Moon strike

You were the guide of this package tour.

This morning, at Zurich Airport, you told us :

— ‘Forget everything you are, everything you believed in as of today, forget the old Europe.’

— ‘You are going to live in another world for the next thirty days…’

And we flew to China.

It took us eighteen hours of flight, with a stopover in Bahrain, in the Emirates, before arriving at noon in Beijing.

And, as we had paid for it, we had to put away with the entire « forbidden city » as soon as we stepped off the plane. Hardly time to leave our suitcases in our hotel room and eat a bit…

We were so tired of course, that we could not even enjoy the visit. No big deal, Mao Tse Tung slept for all of us in his mausoleum, just across the square.

After Beijing, we went to conquer the Great Wall. Then we visited some graves. Plenty of graves. And some temples, plenty of temples. And plenty of pretty Chinese girls…

We became lovers in Guilin.

After a boat ride on the Li River. The river of the pearls… On the other side of the shore, a boy pushed a guard in front of him, using a thin rod. I can see it before me as if it was yesterday. It was so… immutable !

We danced, just you and me alone in the world on the pier of this small wharf. Our Chinese hostess let us choose a program on the radio. We finally found some tangos. They must have been, those tangos, as strange for those Asian people as their Chinese melodies were for us. Later on that evening, two other couples tried to imitate our steps. So clumsy though, neither you nor I were able to dance that correctly anyway. And I was somewhat ashamed to transmit such imperfection. But, regardless, I started to fall in love with you…

This very night we exchanged kisses under the stars of eternal China and everything was perfect.

After that we returned to “civilization”.

Hong-Kong. The “Peak”, the harbor with its pagodas, the rich Chinese with their cars registered « 88888888 » (it brings luck), the luxurious hotels without the 4th floor (it brings misfortune), but with entire gardens in their lobbies and extraordinary fountains everywhere.

We escaped aboard a double-decked bus, due to the British sovereignty, unscrupulously leaving the rest of the tourist herd.

Toward the end of the trip and before returning to the cold Helvetia we made a detour to visit the « pearl of Asia ».

Bali is located on the Indian Ocean.

I tried to kidnap you for a midnight bath, but you weren’t keen on it. You were, without any doubt but with reason, somewhat afraid of the sharks. I understood much later that in fact, you didn’t swim very well.

Later on, you didn’t fear to love me under the stars, dragging your mattress on your balcony, surrounded by magnificent and perfumed pink mangroves which made a perfect and discreet alcove.

How good at that you were !

And, in the aftermath of that divine night, as we waited in the lobby, behind a grumpy customer who loudly complained about misplaced sunburn, you whispered at me within a smile :

…"beware the moon strike ! "