Day 25 - May 7, 2012

Dodio raises himself from the dead near noon and begins his own private psy-trance rave party DJ session in his room at near-maximum volume. For THREE HOURS. Smoking cigarette after cigarette and nibbling at food revives us to a point of such ambition that we decide to head to Meihu, site of the Yiwu soccer stadium which had recently hosted the likes of Arsenal FC. The parks and public areas surrounding the Yiwu sports complexes are beautiful and nearly unused, save for a healthy foreign population playing games of cricket all over the place. Forcing entry without speaking a word to the folks at the front desk we stroll through a gym and directly into the vacated 40,000 person football stadium. Passing time, we meander around the track remarking on how illegal and completely out-of-the-question anything like this would be at home. After visiting the ping pong training academy we walk back to out destination: turf 5-on-5 soccer fields that you normally must reserve in order to to play on.

Joining a pickup game, Dodio and I are split up and left to destroy the feeble other teams on our own. The level of play is childish and Dodio is gassed, so we wait for a while until Toni arrives to play 3-person volley game until the sun sets. Walking back along the river offers yet another visual treat, Yiwu-style, with beautiful bands of color-shifting lights that stretch from the bridge a quarter-mile down the river’s edge. Deciding on food before going home we grab burgers and Coronas at M-Box and can’t be more satisfied after the meal. Finally, finishing the weekend to a long week, we settle down at home to movies, cards and sweets before retiring. Not to mention we hosted A____ for some great stories (as usual) making a final ‘goodnight’ scenario a hope for the future. And so it goes.