China Day 18

Understandably, this morning was rough. I had WAY too much to drink last night, but I had soooo much fun. It was definitely worth it. BUT. My head was quite painful this morning - not as bad as it could have been if we'd had anything to do other than sleep until 10am - but lucky for me that's all I had to do!

We were all ferried over to the L'Hotel at 11 (check out time) which is our new hotel - they have an hourly shuttle to the temple where the festival is going on and all of the other Taoist participants are staying here too. I was still a little drunk by the time we got to L'Hotel and was not too happy to find out that to eat lunch we had to go to the temple.

It turned out well though, the food made me feel a little better and Bowen showed me a wonderful spot next to a big Banyan tree that I could have stayed at all day, especially with the kind of story telling that was going on - I'll never look at birds the same again.

But I was fiending for a mountain top SOOOOO badly today. I just can't stand any more racket (taoist music) or crowds. All I could think about all day was getting myself to a place like the top of Haleakala or Yosemite or Zion or something... Canyon Falls! Good grief. Not that China has been so incredibly crowded. I've actually been really surprised about that. I was expecting crowds like you see on tv when they show Manhattan or something to that effect at least and it's not at all like that. The only place that there's been so many people that it was difficult to navigate yourself through the crowds was the Forbidden City... the tourist meccas.. that kind.

It was also nice to see how good of a mood Shifu was in today. She was maybe the happiest I've ever seen her and it was nice to be around that. Especially with how rotten we've been on this trip. I've been wondering (and I'm sure other people have too) if she'll ever want to do something like this again. I'll be shocked if she does...

Anyway, we left the temple on the 2:30 shuttle (we barely made it) and all headed to our new rooms. Bowen and I are in 1818 and I think it might have some kind of lazy curse. I sit or lay down on the bed and that's completely satisfying. I don't want to do anything else. The other funny thing of course, is that there's no wall between the shower and where the beds are. Just a big piece of glass - it's hilarious. There's a thin shower curtain to block any visitors from bathroom activities - which of course we had to test when Zach came over.. we could see his nipples only when he was completely pressed up against the glass. ...I'm so disappointed. I had SO wanted to make some friends out in Hong Kong and invite them up for a shower.

Anyway. After lazing around for a while, Polly, Rhonda, Val, Zach, Bowen, and I went on a dinner wild goose chase. It was good for walking around and getting some exercise (trying to find chinny-chin eyes and perhaps some bubble bath and a razor), but terrible for my mood (and Zach's, who's even worse than me - I didn't think that was possible) which was crashing due to extreme hunger. It took a ridiculous amount of time to find a non-chinese place to eat that didn't have a 2 hour long wait. We ended up at Outback steakhouse (my first time) which upset Bowen so much he left and ordered room service. When my burger arrived I wished I had done the same. It was not good. I shouldn't have been so cheap and ordered the mushroom filet like Zach did, but I'm a cheap-ass. Oh well. Hopefully I've learned.

It was especially frustrating to find out that the hotel was only a 5-10 minute walk from where we ate, even though it took us an hour to get there.