Beijing

I arrived in Beijing feeling like I’ve spent the last 4 days in a solid state of transit. 2 buses and a vegie truck from Kandy to Pottuvil, then slept at Whatshisname’s place. I had a bit of a swim in Arugam Bay, Jasmine made lunch, I had a nap then caught the over night bus Pottuvil to Colombo, an hour in a Tuktuk to the airport, flight to Bangkok, flight to Beijing and a hour on a bus to get to a hostel.
Beijing is cool, it’s got a funny feel to it. There are some very cool fashions, they most defiantly have the coolest shoes, and loads of big cosy jackets. I think it’s maybe just because the only things I’ve seen people wear for the last few months is flip flops and T-shirts. I was listening to TripleJ on my iPod on the flight over, and caught a story on the underground Chinese punk rock scene. They had an interview with two bands from Beijing, it was just a nice reminder of the funny underground scenes in places like this, I might try and check it out..
After a good look around, I fell asleep pretty early, but then woke up fairly well rested at about 1am. I went for a pretty good wander to find some food and a beer, this area is pretty dead at night but I did find a little restaurant. Seeing the little drinks menu on the table, all in Chinese I realised there was a fair chance I would have no idea what I was going to order. The waiter bought out the menu, a menu with pictures, one of mans best inventions. I picked out a redish soup with bits of beef and stuff in it. As the waited brought it to the table he also brought a waft of the familiar and some what disturbing smell of offal. A quick taste informed me what I thought was beef was liver, I piled in a fair bit of salt and got stuck into it. It was ok, the soup was tasty, but the texture and lingering aftertaste of the liver was getting to me. I soon realised there were some other whiteish chunks floating in it, they seemed to be fat, but were more rubbery, like skin. I ate around them, and finished most of the kidney, until after a quick swish with the chopsticks to grab the last few bits, a piece of white flesh floated to the top. I prodded it gave it a quick examination and as I lifted it out of the soup I realised it was a fucking snout. That’s right, yum yum it must be favourite around here kidney and pig face soup. I felt my stomach tighten just that little bit, had a fair bit of trouble swallowing my last bit of kidney and gently pushed the bowl away from me.