JULY, 2004

2005: JULY, JUNE, MAY, APRIL, MARCH, FEBRUARY, JANUARY,
2004: DECEMBER, NOVEMBER, OCTOBER, SEPTEMBER, AUGUST, JUNE

7/31/04 - I woke at dawn and couldn't go back to sleep. It was well before sunrise, but Tenaya Canyon and the Half Dome saddle I was sleeping on was illuminated with an early-morning light. It would have been incredibly beautiful if I wasn't so preoccupied with getting back to sleep. I made the move back into the tent, and slept until 8am or so. I heard lots of voices of early morning climbers heading up the final switchbacks and ascending the cables. It was a very nice morning, the kind I haven't seen in San Francisco in nearly a month. I made slow progress but eventually got up to make a cup of coffee and make my way over to the canyon edge. It is a surreal view looking out over all that granite. I have not come across anywhere in the world that can compete with Yosemite, though the park gets quite blighted (and bloated) in summer with tourists. I made some blueberry and toblerone pancakes and had a restful, relaxing last morning in Yosemite. I was a bit ahead of schedule, so I sat back on a granite slab and listened to music until the large ants began eating me. Around 10:30 or so I started down the mountain. It was a long descent - 4,400 feet to the valley. I passed at least a hundred people on the way down. Most looked extremely exhausted - head down, panting, many asking how much further the summit was. JJ and I stopped at the Merced river for a dip. As there was nowhere to swim and wash up on the H-Dome saddle, this was a refreshing bath. I saw a snake swimming around on the water, but decided not to tell or show her. All snakes know how to swim. I ate a tuna fish bagel sandwich with asiago and basil, along with more TJ'sd sweet and savory trail mix and beef jerky. We hiked on down to Nevada and Vernal Falls, getting stuck in traffic jams with the civilians taking on the ambitious 1.3 mile hike to Vernal Falls. Bus service was looking quite spotty, so once we reached Happy Isles we walked the additional mile to Curry Village. This made 8.5 miles for the day and 33.5 for the 3 day trip. Not a bad average. We ordered a pepperoni and bell pepper pizza with a salad. JJ got a Sierra Nevada, but I settled for more cold water. Delicious pizza. The pizza at Curry Village has served as a celebratory feast for many treks and climbs. We caught a shuttle over to Yosemite Village, returned our bear canisters and waited for a shuttle headed towards Tuolomne Meadows. We boarded at five, payed an outrageous $15 each for the 45 mile journey and listened to music as we watched the scenery pass us by. Around 7:30 we made it back to Tuolomne and walked the mile back to the car. We picked up our food from the food storage box and headed out. It took four and a half hours to make the drive including a stop in Oakdale for cheap gas and even cheaper burritos. We arrived back in the Bay Area at midnight and slept well.

7/30/04 - It was a predictably beautiful morning in Yosemite. Summer weather in San Francisco is awful, at least this summer, so I like to soak in the blue skies and warm temperatures of the Sierra. I guess it is inaccurate to pluralize sky. JJ jumped in Sunrise Lake and laid in the sun for the next hour. I made coffee and another egg, asiago, basil, peppers and onion scramble to top a bagel. Delicious breakfast. We packed up and got a late start on the trail. We headed back to the High Sierra Camp, filled up on some water and hiked towards Half Dome. It was a long and vicissitudinous day on the trail - up and down for another 12.5 miles. The final climb to Half Dome was as demanding as the previous afternoon's climb up to Sunrise Lake. We stopped halfway up at the oasis and filled up our four liters. I didn't like the idea of not having any water, so I filled up a freezer bag with two and a half liters and placed it in another plastic bag in the empty bear canister. There were a few thirsty parties on their way down from H-Dome who benefited from the PUR. We finally emerged at the top of the saddle - just before the vertical switchbacks. I found the same campsite that Andy and I had slept at two years ago, our first night on the trail. We arrived at 6:25 and had enough time to set up camp and relax a bit before starting the ascent to the top of Half Dome. I like the final push - big granite blocks carved out of the mountain rising to the smooth slope of the dome. I got a good shot of the cables ascending towards the summit. We arrived on top around 7:30. I shimmied out on the diving board and watched some of the climbers. There were two guys directly below me. They were getting ready to spend the night on the rock, but they were not doing much more than hanging out on a small ledge and having a little bite to eat. It didn't look like they had any sleeping bag or mattress, but maybe it was a warm enough night to not need one. I'd've liked my sleeping pad, weight be damned. I took a few more artistic shots I knew would not turn out. The light was excellent and the view was incredible. You could not see too far down Yosemite Valley, too clearly that is, due to the evening haze. The sunset was very cool, much like the one Andy and I had caught a few years earlier. There were other people on the top with us, but they were far away and descended shortly after the sun set. We passed them on the way down the cables. As we descended a full moon began rising over the eastern ridge. It was huge; looked like something Industrial Light & Magic had created for George Lucas and his son on their camping trip. I took some pictures of it I knew would not turn out. JJ and I went down head first, gaining much needed speed and style points. I cannot imagine ascending or descending the cable section on a busy Saturday. Back at our side I began making dinner. I had to finish off some of the freeze-dried meals I had - Kathmandu curry & lentils and a package of creamy mushroom pasta. The pasta was quite good, but the Backpacker's Pantry lentils were too watery and undercooked (neither of which is my fault). It was more than enough food, especially after a few Toblerone triangles for dessert. We slept outside under a very large full moon.

