Roaming Chuck Taylors

In the final week of the tour, there are occasional moments of tension among members of the tour group. It is nothing disruptive, but it seems everyone is susceptible to irritability more than ever. Many have already voiced exasperation in lengthened periods of travelling and its associated discomforts, while others cannot help making remarks about China's relative eccentricities, as if, after two weeks in the country, they are still completely baffled by her way of life. Perhaps my previous exposure to Asian conditions and food protects me from such shocks, but I would think that after two weeks, saturated in Chinese culture, one would come to accept and expect such things.

Several members have unendingly keen spirits for experience and adventure, approaching each challenge and strange sight with wonder and humor, but it is the others who consistently gripe about each small detail not meeting expectation that irritates me no end.

"The food is too greasy", "Why do they serve soup last?", "Look at that! Three people on one scooter!", "I don't want to go to the markets again", "The air con is giving me a sore throat", "Oh, don't eat the salad because it's washed with their tap water", "The beds are too hard", "Here we are on the bus again...", "The fish has bones in it", "The beef has bones and gristle in it"... it just doesn't end.

I happily put up with comments like this for the first two weeks; after all, China is a completely new experience for many of these people, but many are also well-travelled, more so than I, yet they find it necessary to appraise every small thing that is put to them still.

Honestly, my patience is wearing thin, and I have less and less tolerance for remarks like these. Even more, I have come to know certain personalities better and have decided on certain features I simply cannot bear. Fortunately, I am graced with the Piscean quality of internalizing my emotions, though there are increasingly more occasions where I must politely blurt my exasperations.

One incident was when a tired tour mate, annoyed with the local guide telling us about her home town, loudly discussed how much to pay her to shut up. I found this intolerable behavior; rude, inappropriate and completely tactless. In the end, he convinced another tourist to quietly talk to the guide when I know that he has the sensibility to curb his irritation and speak to her tactfully himself.

Frequent behavior by a lively tour member has me wanting to smack him upside the head each time. He is keen and adventurous, but simply incorrigible, wasting the time of the tour group and desperate street hawkers by asking questions about items for sale and haggling when he has absolutely no interest in the purchase. Additionally, although he has a marvelous sense of humor, I feel that his jokes to the locals are belittling and patronizing. I think he is acutely aware of the differences in Australian and Chinese humor, as well as their difficulty in understanding complex English, so while they are completely baffled and confused, he and some of the others in the group have a good laugh at the poor local's expense.

Apart from the seemingly inexhaustible stream of recurring remarks, I am suddenly intolerant of some members' sheer stupidity and vapidness. I constantly meet an onslaught of questions at the meal table; some I do not mind answering as I accept their relative inexperience with Asian cuisine, but at the end of two weeks, I would think that having had scores of Asian meals, they might have an inkling of what sits before them!

More than that, there are regular conversations arguing whether that dish is chicken, duck, beef or pork. Honestly, even the most obvious dishes are questioned. How can one possibly think that chicken breast strips are calamari? How can one think that a meat dish as dark as beef stew could be pork? How could one not recognize bean sprouts, fish, potato, eggplant or scrambled eggs?? I kid you not. I actually had to say, "It couldn't be anything else but chicken," and "That's because it is scrambled egg!" twice each during one dinner!

Other things that exasperate me are when people talk during the guide's explanation and information, or even the mandatory airline safety demonstration, when people straggle, not understanding the guide's need to keep the group together, and when people sulk and whinge instead of just going with the flow.

Some one get me away from these people so that I can just enjoy China!