China Diaries 7 - Guangzhou, Nanan, and Xiamen....more cities on the Coors tour

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Wednesday, November 28, 2007


Guanghzou, Nanan, Xiamen....more cities on the Coors tour in China

Hello to all....It's been a few days from the last time I wrote and that was in Guangzhou where we had a bit of a scuffle at the club with the way we were being treated, the Chinese men here seem to think it's ok to treat woman like inferiors beings (unless it's women with connections in the government to solitify their social status or any other way of requiring respect of others that is not in the typical daily life). I just observe everything around and take it all in and it's how I react to it that's going to make the rest of trip interesting. Interesting it is......


Where to start.........ok so the last time I wrote it was from the internet hall, where everyone conjigates and plays Halo or whatever major internet game they play. The few days that we were in Guangzhou it wasn't so bad. On Saturday night we danced at a club called 97 which was pretty fun, the only thing that was irritating is sitting around and waiting to dance. We can't and don't walk around the club like back home because 1) we're foreign and we stand out 2) we are wearing outfits that make it obvious 3) people are drunk and stupid, it seems like everytime we walk down an aisle, someone is pulling us to have a drink with him/her and they are up in your face, no thanks on that. The crowd was great however at 97, they seemed to really enjoy our vibe and dancing on the stage, jumping up and down. For the most part, people stop to watch us and stare where as at 97 people were dancing around really getting involved. But once our last set was over, we went back to the hotel and went to bed.

Within the few days that we were in Guangzhou, we did alittle bit of shopping at a little district of old proper Chinese style buildings with shops selling boots, boots, and more boots. It was driving me crazy because of all the various boots and how cheap it is my god you can't get it at home. I tried so desparately not to spend anything, but let's face it, you can't get this stuff at home for the price they were selling it so I gave into my indulgence and did a little bit of shopping. I bought an amazing peacoast for about $12 dollars, and some capris. I wanted to go crazy and buy so much stuff but I didn't, I kept it minimal. We also went to the salon and got a shampoo and massage which is also amazing. The shampoo and massage your head on a laydown bed, then they massage your arms, shoulders, occipital ridge, hands, and alittle on the back. While we were all getting a massage, someones dog came running into the shampoo area and jumped on a customer, luckily though the customer didn't get mad and the dog was so cute, you couldn't really get mad at it. Right after the massage, they take you to the chair and the beauticians style your hair. Because Lacie and I are.....um....well.......not Asian (though I'm a quarter Asian), we had atleast 4 people around us while they were drying our hair. "Very beautiful" was the common slogan we got, which was cool. Paul and his wife got their shampoo and trim as well, but his wife is Chinese and Paul speaks Chinese so it wasn't as interesting as it was us.

The last night we were in Guangzhou, we danced at another club called House DJ Club which was alittle dull. It was a Sunday night though so of course it wasn't expected to be packed, and the DJ who played before Paul wasn't very good at all as he kept train wrecking and couldn't even beat match. He would let a song play till the end before mixing in another, he played Dr. Dre two times in a row, a really bad Brittany Spears and Eminem mashup (not at the same time) so needless to say we danced of course but it wasn't fun to dance to. Our breaks were long too so once we were done, we would just hang out and watch the other gogos dance and it's great to watch how others get down. Here it seems as though they look extremely miserable or there are few and far between the ones who seem to be having fun and have some rythym. They wear regular clothes for the most part, dance one song and then jump off the box for the other to get up and do their thing. To be honest, it was one of thse nights where it was like, "ok we done yet?" and for those who know me, I can stay up on the podium for awhile. After we were done, you know what we did like usual, we left and it was 'back to the hotel.'

The guys here who are putting together the tour are a bit unorganized because they don't tell us what we are doing the next day, and we don't know how long we are staying at certain hotels, we asked when we are leaving and there's no exact time. The following morning, we were told we aren't leaving until around 4pm, noon comes around and it's "hurry and let's go." Luckily Lacie and I are good at packing our stuff quickly, but it's so irritating not having a call time because being a gogo dancer or model or just on point in general, give me a time to be ready I will be ready. Anyway, we managed to gather up our stuff quickly, haul it down to the lobby, pack up a van, and drive to the next city on the tour which was on the way back to Xiamen. One stop, one night in a town that is more of farmland, busy but not the typical cities we were going to. I cannot express to anyone the typical way of driving here, it's absolutely unexplainable as to how they conduct their way of flowing traffic, merging, head on, passing, crossing, etc.....you really have to experience the everyday style of getting somewhere. I really wish I can explain it, I will try and record the driving, but it's very hard because I'm always in the back of the bus, taxi, or van. The good thing about it here is they don't drive very fast, but manuvuering anywhere here, it's every man for himself pretty much. I know I've mentioned it before in my previous blogs, I have to mention it again and probably again in my next, I'm just amazed by it all. Great to tell the grandkids though, "Yeah hunny, I was in a taxi that was driving straight towards a bus, oh did I tell you I stopped a bus and walked infront of it? Oh what about the time I crossed a 6 lane street while cars were driving by, or the time we squeezed inbetween to dump trucks, I was invisible!" Yeah pretty much how it is here, no one has road rage either so I guess that's a positive point, they just go with the flow.