7/29/04 - JJ and I left San Francisco relatively early and drove out to the East Bay. We stopped in Berkeley to get a sleeping bag from a kimono-clad Scott, then stopped by my parent's place in Danville so I could pick up my camping gear and get some breakfast. We got on the road by noon, and after a stop at Safeway, continued on to Yosemite. We arrived in Tuolomne at 4:30 and picked up a wilderness permit from the ranger station. I received the third degree about bears, trails, and garbage. I hate getting in trouble when I haven't done anything wrong or haven't done anything wrong yet. The trails I wanted to take were closed, so I got a permit for Rafferty Creek. This trail extended out on the Lyell Fork and up to Vogelsang, but I did not want to take this uncharted trek. I figured I would take the risk and venture down the trails I wanted. I paid to play, don't send me out of my way. We left the car at the ranger station and headed towards the campground in Tuolomne Meadows. I wasn't sure if we were going to have to hike the prescribed four miles away from developed facilities, or if there would be anything available. All of the campsites were taken, predictably, so I gambled that there was a backpacker site available. There was, and we scored a food box in the bear bin and stocked up on marshmallows, graham crackers, stove fuel, mosquito spray and bagels. We made a delicious meal with the chicken we had marinated in a wasabi-lime sauce and added it to couscous with peppers and onions. Good dinner, followed by a campfire and smores for dessert.

7/28/04 -

7/27/04 -

7/26/04 - Glen Hudson is back baby. Like a noble Phoenix, he has risen from the ashes and is back on the scene. He came over to Scott's this morning and met up with me. We went to Intermezzo on Telegraph and ordered tuna fish sandies and salad, a very healthy lunch which should balance out the bacon double western cheeseburgers and 4 egg omelletes I intend to eat this week. It was good to catch up and see him back in action. I caught another BART train into the City and read part of a free book I got at a book rack by the parking garage elevator on Telegraph. It's called How To Create a New Identity. I also got a spanish-english dictionary and George Orwell's [commemorative 1984 edition] 1984. I'm at Caffe Roma, another cafe offering wifi service here in North Beach. I'm planning on running out to Golden Gate Park to watch a soccer game, but I am in no shape for that 10 mile or so run. I'll probably do it anyways and see what happens.

7/25/04 - It was a foggy morning at Scott's, even though it was quite sunny out. It took us awhile to get out of the house and get some burritos in us, but we chose well - the original Gordo's on Solano. Scott's advice - always go Super and don't skimp on the guac and sour creme. You might want to start with a bean and cheese or chicken, then work your way up to carnitas. It could have been hotter, for my taste, but for five dollars it was nearing a very respectable two pounds. Around 6:30 Scott and I dropped of Jason at his car, then picked up Haley and her friend Jen and went to the Parkway Speakeasy to see The Bourne Supremacy. Yahoo! movies lied, it was not playing there. We drove to Emery Bay, it was not playing there either. We drove to the Bay St. location and found out it was sold out for the 8pm. After 3 pizzas at CPK, we made out 9pm showing and sat in the second row. This Emeryville location has the biggest popcorn stand I have ever seen. It is ridiculous. There were about a dozen cash registers and at least 4 popcorn machines. It was a moment of emerica-toxic-shock. The movie was ok -the first was better. The car chase scene needed a better song - the first one had Oakenfold's Ready Steady Go, but the closing scene in this one had Moby's Extreme Ways, which worked well. There were some plot flaws, like how Ben Affleck killed Matt Damon, but Damon wasn't really dead, and the next assassin - Casey Affleck was dispatched. Oh well.

