WE JUST WANT A BEER PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

June 22, 2009

One interesting thing happened during our short stay in the city of FuZhou, LinChuan District. Our travel companions Marilyn and her two daughters Maddie and Caitlin had to leave for NanChang on the evening of June 23, and from there go up to BeiJing to do some sightseeing. Our last evening with the Cleeff family was June 22, even though we would spend most of the day on the 23rd with them.

This is the view from our window in the LinChuan Hotel...I'm not sure what the billboard was advertising.

For our last night together Marilyn suggested we adults go downstairs for a farewell beer. Unfortunately, I was still suffering from some sort of water or food borne illness, and I wasn't up to drinking a beer.

So my husband Paul and Marilyn decided to have a beer together on our last evening together. Stop One...the hotel lobby. They asked the night clerk (it was only 7:00 pm) where they could get a beer. Sorry, no one spoke English. Being adventurous, the two travelers went down to the first floor restaurant which was still open. "Can we get a beer here" asked Marilyn. No one spoke English. So Paul and Marilyn

pantomimed drinking and used the word TsingTao, a popular brand of Chinese beer. No beer at the restaurant. But Paul and Marilyn spotted a hair salon on the same floor as the restaurant, and there were many young people hanging out, so maybe someone spoke English.

Again they pantomimed drinking beer, again they used the word TsingTao. Apparently they are not good mimes, because Paul was ushered into the salon where a girl attempted to trim his mustache.

OK, there was a karoake club in the hotel basement....surely beer would be served. Down to the lower level, and more miming of beer drinking, more name dropping (TsingTao). Eyebrows were raised and Paul and Marilyn were ushered into to a room with a lock on the door.....an offer was made to seat them in the very private room. Around them were similar rooms, and the lobby was filled with young ladies who sat around on a sofa waiting for something/someone....clients????

No thank you, this didn't seem like a good idea. By now both Paul and Marilyn were wondering if they would ever find a place for a farewell beer.

They headed across the street to another karaoke club, one we had noticed earlier in the day. However, once more they were ushered to a private room at the back---the room was equipped with a large sofa, a table, and a TV/karaoke set-up. It wasn't what they wanted, and in a final attempt Marilyn said rather snappishly "We just want a BEER....is there someplace where we can just DRINK A BEER??????"

No, apparently not. They came back to the hotel room, beerless, and frustrated.

We never got a satisfactory answer regarding the lovely young ladies sitting around the sofas apparently waiting for something/someone.

Interestingly, when our daughters told our guide Coby that they wanted to have a massage (it is listed in the guestbook as an amenity), he told them they didn't want the kind of massage offered at our hotel. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

One other interesting thing about our hotel: In the bathroom there were packages of "romantic" supplies sitting on the counter. Of course it was my 16 year old daughter who found the "vibrating condom" package. And it wasn't bad enough that she found it, but she pilfered it and took it with her when we checked out.

We had checked out of the LinChuan Hotel and paid our bill, when the maids went upstairs to check the mini-bar and make sure we didn't owe any additional charges. We were already in the van when our guide Coby came running out and said "they want to charge you for some ......uh......hygiene supplies you took from the bathroom". What hygiene supplies?? "Oh Mom, I bet they mean the vibrating condoms.....I took them to show my friends....you know, as a souvenir". It was too late to fish them out of Perrie's luggage, so we paid the extra charge for her "souvenir".