A year ago I took a 5 hour drive to a small west Texas town to pursue a legal matter in a county courthouse. I left at 3 am and arrived in court that morning to be told by the judge “I ain’t looked at your case yet—I was huntin’. Come back in 30 days.”
Exhausted I booked the cheapest hotel (maybe only in town, pop. 1200). There was a teen smoking a glass pipe in the parking lot, the pool was covered in green slime, and hotel room quite dirty.
Hahaha! That story reminds me of going to Changchun, Heilongjiang, China in 1985. The only significant difference was I got serous food poisoning. I love corned beef, and this one of the few western items on the menu, and back then next to impossible to find even in British Hong Kong. I found out later that back when Beijing Jeep was building a parts plant there in the 1970s they added this item onto the menu, so I had been served beef that was possibly 10 years old. Why bother coming out of the kitchen to warn the poor idiot. That I can laugh at my own stupidity is not proof that I've gotten any wiser, but it was fun living vicariously through your post. I'm 1/4 the way through your book, it's really nice and I hope you'll publish more in the decades that follow.
Changchun was not a small village, but a big industrial city, but the wild hair styles, somnambulant security guard, the long taxi ride, etc., all sound very familiar. Turns out there was a heavy soviet influence combined with not enough time from economic opening up to pressure the natives to put on a better show than the old CPC iron rice bowl delivered.
A year ago I took a 5 hour drive to a small west Texas town to pursue a legal matter in a county courthouse. I left at 3 am and arrived in court that morning to be told by the judge “I ain’t looked at your case yet—I was huntin’. Come back in 30 days.”
Exhausted I booked the cheapest hotel (maybe only in town, pop. 1200). There was a teen smoking a glass pipe in the parking lot, the pool was covered in green slime, and hotel room quite dirty.
I cut my losses and drove home that evening.
I don't know if this relates to your experience, but my wait for a piece of paperwork from a local court has been six months now and counting.
Hahaha! That story reminds me of going to Changchun, Heilongjiang, China in 1985. The only significant difference was I got serous food poisoning. I love corned beef, and this one of the few western items on the menu, and back then next to impossible to find even in British Hong Kong. I found out later that back when Beijing Jeep was building a parts plant there in the 1970s they added this item onto the menu, so I had been served beef that was possibly 10 years old. Why bother coming out of the kitchen to warn the poor idiot. That I can laugh at my own stupidity is not proof that I've gotten any wiser, but it was fun living vicariously through your post. I'm 1/4 the way through your book, it's really nice and I hope you'll publish more in the decades that follow.
Changchun was not a small village, but a big industrial city, but the wild hair styles, somnambulant security guard, the long taxi ride, etc., all sound very familiar. Turns out there was a heavy soviet influence combined with not enough time from economic opening up to pressure the natives to put on a better show than the old CPC iron rice bowl delivered.
Great story, thank you for sharing your experience
Thank you for reading this piece!
Thanks - interesting article, and nicely written.
Thank you for this kind feedback!
Dead Souls reference
Excuse me, what about the reference?
Idk I haven’t read the article yet