Boatou

Boatou, city of about 2 million in Mongolia. I am beginning to realize the population and the density issue....there are alot of open spaces in China.....mountainous and desert and plains and grassland and then the cities...China could have 1,400 cities of 1 million people to get to that 1.4 billion mark....but two cities....Beijing and Shanghai have more than the population of Canada...interesting.... this was not our hotel...but note...the american influence on the side of it, Budweiser ad....the people walk around wearing t shirts that have all sorts of american logos and sayings on them...I am sure that many don't even know what or who they are wearing....

We have some time to kill so I go walking around....find some big parks..big stores...little shops go down an alley and find like a Moose Jaw sidewalk sales day with all sorts of stuff out in the open for sale....the stares that I get....I guess they just don't recognize me after I have had my hair shave....Jay I don't think there are too many that know me here....

We have supper...a late one...Grace still not feeling good at all......the rest of us try to do our best to eat for all five....the food to me is unappealing....too much fat on the meat and I didn't get to the top of the food chain to be a grazer....try to replace my electrolytes with some beer......the hotel has a bowling alley...a arcade parlour...a night club which opens at about nine o'clock...a ktv....Karaoke tv place where you rent a room and basically sing yourself silly...just up my alley, a supermarket of sorts......and get this...a sauna......jsut what I wanted for my sore calf muscle.....ok I'm in.

For 48 quay, you get in and after that who the hell know what you are to do.....so here goes.

1. First of all it's men only...

2. I walk in and there are no instructions...so I have to be told where to go to take a shower....they have 3 saunas....I see a massage table and motion that I would like one..nothing seems to be happening so I go sit in the 38 degree one...out come a guy and motions me back onto the table where I am give a COMPLETE rubdown using the hotwater from the hottest spa....after about 15 minutes I am done.....my calf muscle really hasn't been helped so I head back into the 38 degree sauna.....and stay there for about 2 more minutes.....I get out, am motioned over to a room where I am rubbed down with a towel front and back ..talk about betting pampered....... a robe is put on and I think I will head back to the locker...NOW

I am led upstairs to where 5 young ladies are waiting behind the window and I am to choose one.........................................................................................what the hell am I into.......maybe this is the massage that I thought I would get........YEAH....I choose and then the interesting part starts.

In the room there is a price chart which I have no idea what it says....remember I am in China. But for a starting price of 300 yuan....I can have this and 400 for this and 500 for this and 600 for this and I say no ........I only wanted a massage....and they don't understand a single word I am saying and I don't understand a single word they are saying and this is starting to get funny.....so I write down what I thought I wanted...in comes a different girl and they priece drops.......148 for this , 160for this and 180 for this and I have some idea of what that is all about...but I can't seem to make any headway.......eventually I am able to convince them that I only came for the spa treatment and not the FULL treatment....so I head back down the stairs where I still have to pay an extra 10 quay for my cleansing in the sauna......my first brush with the legalized???? form of a brothel ....back to the room and we had a giggle or two over that.

The night club followed and it was an experience as well. Almost every singer, only stayed for a maximum of 5 songs...so they had about 10 different acts....some with groups and some with individuals....in the meantime, the other four had gone to bowl and i just kind of wandered around dropping in from time to time. Jennifer and I stayed for a while there and things got interesting. They handed us these plastic cups so that we could bang on the tables as some of the singers were getting into the pounding rhythm...many of the men drinking on stage whatever was bought for them....some guzzling....next to us are 5 guys...one passed out and I think maybe sort of a stag party...in walks six girls and the leader of the groups promptly assigns a girl to each guy and one leaves...even the passed out guy has one.....I guess they are the guests for the hour or two that they are there....the bar closes at about twelve....the last group sings 4 of their 5 songs in ENGLISH and after they are done.....come over and talk with me because they guess that I am English and can grade them on how well they did. We caht for about 5 minutes and then they are gone and I head to bed....Quite an evening of entertainment.

Got up early in the morning and went for a walk..not jogging with my calf muscle still a little tender. The looks are still there......you are a stranger in a strange land. We have breakfast and hhead out to do some temple visiting......Buddha...















Shoot I got it mixed up...we went to a museum first. I will stop this one and start another. I also have to try to turn some around.