Chinese birthday

Chinese Mick Jagger's Birthday Party...

A couple of months ago we were invited to a performance at a gay bar. It was one of the best nights in Kunming! We started talking to some of them and ended up in a club called "House" (in Kunming known for the number of gay men that are regulars there). One of those guys had a haircut and face that immediately reminded me of Mick Jagger (Chinese style that is, his real name is Xiang Wu) and he is a nice guy. Two weeks ago we ran into him again and got invited to his birthday party.
So last Saturday we went back to the House club to celebrate his birthday. At first we couldn't even find him (he cut his hair and looks like a normal Chinese person now...). But with the help of the bar personell we succeeded and ended up talking, eating, drinking, doing little games and checking out the tricks of our private magician. A night to remember (Rodney, you should have been there with us...).

The weather is once again absolutely fabulous here. Sunny but with a some wind so it doesn't get too hot (although sometimes too windy...). Yesterday we had no classes because it was one of the new national holidays: National Grave Cleaning Day. The Chinese are supposed to visit the graves of their deceased relatives and... yes indeed, clean those graves, put some fresh flowers on it and pay a little respect. But since most foreigners have no graves to clean in China, many of them decided to go to a (fresh water) beach approx. 80km south of Kunming near Yuxi. Marc and I (and a couple of guys from gokunming.com) are going down there today as well on our bikes and we'll come back on Sunday. Looking forward to this trip!!! (pictures will follow.)

Shos and I are also planning our trip back home and the exact route keeps changing. Since we are doing one-way flight tickets tend to be very expensive (for some reason these tickets are lot more expensive than return flight for example: one-way Kunming-San Francisco €560, return flight on the same route €700..??? WHY?). But we are getting there. As soon as we have more exact details I'll share them with you! For now the most important thing is that I'll be back in Holland around the beginning of August 2008).

Mazzel,
Batta Laoshi