September 30 - China: Beijing
Errand day! We had a list of sight-seeing that we wanted to do, but there were so many little things to take care of that we just didn't have time. Because we leave for Vietnam early tomorrow morning, our "To Do" list is a mile long. Here's a small sample:
So this is what we did today, among other stuff. Not very exciting, I know. And sort of a waste of a great city. But there was no other way than to spend a day getting all these (and other things) done.
We went to the lobby at noon to say good-bye to Ken, Mel, Anne, Ted, and Ivy. It's going to be a bit strange being without these people who we've been with for the last month. But to be quite honest, Jon and I are excited to venture back out on our own again. The silly things that happen to us on our own make the best journal entries.
We did do something today: we went to dinner at the Pizza Factory and actually had pizza this time. It was very good! We even had olives on it, which is unusual for us, and it was still yummy. Then we went around the corner to McD's for a shake and an ice cream. But then we had to go back to the hotel to pack and get to sleep for tomorrow's early flight.
Hornet Sting Update
My hornet sting, by the way, has swelled up to a ridiculous size and itches like crazy. (See Sept 28) I think I brought it on myself when I thought (shortly after being stung): "Hey. This isn't so bad. I think I'd prefer this over mosquito bites ANY DAY!". Now I'm cursed. I can see where the stinger went in, and there's an ugly circle of bumps around it about 3 inches in radius where the venom spread. It itches so badly that it woke me up last night and I immediately spread Calamine Lotion all over. Jon is horrified every time he looks at it. Oh well. It'll go away eventually. But for now it looks like I have a horrific disease on the side of my knee.
Wahaha Water
I'm going to use this spare space to kvetch about a Chinese advertising campaign that's been haunting us since Tibet: Wahaha Water. This is a nationally distributed brand of bottled water, and it's pretty good except for one thing: the Wahaha Man. This actor/singer/dancer/performer named Lee Hom has a promotion contract with Wahaha and as a result his picture appears on all bottles of Wahaha water. This wouldn't be a problem for us if it weren't for the armpit picture.
Our first impression of him was in Tibet, where the "armpit picture" appears on all the 1-liter bottles. This picture is of him with his right arm draped over his head with a bottle of Wahaha dangling from his hand. (Imagine a triceps stretch with a bottle of water.) Who does that?!?!? It's quite troubling. The entire time we were in Tibet Jon made a point of turning the armpit picture away from him, but there was really no way to escape it.
Well, imagine our surprise when we got to China proper and found out that the armpit picture was just one of a SERIES of Lee Hom pictures! The entire group enjoyed discovering new and exciting Wahaha Man pictures. There was a white-shirt series (of the armpit fame) and the orange-shirt series. One of the latter included Lee Hom sitting and balancing a bottle of Wahaha on his knee. There's also a behind-the-back Wahaha shot. This became such a favorite pastime for us that we resorted to collecting the labels and trading them amongst ourselves. So when Jon and I finally put together a scrap book for this trip, at least 3 pages will be devoted to the Wahaha man.