In Chengdu

Yesterday afternoon, I hopped on a plane (only 260 RMB ticket + 200 RMB tax & fuel surcharge!) from Guangzhou to Chengdu, and arrived in the early evening. It was a bit cooler in Chengdu compared to Guangzhou (about 23 degrees Celsius), but still comfortable enough for me in shorts and a t-shirt despite the fact everyone else was already in long sleeves. My old friend Larry Wang had told me to take Bus 303 and get off at the First Ring Rd. (一環路) bus stop. I did that, but due to the size of my pack, I had trouble seeing as I came down the steps, and so I misstepped and literally fell out of the bus, though landed on my feet.

As the bus drove off and I dusted myself off, Larry, in his bicycle helmet, shorts, and bright orange workman's safety vest, surprised me from behind with a loud greeting, "Aye! Jerry!" I turned and greet him heartily. He seemed the same, his endearingly youthful heart was not a shade over 12 years old. Larry brought his bike with him, but said he didn't bring a second bike with him. He asked if I preferred to bike or to take the bus; since I did not know the way and was wearing my pack, I opted to take the bus while he biked. We parted and arrived at our destination at the same time.

As we approached his house, Larry, in typical spontaneous fashion, let out a resonating belly-laugh, "HA, HA, HA, HA!" to announce his arrival. His apartment on the 5th floor, which also has roof access, much like his sister's place which we stayed at in 2004 during CET's Spring Break. It was a cozy place, with a small but energetic fox-like dog, which kept yelping and grabbing at me with its paws, trying to hump my leg. After a plentiful dinner, I tried to get some sleep before our adventure the next day, which starts with swimming at 6am, one of Larry's daily habits.

Truth was, I didn't sleep well, though perhaps that was to be expected after staying up to about 4am the past couple nights. However, I awoke at six anyways in hopes of a Hangzhou-like time readjustment. Larry and I took a couple bikes and we biked 15 minutes to the swimming pool. The morning weather was cool, and it was a pleasure to bike through the city with just about no traffic. We arrived at the pool, and while Larry has a regular pass, I went to the window to buy a one-time pass for 20 RMB. The cute girl at the window handed me the ticket. We went inside, and I quickly realized I had been here once before in 2004.

Larry seems to know everybody at the pool, as there were plenty of regulars. He several people in the changing room, and started singing spontaneously as it was his style. I couldn't help but be warmed by his cheery song, and despite the cold shower, we went to the pool in high spirits. After 5 minutes of Larry's standard calisthenics, which he learned during high school in Taipei, we started into lap swimming.

The problem with public pools in China is 1) it's way overcrowded, and 2) people swim too slow in general (or rather there seems to be no delineation between fast lanes and slow lanes). Half the time is spent figuring out how to pass the people in front of you, and occasionally there are traffic jams within a lane as multiple people in both directions are trying to pass others. Luckily, the pool is 50 meters long, otherwise the crowding per lane would be ridiculous. I spent a good amount of time trying to find a good stretch of open space in front of me so I can practice my glide (pushing off and seeing how far you can go in one breath - 50 meters gives me an opportunity to see how much further I can go past the halfway point), but I found since I spent all my energies trying to get in front of people, almost every time I was ready to glide, I was still short of breath. It was not until closer to 8am, when the pool closed, that I was able to have more room.

We went back to the locker room and changed. There was probably over a hundred people, but Larry still sang like he was alone in the shower. Soon, others started whistling along. Larry let out another hearty belly laugh. "Do you know how to laugh?" he asked me. I chuckled at his question for a little bit before suddenly turning to him with a serious face and replied, "No, I don't." We laughed together in unison.

We biked back home and rested a bit. On the way, we stopped at a fruit market to buy some fruit. Larry picked out about 30 RMB worth of fruit, but he didn't bring any money with him, so I ended up paying. "I'll pay you back when we get home," he claims. "It's okay, I'll just eat 30 RMB of fruit," I joked.

My father, who is flying in from Xiamen to join us, is scheduled to arrive at the Chengdu Airport around 2:20pm. Around 12:30pm, we headed there by bus, and got there with plenty of time to spare, so we decided to visit the airport fruit stand:



There were a number of interesting Sichuan fruits, including this "many-fingered fruit":

Apparently later I found out it was only decorative, and not for consumption. There was also this fruit that looked like a yam, though it tasted nothing like it:

There were also a couple poorly dressed beggars at the airport, including this one wearing a rather unfashionable plaid shirt:

And this one, a rather retarded looking fellow who was once spotted in Suzhou:


They really have no shame. Their trashy clothing and propensity to dig around in public trash cans have ruined an otherwise pleasant experience at a classy airport.