7/24/04 - Got into character at Scott's place for the wedding. We picked up Shawn at his house shortly before six, and there was a colorful exchange between Scott and Shawn. Shawn reminded Scott of some of the duties of the best man - one big one was to get the groom to the wedding on time. Scott turned up the reggae and told Shawn that it was cool. Shawn was nervy, very understandably. He was only five minutes late. The wedding was awesome. The ceremony was the perfect length - not too long or too short, and Shawn kept his promise to be sober (bad joke). The reception was even better. Delicious food, entertaining speeches and a bit of dancing. Apparently Shawn told the DJ to play whatever he wanted, so there were more crowd-pleasers than the Public Enemy, Deltron 3030 and Ill Mitch - the stuff I wanted to hear. We drove down to Paragon, the upscale bar/club at the Claremont and drank libations on the deck overlooking the Bay and SF. The party got moved to Scott's where memories faded into the early morning hours...

7/23/04 - Went for a slow run to the Ferry building and back. I am not quite in marathon shape, but it was nice to stretch the legs before the evening festivities. At Caffe Puccini again, where dolla coffees, free wifi, and the bohemian North Beach scene help me pretend like I'm home.

7/22/04 - I was supposed to be getting back into the Bay Area today. Strange to think that I've been here for two weeks already; it feels like I never really left. It's refreshing when you look back at the last four months of your life as if it was a vivid dream. Maybe it was?! I ate a large lunch at Mama's, then tried to drop off my suit at a Men's Wearhouse. When I came back to pick it up, they said there were some spots on it and they couldn't press it. They suggested I get it dry-cleaned. I thought about telling them that the suit was clean when I dropped it off and that now it was there problem, but I left defeated, stealing the rest of their peppermint hard candies on the way out. I dropped it off at a dry cleaners and took BART into the City to meet some friends for dinner. I ate at Ana Mandara, a very nice Vietnamese place on Fishman's Wharf. Don Johnson has his hand in this cookie jar, which leaves me duly impressed. I ate Vietnamese rice with andouille sausage, chicken and shrimp with julienne carrots. Amazing how exotic fried rice can sound! It did come in a banana leaf, and it was good. I also had seared scallops on risotto and some dungeness crab soup. Mmmmm

7/21/04 - I perused some Lonely Planet titles at Barnes & Noble, particularly the Trekking in Nepal. I wanted to get some information for the possible trip to Nepal this fall. The possibility is now much closer to nil and much further away from 100% when I met up with my dad in Oakland. He had just dined at Scott's at Jack London Square and informed me my uncle Michael is likely not going to. Just the same I guess. I'll start the school year in Shanghai and make some $$, something that doesn't look like its going to be happening here in the Bay Area anytime soon. So ist das Leben. I helped my dad with a few things on the computer, then had a nice dinner of steaks and pasta salad with my mom as I showed her some pics on the laptop from China.

7/20/04 - I woke up at Mike's flat in Portrero Hill and did some work online, burned some of his music, wanted to watch about 40 of his 860 dvds. I brought him back four seasons of the Sopranos for $40, he seemed grateful - apparently one season goes for $80 or so here. That's only two and a half months work for many Chinese people. I took a bus downtown to a Men's Wearhouse to get my sizes for a tuxedo for James' wedding next month, then caught another bus up into Russian Hill to JJ's place. We ate at Nick's Crispy Tacos on Polk and watched some of VH1's Best of the 90's. I graduated high school in 1994 so it was interested to see the music I was supposed to be listening to, the movies I was supposed to be watching, and the lyrics to famous John Tesh songs I was supposed to be quoting (You My Chicken Hawk Tonight).

7/19/04 - Monday - I woke up at 9:30 at Scott's, much too early I think, and didn't do too much until one or two when we went out to get some bagels and coffee. I burned some of his music, courtesy of a wifi system that existed for about an hour in the upstairs flat. I headed into SF to go by the boat and then on to Mike's place in Potrero. We aspired to hit up neighborhood night at Goat Hill pizza where you get all you can eat pizza for $9 or so, but settled on an XL to eat while watching a movie. We watched selected scenes from The Office, the best of Will Farrell, and then the full length feature Auto-Focus. The movie was more or less a biography on the strange and nymphomatic life of Bob Crane, Hogan from Hogan's Heroes.

7/18/04 - Went down to the beach between Baker Beach and the Golden Gate Bridge. Nice spot, but it was very foggy. There were also a lot of gaylords there (privilegedlife.org no longer uses the culturally insensitive term "batty boys"), many walking around naked, despite the cold. Not that there is any problem with this, of course, but I would have preffered a clothing optional beach with only females, dig it? Stopped by Q on Clement for coffee and a bite to eat, then barted over to Walnut Creek to attend a BBQ at Clack's with Scott and my sister Lauren.

