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You may be wondering why we were in ChinaWhat matters is that we both were and by very unlikely circumstances we met on a bus in Beijing. The 2002 International Rice Congress brought me from Bangladesh and Donna from Philippines. I listened to China's president and to various other important people giving their opening day speeches and Donna went shopping and to the Forbidden City. Neither of us wanted to miss dinner and chance laid its trap... |
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| It was Monday the 16 th September 2002 when I first met Donna. We had been at the dinner of the International Rice Congress in Beijing . I met her on the bus on the way back to the hotel. It all went something like this: Entertainment was provided including dancers, acrobats, contortionists, a singer and a magician. Some of it was quite impressive. The rest of the time western-style music played. Most of the time I was with Tim but met a few other people. I can’t say I mingled extensively though. I went to the toilet before boarding the bus and so lost Tim. I got on a different bus and a Filippina called Donna sat next to me. We chatted on the way home where we stayed in the same hotel. When we got back I invited Donna for coffee in the 23rd floor. She accepted. We dropped her shopping off at her room and then we went up to the revolving café where we had a good chat for the next hour or so. |
19/9/02
Thursday evening: After a couple of days of getting on with the conference and only seeing Donna here and there I went to check email. I was pleased (much more so that than I expected) to see Donna sitting at one of the computers. Maybe I could fix up some company for dinner. On entering I did little more than a nod of acknowledgement and then sat down cursing myself for not making more of the greeting. Still, I decided to keep an eye open so I could speak to her if she was about to leave. When I got up to leave, however, she was gone. Shit! I missed her. Idiot! I walked out of the room cursing myself even more but then in the corridor saw the back of (was it?…. Yes) her. She was looking through a book of pictures of rice and stuff. I still don’t know if she was deliberately waiting or really interested in the book. This time I didn’t blow it. I had been given a second chance. A reprieve. I asked her if she had eaten. She hadn’t but didn’t want to. I was expecting rejection at this point but she was very keen to join me while I ate. We went to the revolving café on the 23 rd floor again. That was Donna’s choice. If she was being good enough to accompany me while I ate I decided that we should at least go somewhere that she wanted to go. She didn’t eat but shared some of my first beer and then joined me for a second beer while we chatted for some time afterwards. She agreed that we'd meet up on Saturday. That would be nice. |
| Friday lunchtime: As I was about to board the coach for the Great Wall Tour I saw Donna and we agreed to try to meet up this evening. I explained that I’d be on the tour and then at the Bangladesh Embassy and maybe I’d be back by about 10pm . When all that was over I finally got back to the hotel: Before going upstairs I confirmed Donna’s new room number at reception (she had changed rooms). I phoned her but there was no answer. I felt a bit disappointed and began to watch TV. Things looked brighter though when she turned up at my door later. She was with one of the other Filipinos from IRRI, James. He worked in the same lab and also, she stayed with him and his wife’s house in Los Baños. They stayed for a while and then left to dump the spoils of their latest shopping trip. By about midnight I was considering going to bed but still watching a movie. Donna came back and asked if I wanted to go out somewhere. I agreed. We went back to her room and collected her friend Ria and, after trying to recruit a few others, the three of us went out into the night. It was chilly out there. Something that I haven’t been used to for the last year. We went to a restaurant nearby that was open all night. Ria was hungry and Donna wanted some food too. I was full from the earlier dinner but had a beer and a nice coffee. We left at about 1:15am . Ria went to bed and Donna made me tea at her room. We spoke until about 3:30am and then I left and went to bed. On the Saturday evening after doing touristy things in Beijing I got back to the hotel. I relaxed in the bath for a while and then tried to phone Donna. There was no answer. Not much later Donna turned up with James. They were just about to go out again to buy a specific type of soap for some of the secretaries back in Los Baños. Also she wanted to exchange some US dollars with me for Chinese Yuan so that she could pay the airport tax tomorrow. So I swapped most of my remaining Yuan for dollars. Donna said that she’d see me later. When she returned she was very tired and she wanted to rest for a while before accompanying me out for food. She brought me some snacks to keep me going until then, including a moon cake, the first I’d ever eaten. Actually, today was the day of the mid autumn full moon festival. We chatted for a while but then she wanted to sleep. She slept for 10 or 15 minutes on the sofa, snoring gently in a cute sort of way, but woke up with a jump when Ria knocked on the door. Ria and James were going out for some food. We joined them and went to the same all-night restaurant as last night. When we got back they got out of the lift on the floor below mine. I gave Donna a hug and that was the end of that, I guessed. The next morning Donna was leaving early, so later in the night after she finished packing she came to see me to say a final goodbye but she only knocked quietly on the door and I slept through it. She tried again later and the third time she left a note that I found in the morning. |
Sunday Morning I woke up this morning to find that the note had been pushed under my door. It was nice to get it but I really regretted that I had not woken up when she knocked. So I started the day with a sense of missed opportunity again. That wasn’t quite the end of her influence though: Breakfast again just before 9am and then before leaving the hotel I tried to change some of my dollars for Yuan. This is when I realised why Donna needed me to change some for her – the hotel had run out of Yuan. So I had no money and it was Sunday. As I left the hotel there was a wedding party arriving and entering the conference centre. There were loud firecrackers going off and confetti flying everywhere. It seemed like industrial. Military strength party poppers. Luckily, as the hotel staff had told me, a bank just down the road was open. It seems that they are not closed on Sunday. I tried to change my dollars but they wouldn’t. There was not enough English for me to understand why. Then I went to the cash machine outside but it wouldn’t give me money either (it turned out later that it was the wrong card – my credit card not my bank account card). So I went back inside and tried to get them to give me cash over the counter on my card. They wouldn’t. Next attempt was the Grand Hotel further down the road. I squeezed past the celebrations of a second wedding and went to the change counter. They had Yuan but would only change money for hotel residents. They gave me directions for another bank almost a mile away. When I got there I tried the cash machine unsuccessfully and finally noticed that I had brought the wrong card. I went inside and they agreed to change my dollars. They wanted ID but luckily accepted the photocopy of my passport. At last – cash. MORE |
email: conradsci @ yahoo.co.uk