Ah, the joys of travel

These are Olympic moments.

The media relations maven known only as The Czarina, crack COC photog Mike and yours truly arrive in Tianjin, grab a cab and have no freaking way of letting the guy know where we were going.

After much gesticulating, including Mike getting out of the car and pretending to kick a football and The Czarina trying to draw a soccer ball on a piece of scrap paper (and she’s no artist, as it turns out), we decided to call back to Beijing, find a Chinese-speaking member of the COC staff and let her tell the cabbie where we wanted to go.

Not sure what she said but there was lots of ‘ho, ho, ho’ from our jolly driver, who got us here in no time flat and who was astonished to get a 5 Yuan tip at the end of the journey.

Much thanks, many smiles and I have no idea what the guy said but we are now, I believe, bestest of friends.

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Here’s one for the GO Train people. And VIA Rail, too.

A gaggle of us took the bullet train down to Tianjin from Beijing, a distance of something like 120 kilometres or such. The speedometer in our car topped out at 343 kilometres an hour, which, my friends, is travelling.

Made the journey in 32 minutes, which was far better than the two- or three-hour bus ride we could have taken.

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I don’t know what it is about the Spanish but their top athletes don’t ever big-time anyone, it seems.

Remember Raffa Nadal the other day? Marching himself through the airport throngs with a beat grunt following the crowd?

Well, flipping through the TV dial, I come across what I like to call The Airport Arrival Channel and there’s Pau Gasol doing the same thing, pushing a cart with some of his luggage, inundated by cameras and autograph seekers and the like.

I can pretty much assure you a lot of other NBA stars – hello, USA! – won’t quite do the same thing.

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The trip to Tianjin began at the nicest train station I’ve ever seen: Beijing South. Palm trees in the lobby, a grand piano right over there and a place that’ll sell you a cocktail for 5 Yuan. Yeah, they do do some things right over here.

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In what might be a shocking development to some, I enjoy a good dinner and thanks to our Beijing expert B. Schiller, I’ve now had one to remember.

He and Lovely Lili The Minder set up Team Star at a local place the other night and it’s got to be in the top 10 road meals all time. Not entirely sure what we had but the fish was spectacular, the lamb outstanding and another course of duck makes me want to be a duck guy all the time.

Toss in the revelry of a table for 13 and it’s one of the good nights.

The restaurant – name – was formerly a palace, we were told, it stretched forever from the street through a hutong and then with two more rooms.

And every time I think I’ve got a questionable job, or you think you do, I’ll remind you about the guy we saw cooking the duck over an open flame in what had to be about a billion degree heat. Aside from working in, oh, maybe a dry cleaners, that has to be the ickiest job I can imagine. Duck was damn good, though. Way better than the main press centre.

But there aren’t too many nights when you can get out for a good meal at things like that, work tends to get in the way, and an evening before it all begins to get you rested is a welcome event.

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All along, we’ve been hearing about the small city of Tianjin we were going to for this game.

Hmm, it’s like more than seven million people.

Guess small’s all relative over here.

But you gotta see this stadium. Seats 60,000, looks like it was built yesterday, is surrounded by a creek or a moat or something like that and is very, very neat.

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Sort of Olympic-related mail:

Q: While in Beijing will you have time to hoist a few or 'get some fresh air' with the other columnists from the home paper? I can imagine that you and Rosie could have some pretty interesting conversations on a variety of topics.

Anyway, have fun and learn lots. We await your insights.

Richard Y, Kincardine

A: Hell, yeah, we hang out. I’ve had several great conversations over fresh air and cocktails with Rosie over the six Games I’ve been at now and hanging in the courtyard outside the condo with Perk to end a night with a Tsing Tao and a cigar is to live like you’ve never lived before.

Topics? Often what we did that day and what we’re doing tomorrow. But sometimes we stray and – don’t tell anyone, okay? – bust on our bosses and jobs.

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I’m pretty sure a whole bunch of Team Star teammates are a bit jealous. The days leading up to something like an Olympics can be mind-numbingly unexciting, with access to athletes limited, no games to cover or such.

