Bring on the Night

9th July 2007 Yilan

7.30am and I’ve been awake for about 1 hour. Just too lazy to get up.

Stomach still not too well and not hungry. Yet I eat some noodles with egg and onion that C made yesterday. Gotta eat something right.

I’m back to writing again. I’m way behind. C thinks I use too much time for writing and that my ramblings are too long, while I feel the opposite. Well, my entries are too long, but that’s a choice I made. I want to keep one day in one post if possible. It may not be reader friendly, but in the end I don’t write for the readers. I could also have kept my writings here completely off the internet, but then again, I like to keep everything together. Then perhaps later when I’m back in Denmark, I’ll make some shorter entries more fitting with some stuff I’ve seen and photographed.

The busy schedule the first days here in Yilan and the train ride made me lose valuable writing time, so I try to write at least cue words about the day before as often as possible (mostly in the morning). Then when possible I write up on the days earlier in an attempt to catch up. That way I may have a chance to secure the most important incidents.

C told me that her younger sister had asked for a day off from school today so she could be with C. So I told her that she go and be with her and leave me alone writing. I would be just fine. C has a bad consciousness about me being left to my own devices. Partly because she thinks that I feel alone (which is not the case at all), but also because her father scolds her for being a bad and selfish wife. Poor girl.

Besides giving me some time for writing, it also lets my stomach have some rest. It’s now 11.05am, and I’m finally with the program. I have actually caught the missing days and everything is down in printing. Later today I hope to go to the computer school and post for some days worth of writing. That’s a great feeling!

Pictures will probably be uploaded later, since the net is so slow here. Not even sure I can upload any at all, so maybe this will first be done back in Denmark (just found out that it’s more than just extremely slow so I can’t, and will have to wait until I get home).

In the afternoon we went to the computer school. I finally managed to post all written entries. The net is annoyingly unstable to some foreign homepages here in China. Unfortunately this included mine. At least it has been from those 2 spots where I’ve tried so far. You could say that this is only 2 spots, but fairly strange that they act the same from both Beijing and Yilan (north-east China).

Posting the 4-5 entries took more than 45 minutes. The connection to my blog was so random. I tried both with and without Tor. The result was the same connection-wise, though it seems that Tor at times helped a little. Thanks for the tip Kevin. After posting I finally had time to do some reading up on other blogs and make a phone call with Skype. Skype seems to work flawlessly, so that’s a plus.

It was getting evening and I wanted to go to the public bath. Its 30 degrees warm and I sweat like a pig all day. C and her sister tagged along too.

In the shower a guy my age and size started talking to me. I’m not tall in Denmark. Actually most would consider me short. Nevertheless most Chinese here are shorter and smaller than me. I’m pretty sure I get some “respect” that way. This guy is the first I’ve noticed close up being my equal in size.

At first he seemed friendly, but there was something a bit odd about him. On his left shoulder he had a big tattoo of a spider and him body language was aggressive. Not that he seemed angry or anything, but he was just a bit too loud and a bit too close when he spoke to me. The other people in the room kept low profile, or maybe I just thought it seemed that way. It’s hard to put a finger on exactly why, but I didn’t like him much. I don’t mind “hello’ers” or “weiguren-whisperers”, but this guy was a bit too much of all of them combined. He talked and talked and every time I said “Ting bu dong” he laughed loudly. Meanwhile his bath friends laughed nervously. It was like they were a bit afraid of him. At least that’s how I read the sitiation.

At a point he grabbed my shampoo and gestured if he could try it. I of course said “okay”. No harm in that one. If he found that one interesting, then he can’t have been shopping much recently, since C bought the exactly same shampoo here in Yilan. With Chinese written on it instead of course. ‘Head and Shoulders’ are worldwide nowadays aren’t they?

After showering I went to the “Penises on parade” room to get dressed. I waved a polite “Zuo la” to him and his fellow weiguren gazers as I left and noticed that he was ready to go too. Could be a coincidence, but my warning lights went on. At the dressing room he kept talking to me. The oldish guy, whom I’ve seen there before many times, started telling him about me. They discussed loudly and laughed a lot. He also offered me a cigarette, which I politely declined making a “coughing” gesture and saying “bu hao” followed by a smile. From time to time, the big guy also said some sentences to me, but few were understood. Among some of the things he said, was that I was handsome, which would have scared me if he was Danish. Here in China men tell me that all the time however. Very weird, but that’s just China.

When I was almost ready to leave and just needed those 2 seconds of silence to drop a “Zuo la”, he started fiddling with his cell phone. He then gestured to me, to see mine. I was already a bit intimidated by the situation, but guessed that if he saw my phone. If he saw it he wouldn’t think I had any money I guessed. My phone is a bit worn to look at. It’s a Sony Ericsson 750i. It’s still an acceptable phone, but nowhere looking like a new glamorous toy. So I handed him it and hoped he would let me alone afterwards. He tried pushing some buttons and I had hoped that he would find it uninteresting fast when he found out it was Danish layout. He did, but 10 sec later he showed me his phone which now had my cell phone number. Country code and everything. How the hell did he do that?

