Thank God for Houhai

I considered not going out on Saturday night and getting some much needed rest. Those thoughts were quickly squashed by Jeff and Erin who insisted that there was no reason to stay in when there is so much to see and so little time to see it in. Plus, when I stay in my room, I am forced to suffer with my horrible Internet connection and my reading for class (I’ll pass, thanks). AND because my blank walls look a bit prison-like, I might spend the evening imagining ways to sneak past the guards in the watchtower.
We decided to go to Houhai, an area on the lake because it’s supposed to be pretty at night, friendly to Westerners (places like this are much harder to find than one would think), and cheap. We picked another place out of the guidebook, The Houhai Zoo, because it apparently has 10 RMB (that’s like, a dollar) drinks and is an excellent place to sit and watch the world go buy.
The unfortunate reality when you use a guidebook is that no one seems to know what the guidebook is talking about. Plus, restaurants and bars open and close so quickly that the address or location might actually be out of date and non-existent by the time you get there. This was the case with The Houhai Zoo, which is now called Zoom!
We wandered around the lake, which is surrounded by restaurants and bars and shops. Most of them have couches out front where you can sit and enjoy the music coming from inside the establishment. You can pretty much listen to anything you want: bad karaoke, good karaoke (it’s amazing how much Chinese people LOVE karaoke. I don’t think they’re ready for my rendition of Red Neck Woman, I’ll have to save that for Chapel Hill), rock, pop, country (Indeed, country!) and even a little Latin inspired. We planted ourselves at a table on the lake and just enjoyed the music.
All in all, it was a good China day. A little art, a little music on the lake and a nice quiet evening (even if I didn’t make it to bed, as planned at eleven).