Saturday Night Beaver
Lhasa may be remote city, but that does not mean that the Tibetans don't like to unwind on a Saturday night.
I decided that after a few beers at a restaurant I would accompany a decent ex-pat fellow and a couple of others to the local night spot. I cannot remember its name though it would be meaningless anyway. We arrived, said good evening and got in for free. In China they seem to let Westerners in for free because they drink more. I think they got very good value out of me.
We took our seats at the front of the seating area and I realised that it looked more like a function room than nightclub (or "disco" as I still sometimes call it, showing my age). We were at the front of a large capacity seating area with round tables and chairs and the floor in front of us was empty. At this moment there was a Tibetan stand-up duo on. Christ knows what they were talking about but it revolved around tourists (Chinese ones) as one guy was wearing an ill-fitting suit and pretending to take pictures. Actually the more I drunk the funnier it got. I was the only one enthusiastically clapping at the end. Tough crowd.
The ex-pat who I was with was called Brett. He is an American who is over here teaching English (isn't everyone?) though at a private school in Lhasa. In exchange he gets taught Tibetan which is very similar to Sanskrit and Hindi. His capacity for drink was also formidable. He was ordering the beers and as is common in China they were poured for us into tiny glasses, not much bigger than shot glasses. Drinking like this means that you drink more quickly and soon I was enjoying every act on the stage.
There was variety. After Cannon and Ball there was a female dance troupe doing what I think was some sort of traditional Tibetan dance. They could have been doing the hokey-cokey for all I noticed at this point, but it was colourful. Then as each act reached the end of their routine the plug was abruptly pulled and the lights came up. No sooner had they reached the edges of the stage than the next people were on. There was a dance trio of strapping young Tibetan men with magnificent mullets who wowed the crowd. They wowed me anyway; I had not seen hair like that in the wild for a long time.
Ocassionally the Tibetan equivalent of Andy Williams would come on and sing a slushy ballad. The locals loved this stuff and the dance floor would fill up with mainly same-sex couples who would dance the waltz no matter what the tune was. Same sex dancing is very common in Asia and it's not rare to see men holding hands in the street if they are friends.
Later on there was something resembling Country music being played and some sort of line dance started. This was a sight to behold. The strobe lights flashing, the UV making people's white clothes glow, and a mixture of young and old Tibetans and Chinese linking arms and line dancing to songs by Michael Bolton. It was fantastic, though by this time I couldn't stand up so you'll just have to see it for yourself.
So the evening passed. It was late for me, at about 0300, when I decided to leave. Apparently Brett and the other guy stayed there until 0500, so I don't know what they've been feeding him.
It was an interesting cultural exchange, though like most things in my life I haven't a bloody clue what was going on but it was good fun.
I decided that after a few beers at a restaurant I would accompany a decent ex-pat fellow and a couple of others to the local night spot. I cannot remember its name though it would be meaningless anyway. We arrived, said good evening and got in for free. In China they seem to let Westerners in for free because they drink more. I think they got very good value out of me.
We took our seats at the front of the seating area and I realised that it looked more like a function room than nightclub (or "disco" as I still sometimes call it, showing my age). We were at the front of a large capacity seating area with round tables and chairs and the floor in front of us was empty. At this moment there was a Tibetan stand-up duo on. Christ knows what they were talking about but it revolved around tourists (Chinese ones) as one guy was wearing an ill-fitting suit and pretending to take pictures. Actually the more I drunk the funnier it got. I was the only one enthusiastically clapping at the end. Tough crowd.
The ex-pat who I was with was called Brett. He is an American who is over here teaching English (isn't everyone?) though at a private school in Lhasa. In exchange he gets taught Tibetan which is very similar to Sanskrit and Hindi. His capacity for drink was also formidable. He was ordering the beers and as is common in China they were poured for us into tiny glasses, not much bigger than shot glasses. Drinking like this means that you drink more quickly and soon I was enjoying every act on the stage.
There was variety. After Cannon and Ball there was a female dance troupe doing what I think was some sort of traditional Tibetan dance. They could have been doing the hokey-cokey for all I noticed at this point, but it was colourful. Then as each act reached the end of their routine the plug was abruptly pulled and the lights came up. No sooner had they reached the edges of the stage than the next people were on. There was a dance trio of strapping young Tibetan men with magnificent mullets who wowed the crowd. They wowed me anyway; I had not seen hair like that in the wild for a long time.
Ocassionally the Tibetan equivalent of Andy Williams would come on and sing a slushy ballad. The locals loved this stuff and the dance floor would fill up with mainly same-sex couples who would dance the waltz no matter what the tune was. Same sex dancing is very common in Asia and it's not rare to see men holding hands in the street if they are friends.
Later on there was something resembling Country music being played and some sort of line dance started. This was a sight to behold. The strobe lights flashing, the UV making people's white clothes glow, and a mixture of young and old Tibetans and Chinese linking arms and line dancing to songs by Michael Bolton. It was fantastic, though by this time I couldn't stand up so you'll just have to see it for yourself.
So the evening passed. It was late for me, at about 0300, when I decided to leave. Apparently Brett and the other guy stayed there until 0500, so I don't know what they've been feeding him.
It was an interesting cultural exchange, though like most things in my life I haven't a bloody clue what was going on but it was good fun.