Got my phone back, said bye bye and headed downstairs. This time I weren’t followed. I had hoped for C to be done by now, so we could get the hell out of there, but she wasn’t. Instead I was offered a chair outside by an employee where it weren’t that warm. Ok – I guess I could wait a bit. 2 minutes later the big guy appeared and grabbed a chair opposite to me and faced it directly towards me. This was getting a bit uncomfortable. One thing is curiosity, but another when people just won’t quit.

As he sat there he started talking to me again, always making big grins when he heard the expected “Ting bu dong” in the end. I had a chance to take a closer look at his arm. The same arm that had the huge spider tattooed, also had signs of cutting. Three lines of 5-7cm parallel. These were not cuts from labour, but cuts of dare. Under these, he had the classy cigarette burns that told me he was no fun to be around at drinking time.

A few people were gathering to watch the white monkey perform. 2 girls who worked at the bath and one of his sidekicks. The sidekick had a stupid grin on his face every time the big guy said something. You know the same way you’ve seen it a million times in the school yard when the leader of the pack speaks and his wanna-be-friends-classmate tries to suck-up to him by laughing at everything.

At one point the big guy bought 2 ice cold waters from the shop and offered me one. I politely said “no thanks” in Chinese, but I was not allowed. So I hesitantly accepted and had a sip. After my experience with C’s uncle I took a whiff before drinking this time. Didn’t have to since it was a fresh bottle with a new cap, but all senses told me it would be wise to. I was that cautious.

A little later he started talking to some of the people there about me. I knew because I recognized the words “weiguren”, “denmai ren” and “ting bu dong”. They laughed a bit and he then put his phone on a freezer the shop had placed outside. I thought he wanted to show them a movie that he made, but soon I realized that he was calling me. I cursed myself, since I thought about turning my phone off, but hadn’t. As I expected – it rang. I grabbed it and instantly cancelled the call. I made the “expensive” gesture with my fingers and said “bu hao”. I think he understood it, but kinda scary that I was suddenly now on his speed dial.

Time was crawling. Where was C? I tried to maintain calm, as the bloke kept talking to me. At a time he started making a few phone calls. Don’t know what they were talking about, since I recognized no words. Then he talked to his sidekick in, what to me, seemed more like he was bossing them around. After this his sidekick said something and started running away as if to fetch something for the big guy. I didn’t like that development much. Was the sidekick going to get some more friends to beat me up and get my wallet, or was he just late for work? The big guy started to get a little restless over the next 5 minutes. His hands had a hard time keeping still and he looked at his phone a lot to check out the time. I saw that as a bad sign. What was he waiting for? His buddies to come, or? Why didn’t he just leave himself? He already finished showering, but maybe he was waiting for his wife too.

Suddenly C appeared and we started walking from the spot. In a moderate pace of course. I didn’t want to seem jumpy. When we walked I told C about my experience. She was alarmed and a bit afraid on my behalf. She wanted to grab a taxi, but I declined, as her parent’s house was only 5 minutes away. We weren’t followed and I stopped worrying. C didn’t and when we came to her parents house the incident was soon made fuzz about. C’s parents insisted that we grabbed a cap home or slept there.

We ended up getting the taxi and were soon home. No problems at all.

During this I kept pretty cool on the outside, but I have to admit, that I was preparing for the worst on the inside. I have been attacked by 4 people before in Denmark. I had some teeth kicked out, had some heavy bruises and “killed” my knee and angle in the very same assault. My knee is still loose and always will be, while my ankle is worthless in most regards. I can walk a lot, run a little, but not for long. Mentally this incident hasn’t scared me like I guess it would most people. I was in great shape at the time of the attack and was used to receiving kicks and punches from practicing martial arts. I’ve learned to look even more for warning signs though. This incident was filled with them and that was very uncomfortable. I’m practically alone in a foreign country, a new city and this episode was so that I couldn’t just walk away.

So – what have I learned from this? Was I in danger? To be honest and thinking about it here the next day, I don’t think so. But it sure felt very uncomfortable. It was mainly because I couldn’t speak Chinese and because I’m foreigner. The few words I’ve picked up while being here usually is enough to get me by most situations with a smile. This time it weren’t. That was what was made the situation awkward. I have learned that it’s not cool to hand over your phone or flash it if you can avoid it.

I’ve also learned that being outside alone in the evening is a bit scarier than in the daytime. The fact that I am the only laowai in town is not just a good thing. What at first seemed a bit cool may now slowly become a weakness in the long run. Word may be spreading about the “Danmai ren” and some guys may not only welcome me with open arms. I can’t say that I’m the only laowai here for sure, but on the other hand I can say, that I haven’t seen others in 5 days now. This means both celebrity/infamy status, but also that I look like a walking do-it-yourself-ATM. This goes for possible assaults, but also the more common rip-off when the laowai is shopping and the salesperson wants way more than if I was a Chinese.

C has banned me from using that public bath again. I have to say that I weren’t hard to convince, even though it kind of hurts my pride to go for the easy solution. Especially when that there is no proof I was in danger. On the other hand I am a cautious fella and why not go for the safest road.

Tags: bathing, China, china vs denmark, scary