Destined to eat noodles.

November 23, 2011. Written in Xinping, Guilin, China.

Destined to eat noodles.

After a few days of research, I was finally ready to leave Guilin city and head for the countryside.
Before that, however, I decided to have lunch. The manager at the hotel is a good guy, but whenever I tell him I am going out for lunch or dinner, he advises the kitchen of the hostel. Now, for Japanese or Western norms, the prices at the hostel are not high at all, but if you know how cheap you can eat in China, then you will understand that 15 Yuan (150 yen or 1 Euro 50) is way too expensive for just some fried rice! As a matter of fact, in town, you can find much better fried rice for just 5 Yuan!

Thus, I headed into a simple eating house where you can eat either noodles or rice on a 5 minute walking distance from the hostel.

It was the first time for me to come there. At the entrance, there is a man sitting and asks what you want. I told him that I wanted some fried rice (which was 6 Yuan) and payed for it. The man gave me a card which I had to show to the lady at the kitchen. The lady nodded and started putting the oil in the fry-pan. I sat on a chair, and waited for the food to be done, but once the lady screamed something to pay my attention, it was not fried rice but thick fried noodles that she had in her hands. Now, normally, I am the kind of guy that does not have the guts or energy to complain and just eats whatever he is served (especially when it is so cheap), but the fact is, that I had just recently met a guy from Hong Kong that had taught me a lesson (see my Dutch blog "Proloog van "Plan Guilin"").
"I learned one thing in China. As long as you keep pushing, they will always give you what you want" he had told me.
Now wasn't this a good opportunity to see if he is right?
I told the lady that it is not what I had ordered. I pointed the picture of fried rice that was in front of the kitchen.
"No no, just eat this" she said, or at least something like that.
But I kept insisting. No, this is not what I had wanted.
It took quite a while, but in the end the woman gave up on me and gave me a careless nod and headed back into the kitchen. Just to make sure, I once again pointed the fried rice picture for her. She nodded again, and started cooking.
So my new friend from Hong Kong had been right after all, I thought.

However, I soon found out that he hadn't been right at all. I saw the lady putting noodles in the pan again. It were not the same thick noodles, but thinner ones, sure, but those were definetly noodles and not rice! But somehow I just didn't care anymore. I didn't have the energy to complain again. I waited for the lady to fry the noodles, and hand it over to me.
"Here you got what ya wanted!" she said, still a bit irritated.
I smiled at her, trying to let her know that I was now satisfied.

Ah, what a weak guy I am, I thought. Here I am, eating noodles while I want rice. My friend from Hong Kong would have kept pushing for sure, but not me. I guess I was destined to just eat noodles.