BeiHai II

And onto BeiHai... continued.

Our second day, we knew we had to hit the beach. The weather was wonderful and the sun was shining. We walked across the street from our hotel and reached the sand. We headed away from the people that were on the beach and laid down a sheet on the sand... and began tanning (that is, Monika and I did. Audre was afraid of the sun because she had just gotten burnt in 20 minutes in Sanya). The sun WAS hot, but not too hot. I could tell I was getting darker faster than if I laid out in the US though. Score!

(This is what happens when you are a foreigner in China--many requests for pictures)

After about three hours on the beach we went back to the hotel, cleaned up and went into town. We were supposed to meet two other girls, but they didn't call us until so the three of us took a rickshaw to some restaurant. Audre really wanted to eat Vietnamese food and Wikipedia said there should be lots of those restaurants in town, but we couldn't find any. We had the rickshaw driver drive us to some restaurant and it was, of course, a seafood place, so we went to one a few places down and it had a great sweet and sour fish so we ordered it.

We also ordered mini Chinese cabbage (because I knew how to say that in Chinese) and some buns with a weird filling (pork fat and vegetables). Afterwards we decided to go to some Western owned bar. After some time we got to a place called "Seafood Island" (Wai Sha) and found Tony's bar (which we read about also on Wikitravel... one of two Western owned bars in Beihai), but before that we sat on some bridge/walkway and had a couple beers. The breeze was blowing, we were all looking good, and life was good.

Later, when we actually sat down at Tony's bar, the other two girls (Barbara and Kate) met up with us and we were approached by some older man who turned out to be from Holland. He said there were only about 50 foreigners in Beihai, and I'm gonna take a wild guess and say about 99% of them are older than 45. We saw a table of them at Tony's, and one of them included Tony. The guy introduced himself and said HE also owned a bar, on "Old Street". He lured us in with saying that the first drink was on him if we would come to his bar, and also that he might have an empty apartment for us to stay in (he's married, no worries) because we lost our hostel for the island for the proceeding nights. He also advised us that the island was not worth going to, or so he had heard from his other bar guests. So we went to his bar about an hour later and had a few drinks (nope, not even one was free, and we didn't ask for a discount). Another girl who worked with Kate and Barbara met us, along with her Russian boyfriend and his friend. Then the party began! We went to another bar, got a table outside, and a bottle of Johnny Walker. We danced a little then took a taxi back to the hotel.

The next day (Sunday), before we could proceed with our day, we had to go to the ferry port to buy our tickets for our island trip. We bought tickets for the next day because the ones for that day were sold out. We saw an Australian and two Americans, but I didn't get a chance to speak with them. I love seeing foreign people in China. So THEN we had to find a hotel and after three tries on a rickshaw, we found an affordable, but kind of shitty one. Beihai has no hostels. The rickshaw driver offered us his services for 10Yuan each, for the whole day! Talk about CHEAP labor (we could get driven anywhere we wanted for less than $2 per person). We didn't take it because we didn't need a driver all day. When we got settled into the hotel, we asked the driver to drive us to a restaurant, and guess what? He took us to the same one as the driver did the day before. Some kind of arrangement and monopoly between that restaurant and rickshaw drivers? I think so. So we went to the other restaurant (from the previous day) and the rickshaw driver noticed and called Kate over. He told her that she would need to pay him now, instead of after, since we didn't take his restaurant choice. I think the rickshaw drivers can lower their prices if they drive us to this particular restaurant because for every group it takes there, they get some money, but since we didn't go there, they wanted money from

us right away, and more money as a matter of fact. Finally we ate, got ready in the hotel and then went to Silver Beach which was horrible (crowded and far).

We had a lot of "firsts" this trip, and many at Silver Beach. I drank my first coconut juice out of a coconut, we all got stung by jellyfish (or medusa hehehehhehe)...oh Monika and I got charged 5Yuan for taking a picture with a plastic crab, and luckily my Chinese saved us (this phrase saves us very often... they think you're just a stupid foreigner). Tīng bù dǒng (don't understand). This place was soooo crowded and pretty far from where we lived, so it was kind of a pointless beach excursion... except I got super tan in the few hours we were outside. The Russians and Amy (the Chinese girl who is dating one of them) met us at the beach and it was fun. We went back to the hotel and showered then headed to WaiSha, again, to have dinner at a local seafood place.

As you can see from the picture above, someone was drunk hahaha. We ate a meal that was catered to us and our budget (some people didn't want to eat anything too expensive, even though the meal itself was super cheap). We had shrimp, eggplant, fish, beer (of course), mussels, noodles, and other dishes I can't recall. Later, we drank a few bottles outside (of beer, NOT vodka) and Monika, Max (pictured above) went to the club! First we had a few drinks at that Holland Bar (which isn't really my favorite to say the least) and I taught Monika and Max how to play that drinking dice game (too hard to explain in a blog, but I love this game when I'm drinking and I must admit, I'm pretty good). Then we went to a place called... NONE OTHER THAN The KK Club. Bahahahhaha, how does the KK find me, even on the coast of China!? Hehehhe.

We had a GREAT time at the "club". It was filled with Chinese guys, but it was more like a bar. Maxsim ordered Chivas whiskey for us (don't think we have that in the US, but it's popular here) and we danced and drank. At some point, Max knocked over a bubbly fish tank next to the DJ on the dance floor, but it was ok, because we were not Chinese... and I'm not joking here. Many people came to us and brought cans of beers so we would drink with them and so we did! At some point Monika came up to me and told me to hide Max's keys to his rented moped. I guess he told her "He would be back in three minutes" and that's when she knew he was drunk, so she followed him. While I was at our table drinking with people, I saw that some Chinese guy was chasing someone or something with a bamboo cane. Then everyone ran from the club outside. Obviously I was a little nervous so I followed and saw Monika crouching over Max whose face was pretty bloody. She told me to call the ambulance (umm what the fff is the number to an ambulance in China? How do I call if I can't speak Chinese?!) I had no idea what to do so I got Monika's phone and she called someone, I think Kate, but no one answered. We grabbed our things and headed toward the street where we knew there would be taxis. At this point, we had no idea what happened... I was inside, and Monika only found Max a minute after she went outside when he was already beat up. We got a taxi and made Max tell him "doctor" in Chinese. We went to the hospital and waited while Max got stitches under his right eye. No passport necessary. We filled out some info, but I filled it out so it obviously was made up, because even I didn't know Max that well! The doctor told us the fee and Monika said "500 Yuan?!" "No, FIVE Yuan, Monika", said I. She thought it was 500Yuan, but I heard five. FIVE? Pretty cheap for stitches and some shots. I think that's less than what it cost for the materials used. The hospital was pretty empty considering it was about 1AM. I was pouting the whole time (drunk and had a pretty good set up at the club), but trying to take in the fact that I was in a Chinese hospital... anyway, we have no idea what happened to Max or how the fight started, but he told Monika three different, fuzzy stories while drunk. I know how to deal with a drunk person now though, just pretend they're a baby. Max is fine, we are all fine, and our night ended with Monika and I sharing her twin sized bed in the hotel room, and Max sleeping in my bed. And oh yea, when we woke up his pillowcase was all bloody because of the wounds on his face.

Until BeiHai III post people! Thanks for reading.