through the looking glass

I’d wanted to do this trip into gannan in the reverse order, ending rather than starting in lanzhou (to bring back overpriced western food, or course) but life doesn’t often go according to plan so this trip began in the city. everything was booked solid, and in a moment of complete selfishness I sat around hoping a peace corps volunteer who’d forgotten his passport would have to bail on his reservation so I could grab it. I am hereby disallowed to claim generosity as a personality trait.

but sometimes luck favors selfish fools, and while wandering we caught sight of a sign advertising 60元 rooms and headed in. the cheap seats long gone, they pointed us to the vip area, affordable at 100. the giant two room suite on the third floor housed leather couches and a majong table but also the putrid smell of rotting mutton; fortunately the fourth floor version smelled like shampoo and the only thing funky about the carpet was the color scheme (red and black tiger stripes, who knew). from near homeless to top of the world in 4.5 minutes.

the last time I was in the city I had good luck at the bodin coffee shop for western food so we headed there for a little taste of home. but where the steak dazzled and the hawaiian pizza shone before this trip left my pallet wanting and my wallet gaping. even the irish coffee left me only dregs.

an awful lot poorer, the evening was saved by an enjoyable visit with teacher ning. a true grumpy old man at 33, a hidden poet, a man in posession of a wonderful sense of sarcasm. a day including his amorphicly intriguing presence cannot be lost.