7/17/04 - Michael came over to the Capricorn in the morning. The mast is shot, which means the Cap will be on the DL for at least another few months. It's Saturday afternoon at 6:12 and I'm at Caffe Greco. The wireless internet on my laptop is working, for some strange reason. My philosophy of solving problems by ignoring them and hoping they go away is further substantiated. Not sure what I am doing tonight, but it's always nice to have options, of which I have plenty...

7/16/04 - Scott and I went out to breakfast at a boutique breakfasterie on Solano. $8 omelletes and strong coffee delivered. Gorgeous waitress. We asked for aspirin, which they confirmed they had, but they said there was liability or something and they couldn't give it to us. They recommended drinking more coffee. After killing time back at Scott's place, we went to the AT&T store in Emeryville to get me a phone. Dennis hooked me up with a new Nokia 2260 (the Geo Metro of cell phones) for $23. It doesn't take pictures and I can't restart my servers, but TPIR. We stopped by Shawn's place to bug him while he put together a wine cabinet from Crate & Barrel (he informed me that any gift I got in China for his wedding had better be exchangeable at Crate & Barrel. I'll give him the gift receipt for the stall at the Kashgar Sunday Market where I got it, he can exchange it there if he wants. Scott dropped me off at BART and I met up with JJ. We had some dinner, then met up with friends at Butter, my favorite club in SF. Chaz, one of her friends, was DJing a long set, replaced by some suspicious French guy. I'm not quite sure why, but French guys start with one strike against me. In line at the bathroom, a guy behind me said "You sure are a tall drink of water." I was caught off guard, stammered out a "ahh, yeah, and I'm drinking a tall drink of rum and coke," then rolled my eyes. If it was a good looking woman who said that I would have probably responded with "sure am, would you like a sip?" - but advances from gay men always catch me off guard. Cheers to Butter for providing two beer bongs to choose from - a single and a double. Their drink special - a shot of JD and a Bud Tall Boy is a favorite of mine as well. I did not see any 40 ozs last night, but I believe they are still on the menu. Nice to know that you can go to a hip San Francisco club and nod your head to the beats of Frenchy La Freak and drink a 40 out of a brown paper bag...

7/15/04 - I went out for a nice kayak ride after sleeping in late. The currents were something fierce, so I didn't make it around Alcatraz as planned. It's always an invigorating and worthwhile paddle, but for some reason its difficult to get out on them, but I'm always happy that I did. A lot of things are like that I guess. My dad came to the pier and we walked up to Moe's in North Beach for lunch. Moe's has the best burgers in the world - the Western is the undisputated champion, according to me. Sometimes you need to order extra BBQ sauce. They're expensive, $8 a shot, so bring your dad and order a milkshake. Good breakfasts at Moe's as well. My uncle Michael met up with us and gave us a ride down to the Pier. We worked on the Capricorn a bit, applying penetrating epoxy and other fun stuff to the hatch covers. Around 4:30 my dad and I started on our rush-hour journey back home to Danville. I needed to get some clothes and put in some face time at home. I made breakfast burritos for dinner because I can with the delicious Johnson's maple honey sausages my dad bought (two for one) at Safeway. Ahh, cheers to the amazing things possible when living in a Western country. My mom drove me into Berkeley to meet up with Scott and Shawn. They were playing pool at the [pool] hall next to La Note on Shattuck. That place is busier than Stoneridge the day after Christmas. We played a few games, I learned a lesson in humilty after Jen beat me (leaving four of my balls on the table). When Scott and I went to his little red MG, his ex-girlfriend had left a note saying hi, and complimenting him on his penis car. We hung out at Scott's drinking pink blush wine (don't ask) and Tsingtao. Scott has been generous enough to provide accomodation in his backyard studio, a gesture that has earned him the coveted #3 speed dial position in my new Nokia.

7/14/04 - I spent a slow day in North Beach, then had some North Beach pizza and crashed on the boat. Film at 11.

