Advertisement
Linda and Leah
Beautiful screen in the Sentosa dining room after breakfast We decided to spend the day in town Sunday. We took a taxi into Nanqiao, which cost 14 RMB, which is a little over $2 USD. We left about 9:15 and got dropped off at the Sentosa Hotel where we had their breakfast buffet. After breakfast, we walked to a little park not too far away. We've seen various things going on there as we've driven past, but there wasn't anything going on when we were there. We did get to take some pictures with the 2010 Expo Mascot. He is supposed to represent a Chinese character and he's all over because the 2010 World Expo is going to be in Shanghai. Leah and I are going to learn a little more about him and we'll share what we learn later.
On Jim's previous trips, he spent a lot of time walking around this area, so he wanted to show us around. We walked and shopped for about three hours, seeing all kinds of things! Some areas were very crowded and noisy, others were quiet and almost deserted. These were not "traditional" Chinese shops, but more modern. We saw lots of clothing stores ( with Western style clothing), lots of hair
2010 Expo mascot
In a park in Nanqiao stylists and spas, hardware type stores, cell phone stores, shoe stores, many small restaurants and snack bars, accessory/makeup stores, a toy store, some pet stores, many cross stitch kit stores, and so much more! We also saw a man carrying at least 2 dozen dwarf rabbits in little cages that he had hooked onto a pole across his shoulders. There were also a couple of hamsters in wheels. I think these were pets because they seemed to be in nice new little cages.
In additon to the main section on the street, there are lanes on either side for bicycles/scooters on the larger roads, but on the side streets , pedestrians share the bicycle/scooter lane, and every so often you see a little car drive on that part too! As a pedestrian, you have to be very careful - pedestrians do NOT have the right of way in China!
We finally decided we were ready for a light lunch so decided to go back to the Sentosa and eat at their Chinese Resturant. Since it was already at least 1:30, the dining room was closed and we were seated in a private room. One of the first three dishes we
Baby helping mom
A shop in Nanqiao tried to order wasn't available and it seemed likewise with everything I picked until they finally got someone on the phone with me who spoke English and made some suggestions of what they had available. I guess part of the problem was needing gluten free dishes. We ended up with a good lunch and the rest and air conditioned break felt great!
Jim said he wanted to take us for foot massgaes and after checking at a few smaller places (where we couldn't find anyone who spoke English) we ended up at the building which is part of the Sentosa. We were taken to a room where it was just the three of us (we got Leah a massage too!), we had big comfy chairs and they brought us tea and fruit. I had a guy and Jim and Leah had girls. They washed our feet first, the footstools slid back to reveal little sinks, then while our feet soaked a little, they gave us shoulder/back rubs. Ahhhh! Relaxation! Then the actual footrub, first, they massaged both feet, then one foot was wrapped in a warm towel while they worked on the other. It was a foot/ lower leg massage
- amazing the rhythms they did with their tapping/slapping. While we had the massages, there was a TV going, it was Chinese but Jim found a cartoon called Nono Forest which didn't have words, so we could follow it. Well, this went on for a good hour - all for $10 each! It was great, I could get used to this!
Afterwards, we were ready to head back home, got a taxi, which got us back to Ace in record time (I'm glad I was in the back and couldn't see!). The Ace drivers are much better drivers than the taxi drivers!
After getting home, I finished watching "Space Buddies" which Jim and Leah watched last night, but I fell asleep! So, now, it's 8PM and I need to fix some dinner!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.164s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 6; qc: 24; dbt: 0.1374s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb