The restaurant opposit is recommended by the hostel reception. Nice looking place, clean. the menu is very large and eventually a young waitress suggests a dish and I go for it. It turns up in a 30 cm diameter metal bowl upon a tripod, I will be here some time. she lits the heater underneath and for about 10 -15 minutes the stew is actually boiling, thats what I call hot food! I am gulping the food down throughout the time. These days I dont always feel the sensation of hunger, may be it is the effect of relentless cold. traditinally eating places tend to have staff at the door, that usually call you in as you walk by, some offering you English menus. Sometimes these menus tend to be something like 25% more expensive than the local prices just for the tourists. The place is quietish and there are 4 staff lining the entrance from the door. I wouldnt have found it inviting to walk in without the recommendation.  A red cover is slipped over the back of my seat presumably to protect my jacket, nice touch. prices were about twice what I have paid so far but the meal is very good, unlike one or two disapointments I have had and the place is a proper restaurnat too. I am still craving a cream cake and have a quick 2 km roundtrip march to and from the cake shop near the Qiemnam station.

 In the dorm some guys are having a chat and beers. Kim (English guy, chinese History grad, doing quite well in China), Peter and Ben (Canadians, Ben hand makes aeroplane parts) and the Dutch couple. I join in wih them to go to a bar to see the New Year in. taxis rare, we are on a one way street going away from our destination. we walk towards Tiananman  square and I manage to hail 3 cabs, first is taken by another group. one by me and Peter and 2nd by Kit and S, who has been admiring of him. As we approach Bar Blue, we miss the 12.00 and sounds of HAPPY NEW YEAR  is coming from everywhere. Some of the stall holders are offering their wares as well as "girl bars"! Inside the bar, there is hardly standing room, I grab 4 beers, later I give one to Kit ("no money!") and slip two inside my chest coat pockets. There is hardly dancing room and people still try I am pretty careful not to spill the beers inside my jacket too.

We move on to smugglers bar cross the alleyway, leaving kit and S fumbling against the wall. Smugglers is quieter, more expensive, Ben leaves to find some money (and later returns having managed to lock his card by putting in wrong pin number- I resist offering him cash - great). Pete and I are plotting unplugging and leaving the bar with the flashing Christmas tree next to us. Groups of girls dancing, one extremely drunk small girl girating and hardly able to stand up with Peter. I am leaning against a wall and just cant get into the mood, and alcohol has little effect either. I am ready to leave, its about 1.30 a.m. On my way out I slip Pete the address of the hostel (made it a little harder for myself in the taxi later) and see Ben and S coming through the door! where is Kit then? outside it is total chaos, sick and drunk young girls everywhere and literally hundreds of people looking for taxi, I head for the main road and then walk and then need to run away from the area, in the direction opposit to where I need to go. This makes sense, as most of the people will also be going in same direction. couple of blocks away I catch a taxi, on the way past the bar area I cant see any of the people I came out with, would have shared the taxi with them.

The Dutch are already back and in bed, too crowded (no kidding, we were quite late to have been part of the build up of the festivities, I hadnt even had a beer before I got to the bar) I grab a hot shower and a cold. not long after Peter turns up with S! (she wore a short wig all night on top of her long hair all night, which surprises pete), she begins to fashion a curtain around her lower bunk bed, this is going to be interesting ! or a nightmare. I am musing on what has been going on all night. there are flashes of torch light from her bed, I am wandering what we have to experience tonight. I am no longer in my teens so have little strong reactions! to what is going on here. I am drifting in and out of sleep and not sure if there was a great deal happeining or they were damn quiet. ket drifts in later and is tossing and turning in his bed above my head, Ben is also in and out of the dorm (in the morning passing bottles of water to pete who has the top bunk over S). early morning Kit is having chat with s, pete is the only one who seems to have slept solidly tonight! later on s is getting dressed and takes her time pulling on her stocking trousers, she was complaining during the day about the camera in the games room, but I not too sure if she dislikes being watched really. she leaves the room, few secondslater so does kit in her underwear carrying a towel and glancing in pete's direction. I drift off, hasnt been a good night for sleep but for thinking about people. about 11 I wake up to see kit all packed up and on his way out (returning to his town as an English teacher) I am surprised I hadnt heard him pack ( this tends to be a noisy affair in dorm rooms with the sound of locker doors, zipper of backpacks and sounds of crumpling plastic bags used for lots of little purposes), I must have been asleep. No sign of s. I get up about 1, girls are cleaning the room and making up kits bed over my head.

around 2 the Korean guy (met at the Peking duck restaurant also leaves) amusing man, tall and lanky with fizzy hair, black headband, trench coat and knee high boots with untied laces, ears pierced with diamond like earstuds.

My plans for today, rest, some fasting ( I do eat these days but feel I need detox) I have "forgotten" agian to meditate or do Yoga Nidra, amazing how I forget to do what is good for me so reqularly.

next few days probably still in Beijing then heas down south To Xian and decide how long to stay there. I have a flight from Hongkong to Hanoi on 28th January.