So as mentioned recently I had three friends come visit me for a week or so in the Chinas. Due to hilarious planning, the first friend arrived at 10am. And then the next at 10pm. And the last around 7pm in a city quite a distance away - so I had to go to the airport twice.

I didn't want friend three to get to my place before I got back from the airport, because fuck him. I told the cab driver both there and back to go quickly, and it's a good thing I did. We managed to show up about 30 minutes before him. Although I did give him some basic phrases and directions in Chinese, the bastard actually did manage to show up at my door. I am going to owe it to luck, because my building is barely marked at all.

Lucky bastard.

After a good nights sleep, we needed to have a chill day to let them overcome jetlag, and ease into the Chinese lifestyle. The answer? A several mile walk to a lake, whereupon we could walk around more. I am a bastard.

My plan was to check out a tea house on the lake, because I figured that would be a nice touch. I suppose in theory it would be, but they seemed less than thrilled at our arrival. We showed up at the door, and I said we had 4 people. They didn't understand. Granted my accent can be pretty bad, but usually it's obvious when you show up at a restaurant the first thing you're going to tell them is how many people you have. Regardless, I may have messed up the word, so I simply held up four fingers. This did not alleviate their confusion. Now I'm confused. Is this not a restaurant? This is descending into an endless cycle of confusion that I'd still be in, now weeks later, if drastic action were not undertaken.

So I stop it there, and say in Chinese "We'd like to drink tea". Still no dice. "We want tea". Again, looks of confusion like I have three heads. So now in English I say "drink tea", and they seem to get it. But it was kind of a "God, whatever" kind of getting it. They lead us to a table, don't get a menu, simply 4 green teas poured for us. While the atmosphere was nice, the tea was average. One friend made their displeasure of the taste quite well known, but honestly it tasted like all other Chinese green tea to me. Unfortunately what I didn't expect was the price. Sheesh. I know it's a touristy area, but 45 RMB a person is way too much.

So after taking a bus back, we went onto the Japanese restaurant in one of the 5 star resorts in the area. It's my favorite restaurant in China, because you get to eat absolutely amazing Japanese food, and here's the kicker - it's all you can eat and drink. Not a buffet, you get a proper menu and order whatever you want, as much as you want. And the drinks? Sake, beer, you name it. As much as you want, for 150 RMB a person ($24)

After a drunken night of merriment, we stumbled back home and palled around the apartment until we passed out from excessive alcohol consumption.

Day #1 down. Several more to go.