Too Pale

I guess sometimes in life, you can just be a bit too pale.

We discovered this earlier this month when we had one day of freedom and decided to go visit these ancient villages southwest of the city.

Well, after an hour of waiting for the 670 bus and playing the "I'm thinking of something game," A friendly hombre informed us that the our bus we wanted would never come because of a bike race in the city. Lance Armstrong ... you dog.

Adapt - We found two illegal taxi drivers and asked them to take us to our villages. They agreed and we hopped inside their cars and we rode for 4 minutes and 37 seconds before we came to the bike race barricade.

Adapt - The taxi drivers, not wanting to lose our business, must have been tourism majors in college because they offered to take us to these caves in the mountains to the west. We blindly agreed. All I knew is that there's no way I'm sleeping at home tonight, I thirsted for an adventure. So we hopped back in our taxis and drove west. The young October day couldn't have been more Autumn-y - crisp, blue air and chameleon trees. We wound our way out of the smog and subways and bustle of the city and found ourselves after two hours of driving in this quiet little village nestled in the mountains. We gave our drivers some cabbage and thanked them for their services and we looked for a hotel.

There was no one in this town other than the townies and four police men. We had dreams of hiking and watching the sunset coming back to a scrumptious farm dinner and a semi-soft bed at a cheap hostel. But those dreams were squashed by our white-ness.

When Jon asked the hotel how much for a night, the policemen informed us that we couldn't stay at the hotel because they did not have their "Foreigner Papers." Here in China in 2011 foreigners can't stay in any hotel or home that doesn't have the "Foreigner Papers." That means only 4-5 star hotels or hostels that pay for the "Foreigner Papers." Ridiculous.

Anyway, we thought we could just walk and find a friendly villager and stay in their home. But the boys in blue followed us and said we had to leave their village in an hour. They had called a van to pick us up which would drop us off at a bus stop and take us back the Beijing. I couldn't believe this was happening. So we had one hour to tour the caves.

The policemen were great guys. Extremely gentle and understanding. They were just the messengers of an arcane and backwards law. I told one of them in broken Chinese, "I like you, but I don't like your law." He replied, "I know. Me either."

So we hopped into that van onto a bus and onto the subway and back to the Jing. I slept over at Jon and Kim's where we played "The Michael Jackson Experience" (Dance Dance Revolution meets the King of Pop meets Red Bull) till the wee hours of the dawn.

I guess sometimes, you can be just a bit too pale.
米佳