7/13/04 - I did get some QT with Echo in the morning, then met up with Scott for lunch at the Crepevine. Everything is good there, I ordered a tomato-less club. My dad joined us and drove me into the City. I got dropped off at Pier 39 and met up with Andrew and Bea for a sail around Angel Island. It was blowing nice - we made 8.3 knots - and had a great few hours on the water. I hadn't been on a boat since I left, so it was some sort of homecoming. I left Andrew and Bea to their year anniversary engagements and met up with JJ for dinner at Soldini's then drinks at Spec's. I ate my last dinner at Soldini's before I left with Scott, Pam and Shawn, so it was another homecoming. Good italian eats, I think its my favorite Italian restaurant in SF. Sean is still working at Spec's, and we got to chat with Mr. Adler (Specs) about some of the paraphenalia on the wall. I had my first Guinesses in a long time.

7/12/04 - After some cold cereal (mmm, cold cereal, why can't I find you in China?), I headed towards SF with my dad. He dropped me off at BART and I rode into SF. I walked the Embarcadero to Pier 39, and was surprised to see the Capricorn in its slip. My dad had talked to my uncle Michael and learned that there was some trouble getting the mast off, and the boat would probably be in Sausalito for another week or so. The boat has been completely renovated, with new rigging, new stove, new cushions, a new fore head, and a complete overhaul on nearly every system. I barely recognized it. The Capricorn is getting ready for a big trip down to coast to the Channel Islands, Santa Barbara, Catalina, and possibly as far south as San Diego (or Mexico?). I visted Chris and Charlotte and Studio 39. I took a picture in the studion and mailed it after walking into North Beach to the Studio 39 crew in Las Vegas. They are opening their second store tonight, apparently. Good on yer!
I did some work at Caffe Roma in North Beach, then got a hold of Pam and Shawn and headed out to Berkeley on BART. We went to Juan's in Berkeley and had a nice Mexican meal - my first Mexican meal in a long time. All the people working there are older men in their 60's or so, wearing really cool short sleeve button down shirts. I had a gigantic burrito. They've been kind enough to put me up for the evening, though it doesn't look like I'll be able to sleep with my favorite dog, Echo.

7/11/04 - I drove with Clack back to the Bay Area, me driving until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, then Clack continuing. I ate dinner with my parents, then went to bed early to try and recover a bit.

7/10/04 - We dined on an egg scramble with coffee and OJ (shouldn't I be saying something closer to Red Bull tea with vodka soaked watermelon?) and eventually motivated up the hill to one of the passes overlooking Donner Lake for some rock climbing. Jon and Ken got to act as guides again, rigging everyone with the harnesses and retying our shoes. We did a few 5.9's and 5.10s, but progress was slow with so many people. We drove back down the hill, stopping at the beach. We opted against paying the exhorbitant $3 per person to get into the West End Beach and returned home. Tri-tip was on the menu for dinner, and took a long time to cook, as the outdoor bbq died halfway through the meatbake. We watched some intriguing short films, then prepared for our evening in Tahoe City. A taxi arrived around 8:30, and we arrived in Tahoe City at the Pierce Street Annex 40 minutes later or so. It filled up quickly. There may have been one more bachelor party, but there was a bachelorette party we teamed up with later on in the evening. They had a pimpin party bus, and Ryan and Chris made their way on to it. We had already procured an invitation to go post-party at their cabin, so the rest of us taxid there. Maybe too many details have already been revealed, as there are certain codes that must be honored for such evenings.

7/09/04 - I went for a run around Hidden Oaks, then made some french toast for breakfast and read the paper. A good morning. Around 1:30 Chris came and we drove to Lake Tahoe, picking up Ryan in Fairfield. We arrived at Donner Lake around the same time that Jon Sargent, Ken Burns, Matt Walker, Evan Johnson and Andy Varcak arrived. Most of those fools had flown into Sacto aeropuerto. Ryan and I coordinated with Chris to surprise Sargent - he didn't know we had made it back stateside from Asia for this soiree - and he dropped us off near the cabin. 20 minutes later Chris and Jon went to get ice. Jon saw Ryan hitchhiking, an appropriate way for Jon to meet up with Ryan after several years. A quarter mile down the road, Jon saw me hitchhiking. He peed his pants, beginning a trend he would not be able to end during the weekend of saturnalia. We returned to the cabin and began the festivities. We stayed in that night, discussing the nuances of Socrates vs Plato and the role of light in Milton's Paradise Lost.