When we arrived into Nanan the farmland town, there was one major hotel in the city and the hotel owns the club so the club was next door which was great. It's a 4 * business hotel and we were pretty happy with it considering the others have been 3 * and not the best, so even though we were there for a night, we totally enjoyed being there. The view wasn't the best, there were a few buildings being developed across the way but overall you would be a bit shocked to think a nice hotel like this and club for that matter was in this type of town. Lacie and I enjoyed the room and location so much, I went and bought a bottle of Brandy to get alittle buzz on finally. I know in most of my clubbing photos I noticably have a shot in my hand but fact of the matter is, it's usually the same one in every one and I've drinking a total of four times, this time at the hotel being the third overall on the trip. We thought, we're walking distance to the club, so why not? We got ready, Paul came into our room and told us he wasn't playing because the turn tables had a problem so we were dancing our sets only tonight, we were half the show. It was fine though, we put the brandy and 7up into a bottle and had a good night dancing around. The club was cool, I cant' remember the name of it but the layout was nice and the crowd was good, people on the dancefloor having a good time. I also forgot to mention that in every club, they have singers, and skits going on so that's the only buzzkill because we have to sit around and wait until they are finished, and we have to work around their time, so it can be a bit tedious when we sit there for 40 minutes. Overall the night was good and the following day we were off to Xiamen.

So now we are here in Xiamen. When we arrived, the club YoYo originally put us up in a hotel that was above the club. The hotel looked like a whore house to be frank, it smelt, it looked run down, there was a variety pack of condoms in the bathroom and since this was our only day and night off where we didn't have to do anything, it really made us miserable. As soon as we got into the room, we took a nap, woke up and needed to get out for abit to cruise around. I walked to mall that had KFC, McDonalds, and Pizza hut (I've also been eating Chinese on the daily as well but I don't know the places I eat at). Lacie and I both told Paul we weren't happy with the room and wanted to get out of it, it was bringing our mood down. So we all met up at the hotel, talked about what could be done, decided to check out a hostel close to his place, went there, checked it out, liked the place better, got some laundry done, and felt alittle bit better knowing the following day we will be out of the hotel. We stayed in the hotel for the night because it was already payed for, we just thought "ok we can deal with it for a night because tomorrow we will be out" and luckily we aren't staying there because at 10 pm, the club goes off. From the tenth floor down you can feel the vibration and that's the last thing we wanna deal with after coming back from one.

I'm writing my blog now from our little studio apartment that got instead of the hotel that was actually cheaper then the hotel. It's in an area that is quaint and more family oriented, little bakeries, shops, quiet, it suites us better here. Yesterday seemed like the most productive day because we walked around, got some stuff done, we FINALLY had internet again and overall put us in a better mood. Plus we are by Paul and his wife, so if we needed anything we can just walk over. We had to go to sound check around 4pm at the club and it was hard trance night, so it's burning hardcore calories night. Met a few of the performers there while we waited around at the club, the club is cool. The clubs here have such great layouts, it's all about show. There's always more then enough tables, vip tables, seats, the lighting always seems to be good, the decor is always ellaborate, I've yet to see any club like this back home. They pay attention to detail, for the most part. I can't speak for all clubs, but pretty much every club I have been at is like that. Once sound check was done, we went to a western type resturant and had a meal, it was great.

We got ready back at our flat, and because we were bored for most of the day we took alot of video footage for giggles. I know we're being nerds, but it was fun, we had fun and those are already up for the world to see. We headed to the club at 10:45 pm . We brought a bottle of brandy and 7up again (my fourth night of drinking here) and had a buzz going. Our sets were short which was nice, only 10 minutes long and it was hard trance, some of it happy hardcore......not my cup of tea. The crowd really enjoyed it though, but after awhile people started getting drunk and stupid again so once our final set was done, we changed and bounced. Jiang Li, Paul, Lacie and I took a cab back to our place, we said our good night and walked back to our building. On the way, there was a couple cooking some food on the side of the road (typical here late at night) and I wanted to try authentic Chinese late night finger foods, so he cooked me up a chicken leg and it was the BEST CHICKEN EVER. I don't know what spices homeboy put on it, but it was succulent and perfect. Kudos to that guy, what a way to top the night which some chicken that was finger lickin' good.

Now I'm laying in bed, it's 8:23 am here, haven't really slept cause my roomie was on the computer the whole time and tv was on, so I figured might as well write my blog now. She took one look at my blogs and said, "wow you don't fuck around huh?" I told her writing is addicting for me, I have to make myself stop because I will keep rambling. We took some silly photos last night that are in my album, cause' we're goofballs. But how often do you meet someone and work with him/her for a month and get along well? We do. Now I'm about to get off this thing and catch some sleep to gear up for another night at the club, a few more days of this tour and I get to come home. For the first time in my travelling experiences, I never been so anxious to go home and see everyone, usually I enjoy being gone, but I miss my friends, my man more then anything, the crazy family, my cat, my jamba juice, and my sushi fix (on the corner of cedar and india street in little italy, it's the best!). I shall write another installment in a couple days.

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Photos

This is cool
Our poster next to Giselle

A view from our farmland hotel
The hotel we stayed at was a great hotel and there were some foreigners as well due to growing business in this area.

Drink of choice
It may seem like I drank a lot in China but out of the whole month, I drank maybe 5 times. This whiskey was pretty good

Lacie, myself, Jiang Li, and Paul
Paul is from southern California, and now lives in China with his wife Jiang Li.

Jiang Li
She is a very willed person, I really liked her. She takes no bullshit, speaks very little English, but is great overall.

Coors promo models
Here's the Club YoYo crew.