What a Long Strange Trip It's Been, pt 16
2006-09-28, 16:13

Let me take a moment here to expound on a couple of sodas I found in the 7-11 up the street from us (they also had a big ol' containers of Vita Chrysanthemum Tea there, so I had to have one). They were both of the Sprite variety, and neither available in the US.

The first, and lesser, of the two was Sprite Ice, which is minty. Odd sounding, yes, and just as odd to drink. It was just like drinking a cold, wet, fizzy Wint-O-Green Life Saver. While I can't say that I properly disliked it, it wasn't something I would choose to buy again.

The other Sprite was something that should be on every shelf in every store in the world - Sprite On Fire. I thought it was supposed to be a cinnamon type thing, and it was hard to be sure, since the vast majority of the label was in Chinese. Instead, it turned out to be ginger. So what, you might think, it's just ginger ale, right? If you want an idea of what it's like, think of what Vernor's tastes like (and if you don't have Vernors soda in your area, consider yourself pitied by me) and, after removing the vanilla flavor, multiply the ginger impact by about five times, and that should approximate On Fire. I had a few bottles of it while in Guangzhou, and I should have thought to try and bring one home, just for the nostalgia. I haven't yet tried exploring online purchasing options, but I'd reckon it'd be too expensive to be worth the effort. It's just soda, after all.

Art, Both Fine and Gaudy

The next day we took a few short bus trips to some local attractions. First was the Guangdong Folk Art Museum, a facility that was originally the Chen Family Temple, built as an homage to their ancestors in the 1890's. It was miraculously saved from being dismantled and destroyed during the height of the Cultural Revolution because some very smart people decided to build a warehouse structure around the thing, effectively hiding it from roving bands looking to reclaim wealth for the People. Now it functions as an historical site and a folk art facility.

The architecture is a mix of Asian and European, left over from occupation. Some of the artwork displayed there is amazing, like delicate sculptures of shrimp done entirely in jade, or five-foot-tall intricate carvings done from one solid piece of wood. Beautiful stuff, and well underappreciated by me at the time.

That was because it was extremely hot and unbearably humid. Even being in the shade outside was something of a challenge. We spent our short time there enjoying the views and skittering from one shady spot to the next, like ants hiding from an evil child's magnifying glass. There was a small, grassy courtyard toward the back of the place that had many sculptures of human figures in various scenes that may or may not have been from some myth or cultural history, we really couldn't tell. There was a sprinkler system for the grass, and the sprinklers were on when we found the place. You could actually watch the mist from the sprinklers evaporating before our eyes. It was that hot. We found some respite in a dark room that housed some excellent, vivid paintings and (more importantly) some icy cold air conditioning. We were worried about the baby being too hot, you know.

A little while later we were through lunch and past the hottest part of the day, and we traveled to see Six Banyan Temple, named so because, strangely enough, it sports six banyan trees there. It also featured a nearly one thousand year old pagoda, standing nearly 60 meters tall, and a pretty thing. There were also three Buddhas there in one temple - one for the past, one for the present and one for the future. We were honored by an offer to, for a small donation to the temple, receive a blessing from one of the monks there. H and I gladly participated and did our best to emulate the folks we'd seen praying to the Buddha over the last two and a half weeks out of respect. Only about half of the families participated; I guess some folks don't want happy thoughts and well-wishing from non-Christians. Whatever. A blessing is a blessing, no matter whom it's coming from. As far as we were concerned, we could use all the blessings we could get.

We finished the tour day at a huge shop that featured all kinds of the gaudiest trinkets and pieces of 'art' you could imagine. It was like all of the artisans in China went on a bender and threw up in there. I think some of the shelving in the shop was better made than the art and craftwork on display. We did manage to find a couple of bookmarks with the kids' names on them. H's goal in life is to find things with their names, not as easy as it sounds, as they have semi non-traditional names that can be found only on the most extensive of trinket racks. We won't have that trouble with Laurana, of course; anything with her name will have to be custom made.

-- End Transmission --