7/08/04 - Finished up with my packing and took a minivan to the airport. It was an uneventful flight home. I watched Hidalgo, Starsky and Hutch and Win a Date with Tad Something. I wrote in my journal and chatted up the Asian woman next to me. She helped me with the pronunciation of some Mandarin words I was studying on my flash cards. My dad picked my up at the airport an hour late. It was very strange to be back in America, especially since I had just traveled so far and it was the exact same time that I had left my apartment. "How could it still be Thursday morning?" I thought. It has something to do with the International Date Line, but I've never used that, as I've never had too much trouble getting girls.
We stopped by my mom's work and I said hello. There was a woman there who had a picture of me climbing Ancient Art in Moab up on her refridgerator, though she's never met me. This happens to me all the time, and I'm finally getting used to it. I bought some sharp white cheddar (I'm phasing out orange cheese from my diet) at Trader Joe's, then headed home to relax for the afternoon and evening. MY dad had bought some goods to make omelletes, so I whipped up a couple omelletes with yellow, red and orange peppers, red onions, jarlsberg and white cheddar cheese and Aidel's sausage. Coffee and OJ, also some toast with strange honey I got for my dad at the Sunday market in Kashgar.

7/07/04 -I woke up and treated myself to a nice breakfast at Rendesvous, the Tawainese place with great breakfast specials. If any Westerner visits me, they will be eating here every morning. $3 gets you a cup of coffee, eggs, bacon, home-fried potatoes and toast. Not the cheapest meal in town, but you can spend a lot more elsewhere for a western breakfast. I spent the day shopping at the outdoor Market near Shanxi and at some department stores. I asked the price of an item I wanted to buy as a wedding present. The salesman did not know. Hmm, that's interesting. He asked another salesperson. She did not know. I pushed them, more out of curiosity than a need to buy this. They got a manager, and he did not know how much it was. He was interested in what I was doing in China, did I think it was hot, etc. He got someone from one of the offices. She examined the item and shook her head. She went to her office and came back with a catalog, then took the item to her office. The workers did not think that this process was anything ordinary. Finally the woman returned and announced it was 220 yuan.
As it was my last night in SH, a group of us - David, Mark, two other dudes I didn't know, and Julia came to dinner at the hot pot below our apartment complex. We had another good meal with lots of beer. Large prawns with skewers down the middle came to our table still alive. I enjoy killing my food moments before eating it, though I may find exceptions to this someday. I paid my $3 for the delicious meal and we went on to a club near Xintandia. I can't remember the name right now. Starts with a P. It was 80 yuan (a bit less than $10) for cover all you can drink, and free for women. Sake had a lot of her Japanese friends there, so we had a good group. Kid Koala - a world-famous DJ who opened for the Beasties on their Hello Nasty tour - is playing there next week. We danced a bit to some good hip-hop, then left around 3. Sake was sick outside and could not make it off the sidewalk and into the cab, but the cabbie was very nice and waited 15 minutes to give her a ride. That happens all the time in San Francisco - young, hot asian girl is throwing up on the sidewalk, and the cabbie waits 15 minutes for her to get in the cab.

7/06/04 – We checked into a nice hotel just after midnight this morning. I had been talking to Serge, a Russian with perfect English. I never detected any kind of accent, and it sounded like he grew up in California. His English is almost as good as my chinglish. We checked into a room together (no one had a room to themselves, alright?!) and discussed the possibility of beer. I had come off a very long weekend and desperately needed a little sleep, at the very least, so my answer was an emphatic yes, of course. They told us at the airport that our flight would leave around 2am, or that we might leave our hotel at 2am - we weren't quite sure. At 1am we decided to go out and find some beers, but the hotel reception told us that we could not leave the hotel, as we might get a call at any minute to get ready and go to the airport. Furthermore, there was nowhere to buy beer anywhere near the hotel. "Hmm, very interesting," we thought. We left the hotel and walked across the street to an Ulger restaurant and asked for beer. No, they're Muslim. Next door was a Chinese restaurant. Four cold beers for 24 yuan. We walked back to the hotel and met a female pimp in the elevator. She was not dressed like an American male pimp or her chicas she was pushin, but she was trying to get us interested in a massage. We told her no thanks, but she managed to get one of her girls in the elevator. I took out my wallet and showed her the contents: 8 jiao, about $0.09. My last 50 yuan was the key deposit. She was not discouraged, and was pushing Serge to negotiate a foot massage. He was not swayed, and she left our room. Interesting, a very upscale hotel has an in-house girl service. I didn't see any mention of it in Guest Directory though. We fell asleep watching the South Park movie on his laptop.
Around 5:30 am we got the call to get ready for the airport. I was a little sleepy - I had a total of 11 hours of sleep the last 3 nights. I was very close to the "10 in 3", which occurs when you get a total of ten hours of sleep in three straight nights. It's not very healthy to do this often, but if done once every 4-6 months, you're probably having a good time (or working much too much, which is usually the case with me). I made it on to the plane and drank several cups of coffee so I could update my journal.
In Shanghai Serge and I took a cab to my house, then he continued on. He refused cab $$, and paid for the beers the night before as well. If he had bought foot massages all around, he would have earned the "gentleman and scholar" designation sought by many. I woke up Mike and gave him a bottle of Russian vodka I bought in Krygyzstan for his birthday, which I had missed. We exchanged a few stories and made plans for the evening. I should have spent the day buying presents and gettiing things ready for my trip, but I pushed that back to Wednesday, my last full day in SH. Julia and Sake came over for dinner. We had a disappointing meal at Thai Thai. They turned the lights out on us, as their way of saying it was time to leave.

