September 19, 2006

My version of that MasterCard commercial...
-Instant coffee to survive next day 7:30 class... 75fen ($0.10CDN)
-Bus ride to Heda... 1kuai ($0.15)
-Taxi ride back after missing the last bus by over an hour... 10kuai ($1.50)
-Rooftop/outdoor Chinese dinner with way too much food, split 20 ways... 20kuai ($3.00, my share)
-Meeting almost every Westerner in Baoding (20 or so), having good, natural conversation in English and French, getting tips on China... Priceless

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow!!! I can just see the commercial now. Tell us what all you must of eaten for $3.00.

Stephen said...

There was a whole fish, several plates of kungpao chicken, plates of Chinese nachos (deep fried potato with bacon and spices, actually really good), rice, fried rice, beans w/ peanut sauce, cucumber w/ peanut sauce (good), skewers of some meat (also good), shredded potatoes in a sauce, mixed veggies and tofu, eggplant and potato, green veggies. I know there was more, but I really can't remember because there was so much. The three tables were full, so when the waitress brought more food it was a struggle to fit it on a table. The whole bill came to 350Yuan, but would have easily cost several hundred dollars in Canada.

Anonymous said...

You should email your commercial to MC! Glad to hear you linked up with others, and others that have French as well.

Sigh of relief here.

Anonymous said...

Priceless. Yes, I can only imagine. How long did it take to find some other westerners?

Stephen said...

A little over three weeks!