Suzhou and Shanghai - Apr 19, 2009 - Shanghai, Shanghai, China

Once in Shanghai a new tour guide picked us up and took us to Suzhou for a day and a half. Her name was Brenda. At the hotel, our front desk staff were Julianne and Micheal. Noticing all these names, Marion whispered to me.."I see all these common names, but where are all the Hong Choy's"?

Ha Ha, What?? First off, where did you get 'that' name from? And, actually where, 'had' the Hong Choy's gone? (Where were all the traditional Chinese names??)

Our day and half here consisted of seeing the traditional city, Suzhou, that was built around the water canals. The people here have kept the original architecture, which consists of black tiled roofs that curl on the ends. The buildings themselves are white. They were cute. During our stay we toured some famous Chinese gardens. They are well known around this area. We also took a canal tour, visited a nice tea shop for a special Chinese lunch (the same as the rest) and perused the markets. During one of our free evenings, Marion and I went in search of Indian food, as it was one of the choices listed in our book. (I am so missing it). We searched for two hours. No one spoke english enough to really direct us. We caught a rickshaw up to an area of town that was popular. We wanted to see if we could find a place to eat there. It was fun to see Marion enjoy the ride. She especially loved the part where the driver went the wrong way in the bike/scooter lane.

In all the countries I have traveled, I have been getting traditional massages and comparing. My advice so far, don't get a traditional chinese foot massage. I still have bruises. I booked it through the hotel and was "sorely" disappointed. It hurt so much that I was trying to pull my foot from him, making faces, and painful sighs. Still the male masseuse inflicted enough pain to cause small bruises in a few places. The sad part about this story, is that I convinced Marion to have her first massage here! Oops, wrong idea. She also had a painful experience (not as bad as mine) and she was not impressed. I told her to try a swedish one when she gets home, and I promised it would be a lot better!

We left Suzhou on the high speed train to Shanghai. That was an experience. We entered into the train from the wrong way. We didn't realize that it was one way traffic on the train. We caused quite a pile up with our oversized packs! After what felt like running rapids backwards, we managed to make it to our seats. On the way back we decided to go with the flow, but the flow changed to the opposite direction and no one told us. Marion was in line with her pack on, trying to talk to me and every time she turned her head to talk, she turned her body with the pack attached. She kept hitting this young man in the seat beside me. I had to laugh and say, 'Marion, no turning your head when you talk to me, somebody's going to get hurt!' 'Oops' she laughed back.

Shanghai is a very modern city. Lots of sky scrapers and fancy buildings. Our new driver and guide were trying to show us all these high tech buildings, but it was rainy, foggy, and the windows in our van were fogged as well. This was not the way to enjoy buildings. We couldn't see them well enough to appreciate them. The driver was pulling up right next to these 'must see buildings' and there I was, opening the door, popping my head out for a second, and then back in again, saying "Oooo, Ahhhh, Nice, Okay I'm done, next". It got to the point where Marion and I looked at each other and we both knew the other was not into this. We asked to go to our hotel. We had an extra day in Shanghai and we could explore these areas by ourselves later.

This hotel was by far the best! I justed wanted to stay here among all the down pillows. And a bathroom I could live in, but we had an Acrobatic show to go to. I'm glad we went. The show was phenomenal. It was very entertaining... kind of like Cirque Du Soleil, but with less going on, so you could concentrate on what you were seeing easier. Marion and I were definitely impressed.

Side note:

I feel as though I use all the same words to describe different events all the time. Words like amazing, definitely.... I am so sorry. My "vocab" seems to be a little small these days.

Our last day together, Marion and I went to check into a hostel. Couldn't afford those fancy hotels anymore. The hostel was great. I could finally afford to do my laundry (hung it up in our room) and it had free internet. We got a subway map and headed out to see the buildings and markets we missed the previous day because of the rain. It was fun. We walked for about 6 hours and toured the downtown area. We went through some sort of market and toured down the food portion of it. I thought Marion was going to toss her cookies after seeing all the raw meats, sea food, live shrimp, etc. The smell was just as toxic. She was eating some cantaloupe during the tour and I was not sure if she was going to be able to finish it. She managed, but she was keen to leave the market area. That was fine by me. We went on another hunt for fast food. You would think I would find a Pizza Hut now that I was looking for one! (I now know why Jenny and Heather love it so much) It was a serious hunt that took us three hours, but we finally found one. It was delicious. Then that evening, Marion and I decided to catch a movie at the cinema. The cinema was nothing special, but I did like that you could bring outside food into the theatre and not get into trouble. The popcorn was the sweet stuff, so I wanted different treats than the ones they had there.

After observing the Chinese lifestyle for a while, I have come up with my own idea of what it is. It consists of WAY too many people, lots of electric bikes, that squeak, too many KFC's (like the 7-elevens in Thailand), tons of concrete and glass, and full of modern architecture. The buildings here are so varied, and so original, but they all use the same building materials, which tends to make them all somewhat similar. Their parks are so manicured and beautiful. The only problem there is that you can't enjoy them because you are not allowed to use them. On my last day in Shanghai I went to the Peoples Square park. It is just as immaculate as the others. I thought I could find a nice piece of grass, to veg out on and maybe read a book. The grass was weed free and freshly cut. It smelled so good! I wondered why no one was on it. But I didn't care. I found a spot to sit and read. A policeman soon told me that I had to move off of the grass. Why?? Oh well... this is another reason I love my country. It's sad that so many people in China don't get to enjoy the parks in the same ways we get to, at home.

Chinese people sell everything. Things we westerners would consider junk, or at least my family and friends would. Things like stickers, stamps, toys of no use, glow in the dark thingys, and bouncing and changing whatchamacallits. They sell so many types of candies (half I would not try myself) and food. Going to a train station you would witness all sorts of these products. A prime example is a horse/zebra that walks in a circle. Who needs this? Chinese definitely appeal to the wants and "not" needs. You could get anything here. Actually I feel that Asia, in general, has been like that. (Yet I miss so much from home, okay, that does not make sense, but it does to me somehow)

Side note:

Marion got an email from Darcy, that says they are writing a book about her and her travels/adventures. They have the title, 'Marion Shags A Sherpa', which is great!, but I am also thinking of a another name:

"Tales of Mariannee, aka Speedy, The Fifth Ninja Turtle Who's Weapons of Choice are Rocks".

I say this because, whenever Marion wears her back pack, it looks like she is the missing, 5th, Ninja Turtle. She definitely uses it like a shell, bouncing and hitting people with it. Mariannee, because since our trekking guide Deepak called her that, so have I. As for the rocks, I say this because she became one with the rocks on her trek. Still to this day, she is admiring good rocks to stop and have a rest on!