7/05/04 – So this all happened today, even though it was sort of a contination of last night. Roger arrived after a long bus ride from Kashgar. He had a nice bottle of wine he wanted to drink, and I fortunately had a corkscrew. We sipped the Lou San - I was wondering why he would choose this moment to drink the bottle - and chatted. He’s been all over Central Asia for several years, including lots of time in Afghanistan. He’s a very optimistic and relaxed traveler, the kind that doesn’t care what happens next, he’ll be having a good time regardless. Even though he has some unbelievably stories (he spent four and a half months in a Pakistani prison when he entered the country without a visa, though he was just trying to take a regional bus in Afghanistan) he still asks wide-eyed "WOW, how was that???" when you tell him you went to Lhasa or somewhere mainstream. We decided to go out and get a drink somewhere, even though it was 1:30am (Beijing time). We bought some beers at a stall that was closing outside the train station. A man there had business cards with fancy cars on them and wanted to drive me around Xinjiang. Another man was stumbling around in his boxers. Roger thinks he saw that guy at a football match in England. We got into a taxi, got yelled at for opening our beers on the steel grate separating the driver from us, then arrived at the restaurant I had partied at my last time in town. Osmand was there, sleeping in a back room, and the two young waitresses. We drank our beer with Osmand (he told me again that it was a hot day and so he drank a few beers and got drunk), danced some Ulgher jigs with the girls, then took off back into the warm night. We drank at a sidewalk cafe and ate liver kebabs. From there we went to the KTV (karaoke) place that Osmand had taken me to before. Roger had a c-note and was intent on using a lot of it this morning, for some reason. We arrived and watched the second half of a very boring Euro Cup finale. There were a lot of chinese guys there at 4am or so, all rooting for Portugal. I don’t know why they were rooting against Greece, or why I was as well. It was a great feeling to be drunk, watching an important game(not for me or Americans, but for the rest of the world) in the early hours of the morning.
Roger wanted some girls, so we got a karaoke room and he tried to barter his $100 bill for three girls, lots of beer and 400 yuan. We waited twenty minutes or so and two girls arrived that were not happy to be there and likely just woken up. He wasn’t impressed and the scene was depressing me, so we took off and went to another sidewalk cafe for more libations. How could there be so many people out eating and drinking at 5am on a Monday morning? We met two well-to-do guys that were drinking until they could check into a hotel later in the morning. Good plan I told them. As dawn set on Xinjiang, we finally got a taxi back to the train station and crashed.
We made it back to the flop-house and slept until noon or so. I made my way back into town and ate some chinese muffins - not bad - for breakfast and killed some time at the internet hut. I took a taxi to the airport for 35 yuan and checked in for my flight. We boarded a little before our 6:25 departure time, but luck was still not on my side. It started raining, then harder, and after an hour we deboarded and began what would be a very long wait in the airport. I pretended to read Moby Dick, but the story became discursive and parablic (not parabolic, I mean like a parable, digit?). Around 10pm they fed us and told us to eat quickly so we could board the plane and begin the five hour flight. At 11:30 they put us on a bus and sent us to a hotel.

