I get up sometime around lunchtime and am surprised to see that I have no hangover. Perhaps drinking booze with green tea avoids hangovers the following morning or day. Do the Chinese know more than we do? I truly believe that they are far ahead of us and we could learn a lot from them. After all, it’s a 9,000 years old civilisation.
I have an apple for breakfast and since my housemate is still sleeping, I don’t want to make noise and leave the house. It’s a beautiful day and I walk around the area for a while. I didn’t have much time during the week to explore the area, and soon realise that I’d need a bicycle or a scooter to move a bit farther away from the housing complex and the neighbouring blocks. The area is spaciously built, each block or housing complex is massive and you walk for twenty minutes, just to realise that you’re only three blocks away from home.
My housemate is awake when I get home and we go for late lunch/early dinner. It’s the same place as last week. Country Style Cooking, but this time we choose something different. I’ve been eating here all week. Although we have two cafeterias at school that serve very cheap meals - a meal is 70p, I still prefer not to eat there for the following reasons: a) it’s too noisy, and b) the quality is really low. And since there are some eating places a mile away from school and I’ve got the time to go there, I prefer to do that.
The good thing about this Country Style Cooking place is that they have a picture menu. You don’t need to talk, just point at the dish you want. People stare at us again, as we are they only whites and try to eat with chopsticks. We manage pretty well, as we’re experienced. After that we go back home to get ready for a night out.
We walk to the big crossroad and hail a cab. We want to go to the club Muse 2 once again. We tell the driver the name of the club, but either he doesn't understand what we are saying or he doesn’t know it. As I have a screen shot of the street and the area we want to go, I show him my mobile phone. He still doesn’t seem to understand. My housemate tells him in his very limited Chinese to drive us to the centre. When we reach the centre after twenty or so minutes, we try again to tell him that we want to go to a club called Muse and show him the screen shots. He suddenly realises what we want and where we want to go, but he still doesn’t know the place and drives us to a club called SoHo. We get off and walk around for a while. As we can’t find it either, we stop in front of a bar and ask the people. Nobody speaks even a word of English, that’s why we make use of sign language. We dance around and make music so they understand that we want to go to a club. They finally get it. Then I show them the screenshots and they understand where we want to go. Hallelujah! One of the young men signals us to follow him and after a few blocks, he points with his finger to the end of the street. We thank him and my housemate offers him a cigarette. We go down the street and around the corner and find the entrance. We enter and the beats come flying to us. Immediately all the sorrows and anger are gone.
Since it is a bit early, 10.30pm, not many people are here.
We were supposed to meet the football player from last night, but there was great confusion. He told us that he’d be in Muse 2 tonight, but he wouldn’t answer any of our messages today. My housemate received the following reply at some point: ‘See you tonight!’
I tried to contact his girlfriend in order to find out where he or they are, and she told me they’re meeting in Helen’s and would go to Muse 1. As she didn’t answer my question if they are there together or would meet later on, I assumed that they are together in Helen’s. But while we were in the taxi, my housemate received a text message saying: 'See you in a bit!'
The football player is not at the bar. We walk around the club for a bit, but he’s nowhere to be seen. We order some drinks and in the meantime some more expats arrive. There’s a businessman from India sitting next to us at the bar and he’s in a particularly good mood and buys us some drinks. A few minutes later a few Chinese approach us and take us to their table and invite us to drinks. Only one of them speaks little English and the entire conversation goes through him. Directly opposite on the sofa, are a few girls that giggle all the time. Not sure what they giggle about. Us, because we might seem alien to them, or their friend who struggles to speak to us? We will never know. A few drinks later we stand up to dance and quite a few people follow us. We have a hell of a time and people cheer and wave and clap their hands.
I need to go to the loo and on the way back I bump into Rex. Rex is a Chinese guy who did his Masters degree in Manchester and speaks good English. I ask him if he’s seen the football player and he point at a table in the VIP area. I go closer and discover him. He sits at the top of a long table and a few people along it on the sofa along the wall. He’s busy with his mobile, but stands up to greet me when he sees me. He has trouble with his girlfriend, that’s why both of them didn’t respond to our messages with correct instructions and information. And of course he’s not in a party mood tonight. I look a bit around me and at the table and see that all the tables are full of Champagne, various alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, fruit, finger food and there’s a waiter or waitress at every single table filling up empty glasses.
I go back to the stage and tell my housemate and the others that I’ve finally found him.
At midnight, a few musicians and dancers appear on both stages of the club and perform a lengthy but spectacular show.
Around 2am many people start to leave and suddenly half the club is empty. It’s weird for a Saturday night. The football player looks up and around him, calls a waiter, gives him his credit card, pays for everything and says: Let’s go! Go where? Follow me! Where man? Helen’s. My girl is waiting for me. Jeez!
So we leave. Outside we hail some taxis and drive to Helen’s. To my fortune we don’t stay long tonight. Not even one drink and we move downstairs to Muse 1.
The club is full of people at this time and I see some faces that were in Muse 2. While the football player and his girlfriend take a seat at the bar, the rest of us hit the two dance floors and mix with the Chinese. They are flattered and honoured and take many photos. Some do it in a shy, silly way, but since we’re used to it, we grab their arms, pull them over and dance with them while they take photos.
In the western world, the natural thing to do, depending on how cool, modern or old fashion you are, you either ask for somebody’s number, FaceBook or WhatsApp. And if you’re a businessman you ask for a Skype account. Apple users may ask for FaceTime or iMessage. Things are simpler here. Due to various restrictions, FaceBook is blocked, nobody uses Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, FaceTime, iMessage, Line, etc. The social network WeChat is huge in Asia and it’s a Must. It’s one for all. With WeChat you can place a voice or video call, you can upload and send photos, you can share your location so people can find you when they don’t know the way, you can send and upload videos, chat one-to-one or in groups, you can write in a foreign language and the recipient translates your text in their language immediately, you can even send money, so you don’t need PayPal. I’m not sure if there’s more you can do with it. In order to become friends with somebody, you can either look up their username and send a request or scan their QR Code. That’s the quickest way. I learnt about WeChat from my students at Hull Uni and my assistant Jing was so kind to install it on my mobile phone. I didn’t use it much, because no one has it in the West, only Asians and westerners who travel to Asia. I’m asked if I have an account and people add me or I add them. A few hours later my contact list has increased a good deal. No idea if I’ll keep in touch with all those people and who they really are, but one thing I learnt in those few days I’ve been here, people are very helpful and friendly. And like in every other place on earth, knowing locals is essential if you want to survive.
Click here if you want to learn more about WeChat (opens in a new window)
WeChat website (opens in a new window)
Show in Muse 2
If you would like to read more by me, here are my novel and my diary from Ar'ar, in the northern Saudi desert. Both available on Amazon as soft and hard copy.
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