Nov. 4 2006 - Is that CHILD SMOKING?!

Saturday night, the Philippino ladies invited us to dinner at a Taiwanese restaurant called "Streams in the Desert". Jason and Charlotte also came. The restaurant was beautifully decorated and the food was pretty damn good. It was another hot pot night, but this time, the food was more flavourful & some was spicy. The appetizer was duck - something like a chicken wing, but duck and on a stick. It was good, but there is not much meat. Our hosts have been in the city for a few years, teaching at another school here. Really nice ladies.

After dinner, we said good-bye to the 3 ladies and the four of us headed to the Empty Bottle - the pub from last week. Jason and Charlotte have an electric bike (scooter / mo-ped - whatever you like to call it), so Max and I grabbed a bicycle taxi. As we were going in, we did a few double-takes. Outside of the pub were a handful of people sitting in the street. One man had a small child with him and it looked like the kid was smoking. We stood watching for a minute or so and at first we thought maybe the kid was just holding an unlit cigarette, but then he took a drag - the damn thing was lit!!! So of course we go over and ask to take pictures (see attached). They were more than happy to pose with us - most people here have seen very few foreigners, some have never seen any. Since I don't yet speak any Chinese or any local language, Max told them that we were from Canada. He asked how old the kid was - turns out he is just 2 and 1/2!!! We must have talked to them for close to 10 minutes and at one point the kid dropped his smoke. His dad picked it up and was relighting it, but the kid was screaming for it! It was like when you take a toy away from a child and they cry to have it back. The barefoot man in the picture on the far right was really amused by the whole scene. He flashed a few grins and showed off the 6 rotten teeth still hanging on. I think the radio on the tree behind the father and son belongs to the old man.

Jodi, Steven, Joe and Colin joined us a little later at the pub. A few beers and many laughs later, we all left for home. As we were leaving the pub, the father & son were gone, but the old man was asleep - all curled up in the same place as he is sitting in the picture.