7/04/04 – I regrettably did very little in the way of celebrating my nation’s independance, and even forgot to hassle the British girl staying in my room. I rose early after three and a half hours of sleep to go to the market. We arrived much too early, should have gone to the live animal market first. I found some fruit to eat, Sophie and Bart chose to have goat’s head tea and bread. We walked around for a while, but I was very disappointed at what is supposed to be Central Asia’s best market. I tried to find some jade, but a guy I met there tried to take me on a 30 minute hike through the old city to a shop he knew - no jade. I tried to change the last of my money, my $50 note from my shoe. It was a bit faded and no one wanted to change it. They all said that it was good, but Bank of China would not want it. Finally found some money-changers on the street who gave me 400 yuan for it.
I went to the airport in Kashgar and got on my flight to Ürümqi. When I arrived here, I knew I had 45 minutes between my arrival and departure time (to Shanghai). With 20 minutes to go the check-in guy told me that I had a flight for Monday, and would have to talk to the ticket lady. She was absolutely no help, though I’m very confident that she could have got me on the flight. I took a bus into Ürümqi, went online, then tried to check into the hotel I was at last time - Bogeda Binguan. They were full, another set-back I wasn’t in the mood for, so I took a cab to the train station and checked into a flophouse. It was a flophouse in every sense of the word, but only 15 yuan ($1.85). This is a new low for price of accomodation. This record should be much lower, but I’m working on it. I couldn’t sleep, and was woken up a little after midnight when Roger, a British guy, arrived in my room.

7/03/04 – Saturday: Rose late, again, predictably, ate at John’s again, then headed out to the famous Kashgar Market. I guess it’s only famous on Sundays, but we wanted to case the joint before the maddening crowds descended the next morning. I bought some honey for my dad and some tea for Kaala. A knife dealer almost stabbed me when I didn’t buy a knife after negotiating for a little while. We ate at a very shady but popular Xinjiang restaurant, then slowly headed back to the hotel. After a disco nap Sally and I got some Xinjiang food and talked about synthesizing adrenalin. She can do, she contends, if I first get her adrenalin from a live human being. We ran into Sophie and a Belgium guy she was with and went back to the hotel for some beer and a game of Bullshit. We headed out to a bunk club, then walked around Kashgar drinking beer (ok, I was the only one) and ran into a very good Chinese club - just what we were looking for. They wanted 40 rmb at the door, so Bart gave them 20. They yelled at us, we turned and walked into the club. The DJ was a tall, very skinny Asian guy just out of the Methadone clinic, I think. He played four slow songs when we arrived, then they started the lame disco games they play at clubs in China. Six guys came up, and one by one they had to carry a ping pong ball 20 feet with chopsticks. After this they jumped rope for 20 seconds or so. After 30 minutes of this someone won and got a bottle of beer and passes to the club. We danced till they closed - DJ played decent music for a change. This marks the fourth and final weekend of this trip that I’ve made it to a disco, and three of those were double-headers. Didn’t think this trip would go in that direction...

7/02/04 – Rose late, breakfasted with a very nice Australian girl bunked in our room at John’s Information Cafe. I booked onward travel and bought a wedding present for Pam at the bazaar. She better appreciate the distance it is covering on my back. An Ulgher guy from the hotel was helping me, so I’m confident I didn’t get ripped off. I thanked him with a nice Xinjiang lunch of suoman and shishkebabs, nan and tea. Around 9 or 11 (Xinjiang province runs on two different times) I talked the girls into going out. For some reason they wanted to be talked into it - it was Friday and they had no excuse, so we hopped into a club after a recommendation from the peeps downstairs. I don’t know where we went, but it was a good Ulgher club. The bartender tried to sell me imported beer, which they almost always do at clubs like this, but I found some tall boys of Xinjiang beer for ten yuan. We sapped (I’m resurrecting the high school term for drinking beer)(other people used that term, and drank in high school, not me) and made our move to the dance floor, much to the delight of the 100% ulgher crowd (and two pakistanis). The girls got asked twice by locals, who approached in a very humble and respectful way, all things considered, but the girls would’t budge. Apparently they didn’t want to perpetuate the stereotype that western girls are easy. I battled them on that point for a while and asked a tall attractive Asian/Ulgher woman to dance. She was not excited to do so, but her friends made her. I later found out that she was likely a prostitute, but this strange Ulgher type where they are very shy and make no moves towards men. I thought she and the other woman would have been acting a lot different if they were prostitukas, but what do I know? Sophie talked with some Pakistanis that were deconstructing the whole club scene there while Sally and I rapped with the ulgher/asian table. We closed the club out.

7/01/04 – Spent the entire day on the bus, driving through beautiful scenery, but I was too delirious to appreciate it. The border took 13 (thirteen) hours. Amazing how the Kyrgyz-Kazakhstan border was a 60 second walk through with a beer, this one is a painstakingly slow process with many searches. It was ridiculous after eight hours, ricoculous after 10, and by 12 hours I would not have been surprised to see Chris Farley approach me, dressed as a clown, and tell me that I needed to go downstairs for a body cavity search.
Arrived Kashgar around midnight after negotiating camel herds on the Chinese highway for several hours. Sophie and I checked into a dorm room at the Seman (not semen, semaan) Hotel.