Fine breakfast early – then off to flower market on outskirts of town– Cheung Gong.
Next on to the Stone Forest – took a lengthy stroll.
The alleged likenesses of stones to the Queen, Darth Vader, Homer Simpson etc were a little strained, but it was a lovely site – especially the quieter more distant bits of the forest (see headline picture and below) where the large Chinese tour groups don’t go!
…no-one ever had a brother like Martin…
Then a pit stop (mostly for the driver and increasingly excitable guide Martin).
Then on to a Yi village – Chi Shing – Martin is Yi whereas driver Guan is Bai.
Next on to the Yunnan National Arts Museum – more an antique shop than museum but very interesting on tribal cultures.
Home for some rest, watch the video, then out for a local meal at Derein’s Restaurant in a grand old house. Eel (Yunnan style), duck, oil veg and mushroom rice and local Shaoxing rice wine.
Martin left with some persuasion, still doing business on his mobile.
Enjoyed our evening together and stroll home around like et cetera passing clubs & bars on the way – decided on quiet evening in with cookies and veg.
Packed and took breakfast at DuGe – quirky & good in parts. Peppery sausages were nice.
Sophie met us and took us off to see the Olympic stadium (birds nest) and then on to Chinese medicine centre.
We met lecturer Doctor Hu (you couldn’t make it up) who told us all about it and insisted that Ged must be Shakespeare reincarnated.
Uncanny resemblance.
Dr Hu also arranged for some trainees to massage our feet and for an aged professor to tell us what ails us & sell us some very expensive Chinese medicine cocktails, which we politely declined.
Hardly able to walk now (okay I made up that last bit) we wandered to back to the car and headed off to 798 district – art complex formally factories.
Some very interesting some not so interesting but all a great atmosphere.
Took some refreshments at an outdoor café, then off to the airport.
First class flight Kunming – service excellent, food terrible.
Met by Martin “Mr Fixit” who insists I look like a movie star he cannot name – Lucien from Underworld – that’s Michael Sheen.
Kind words, Martin – in my dreams I look like him – click the picture to see the fandom wiki
Took us to surprisingly splendid Green Lake Hotel and even hung around to help us order our dinner.
Ate some local style pork and Cantonese chicken, gai lan and rice washed down with a very palatable Montepulciano.
Toni Friend, who worked for BA, had helped us to get a good price on Club Class tickets. She then went the extra distance for us and got us upgraded to first class – our only ever experience of flying first class. Extremely luxurious and pampering it was; quite unsettlingly so in fact. But a super kind treat and it is nice to have done it once.
Arrived in Beijing on time – huge airport. Much changed in 16/17 years.
Met by guide Sophie and taken to DuGe Courtyard Hotel [a beautiful Hutong]– very nice.
Go through mandatory room change/upgrade procedures followed by room safe failure procedures too. In the midst of all this go for a stroll around the Hutong district, in particular walk Nanluogu Xiang a few times, partly in vain search of recommended restaurant.
Return to enjoy new room (suite) and a beer on our stoop which looks out onto the lovely courtyard.
Slept plenty in the afternoon, then fiddle around with camera and water system. Bath and get recommendation from hotel for a local restaurant.
End up at home your roast duck restaurant. Unprepossessing to look at but superb meal for a tenner plus unexpected tip – certainly a local place! Very tired on return.
Earlier on the afternoon we were due to meet…John to me:
I have booked Bam Bou a Vietnamese restaurant for 7 through top table – and am still awaiting confirmation. When and if I do I will confirm to you.
Me to John:
John
Thanks. Been there several times. It is excellent.
Assuming that is confirmed can we please meet there – I am up against deadlines this week as you might well imagine, not least the book to finish today and tomorrow!!
Best
Ian
John to me:
Booked for 7 pm. See you there. Bring the book!
I’m not sure I did that, but I might have taken a small chunk or two with me.
Bam Bou was an excellent restaurant then and I recall having a fine meal with John on that occasion.
There’s just something about fin-de-siecle Austrian plays that doesn’t quite float our boat, however well done they are.
Still, we were pleased to have seen this one – it was one of the best things we had seen so far that year…but then we were having a poor year for theatre up to that point.
So this was the year that Iain O’Brien was the star of the show…
…and the year when the club still couldn’t talk about new season signings, even in late March.
The MTWD correspondents seem to spend more time discussing Barmy Kev’s ability to grab the wine than the content of the meeting and discussion. Another year, another Seaxe Club AGM through the lens of MTWD.
This was an afternoon concert at the V&A. I’m not sure how we got on to this one. Daisy wasn’t yet a member of the V&A – perhaps one of her clients suggested it.
The Sephardic music was very sweet and interesting. A relatively small room/small audience at the V&A, I recall.
Neither Janie nor I remember very much about this concert, other than attending it.
I can see some e-mail correspondence with The Roundhouse, as I had booked a package to include VIP bar (whatever that might have meant), but they decided not to have a VIP bar that night so refunded some of my money.
Quite right – the idea of a VIP bar is not very Castro-Cuban, is it?
We heard recordings of and bought some Los Van Van music while we were on holiday in Cuba in 2007 (which I shall Ogblog in the fullness of time).
Click above for Amazon link – other albums and suppliers are available
I can’t really recall why, but the concert at The Roundhouse didn’t quite send us. I think we expected something a bit livelier and Janie had such wonderful memories of dancing at Casa de la Trova etc. when in Cuba…
