.
They seemed realize that I’m a foreigner, so they said hi and had some chat with us. The situation soon was changed. We suddenly became the center of the attention. They love to laugh at my stuttering mandarin and they wanted me to keep speaking in mandarin. With only 15 cm2 area to sit on my big ass, with no space distance with the other 100 people watching at you waiting for you to say something you don’t know how, how big the pressure was on me. Both mentally and physically.
Then a guy asked us to teach him how to speak Indonesian bahasa for silly phrases. Like “I love beers” and “I am drunk”. (and yea, he was drinking beers and drunk, he even take off his shirt because it was too hot after he drank several bottles). It was really good laugh. And old guy suddenly was asking for my numbers, I felt like a celebrity that time, so yeah, I gave it. Later he was calling me sometimes and I had no idea what he was trying to say, I really think he called me everytime he got drunk.
At 5.30 am we arrived at Beijing. We went straight to the dorm by taxi then stopped at Mai Dang Lao (Mc Donalds) grabbed a burger for breakfast. I cant be more thankful to William for this trip. Taking very good care, explaining, and translating everything to me. If I didn’t have him, I might stranded in central of China speaking fluent mandarin drinking beers and eating xiao long bao for the rest of my life. Not a very bad idea, but I was glad to be back and have a rest at my dorm I shared with my beloved French roommate.

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