Me? I got the very first thing of the Beijing Olympics at the women’s football today. Sweet.

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Hey, I’m going to toss this out for all your Raptor fans who are lost and reading this hoping for some news.

The NBA sked’s coming out today and all I’ve got are a couple of nuggets.

They open in Philadelphia (if it’s on The Score do you think Leo interviews Sam Dalembert?) and the only home game I know of for sure right now is New Year’s Eve against Denver.

But stay tuned, when or if I get a chance during the day, I’ll scribble a little bit here to let you know what’s up.

Comments

[Joseph C]

Hey Doug,

Those "Ho Ho Ho's" is basically the cabbie saying yes or good in Mandarin in context of the phone conversation. However if he was still saying ho ho ho once he was off the phone well then he may have just been taking a cheap shot at your physique.

[Jean-Sebastien Siow]

Hey Doug, I'm glad to see you enjoying your trip in China. My father is Chinese. Having been brought up in Canada, we tend to have the wrong images of countries outside Canada (media problem?). I remember all you were talking about before going to China was: Smoke, fog, pollution, yay...so much fun, etc.

I went to China myself and saw things with my own eyes and it is a wonderful country with a LOT of things better than here back home in Canada. Remember, no country is perfect. What I've learned over the last years is to appreciate the GOOD things a country has to offer and reject the bad.

[dav]

hey doug, can't you add pictures to your blog? as interesting as you make this all sound, i'm not about to dish out the cash to go there myself any time soon... so how about giving us a peek at "seats 60,000, looks like it was built yesterday, is surrounded by a creek or a moat or something like that and is very, very neat."

Blogger's note: We're working on it.

[sherry]

I'm lovin' the tales from China - thanks!!

[Alex]

Doug - well done! Great descriptions of your visit thus far. I've been to China on more than one occasion, and your account of the cab ride made me smile!

Make sure you sample some real Dim Sum while you're there - and if I can give you a tip, don't ask what something is after you've eaten it!

Enjoy the Games, and keep blogging.

[Kevin]

Cheers Doug. Remember to go to the Great Wall if you haven't. As they say in China:"You're not a man if you haven't been to the Great Wall." Shame on me for not being there once in my first 12 years of life in China. Anyways good luck and learn some Mandarin so you can at least communicate with cabbies.

[Ellie]

Your insight into the behind-the-scenes Olympics is appreciated. Just curious -- did you omit the restaurant's name or did that not make it through the censor process?

Blogger's note: I omitted it, actually. I only have it written in Mandarin and there's no way I can write it. I know it's at 235 Dongzhimen Inner Street Dong, at least that's what the business card I got says.

[Andy C]

I've tried Tsing Tao a handful of times and never cared for it. I found it tastes similar to Blue.

your thoughts?

considering it's probably 1/5th the price in China compared to the LCBO i guess that kinda makes up for it.

[Eric]

Doug,

This may be the wrong time to ask you but you can answer it in a mailbag when you come home if you like: I see the Pistons just exercised their 09/10 Options on Stuckey and Afflalo. I also know the Raptors exercised Bargnani for this coming year, last year. Why exactly do NBA teams do this? I can't find an answer anywhere. Would it not make sense to wait until next offseason? Or are they required by the CBA to pick-up Team Options 15 months in advance?

Enjoy the games,
Eric

Blogger's note: Short answer is that teams send a message to the player that they want them around and they get cost certainty more quickly.

[Joe]

Sure, the stadium in Tianjin looks nice, as I'm seeing on worldstadiums.com, but I personally hate watching football played on a field surrounded by a running track. The spectators are so far away. What really sucks is that all 7 venues used for football have running tracks surrounding the field. We all know Cathal Kelly hates stadiums like these, but what do you think as a spectator, Doug?

Blogger's note: You're right, the fans were far too far away and it did seem quite cavernous inside. And if Cathal doesn't like it, neither do I. He's the Dean Of Soccer.