Simple pleasures are the best,
especially in China.
That’s because in China, finding them is anything but simple.
Take for instance, this trash can with a swinging lid. This
top of the line model model wasn’t available in Kunming until recently (and
even if you could find the trash bin, you couldn’t find trash bags). But I
schlepped all the way to the north side of the city to snag one, which I found at another simple pleasure called Metro. It’s the German equivalent of Costco.
The trip to the North side of Kunming from where we live is anything but simple. A twenty minute cab ride if there is no traffic, ninety minutes by bus, and who knows how long by ox cart.
In Chicago terms, the distance would be from Sox Park to Wrigley Field, but not on the red line, but by cab, during construction and some big festival you forgot about in Grant Park.
But in Kunming, the cab fares are another simple pleasure. The ticker and tip was still less than a beer in the right field
bleachers.
So now we can fill our trash can with all those other simple
pleasures, items Westerners love with anything but simple packaging. Tide detergent, Gatorade bottles, Pantene shampoo bottles with English labels, TimTam wrappers, and
itty bitty cartons of shelf stable milk that hasn’t been fortified with malamine.
But uh, no toilet paper.
Even though Asians customarily don’t flush their paper work, I’m not ready to make a two pointer with my Chinese Charmin.
Here are a few other simple Chinese pleasures:
Bootleg DVDs, hot off the press. (These three cost about $ 4, but were only worth about $2).
Flower flavored condoms. You can make your own comment.
A bowl of jelly ice at Meet Fresh, after working out. Yes, it is a yummy incentive, whatever the “it” is.
Clouds that look like waving kittens.
Assorted chicken parts to go.
Headgear for headaches. Ok.So that one isn’t so simple.