Lost Horizons

Do you like fish? Yes, of course?

Tucked away behind Renmin Square, in Dalian, is Gao’erji Lu. This tree-lined avenue is unremarkable. It consists of a hotchpotch of different styles of architecture ranging from Stalinist era, gothic buildings to more modern, urban housing. Towards the eastern end of the street is a strip of bars and cafes, which includes the Bavarian Beer Hall. This is where I had arranged to meet Wendy, last night.

I arrived there early, and spend a little time looking around the area for photo opportunities, but these where hard to find, so I entered the cavern. Quite naturally, for China, it resembled nothing like a Bavarian Beer Hall, but was more akin to a Parisian café with a B&Q pine floor and Ikean tables and a wrought iron, spiral staircase. However, it had many saving graces: a good selection of German style beers, a plentiful supply of beer nuts, pleasant staff and modern music, played at a volume that didn’t prevent conversation.

One of the girls, Yoyo, was extremely eye-catching. Fortunately they hadn’t tried to imitate Bavarian beer waitresses, as she didn’t have the build for it, but she was one of those beautiful girls that seem to be in abundance in Dalian. By the time she had poured my second glass of beer, Wendy arrived, directly from her dance class.

We moved to a table at the back, and ordered some food. Wendy had a plate of salad, and I decided to try the selection of German sausages with sauerkraut and mashed potato. I was not expecting a great deal from this order, but I was pleasantly surprised; it seems they order their sausages direct from Germany. The serving was far too large for me, but it was very pleasant to tuck in to decent bangers and mash.

The conversation turned to European food and different kinds of sausage. Some how I don’t think Wendy believed me when I told her about haggis. It may have been the part about it being a small Scottish animal that lives in the mountains, and because of the steep slopes, its front legs are shorter than its hind legs.

After this, the conversation did turn to more profound things. This is one of the reasons that enjoy spending time with her; we are able to have a good conversation together. Of course it helps that she is attractive, but on the other hand she is married, so I can’t see us becoming more than good friends. Of course that doesn’t stop has having good fun, and the evening was good fun. The time came, eventually, when she had to head home to her husband and I headed back to the hotel. I did go down to the F2 Bar for a couple of drinks, but it was not very exciting, so eventually I retired to my hotel room.

On the way through the security check at Dalian, today, the scanner operator spotted a lighter in my hand luggage, so the security lady asked me to give it hand it over to her, which, of course I did. As I left the security area, my colleague overheard her saying to the others, “Oh, he is such a handsome man”. Some of these Chinese ladies have very strange tastes.

I wonder what they do with all these cigarette lighters that they collect at Chinese airports? Two airports, which I am aware of: Xiamen and Shenzen are to be praised for giving away free lighters to arriving passengers. These have been collected at security and are just recycled into the public domain. I wished that more airports in China adopted this practice. Of course it doesn’t help when I am flying to Hong Kong. At least, there, the smoking rooms normally have people who will give you a light.

posted by Luke @ 5:29 PM