Went for breakfast with two Danish girls and had an egg and bacon sarnie with a decent coffee. Then went to the Humble Administrators Garden (70y) which was fairly large with lush plants and acres of space. Unfortunately the huge numbers of Chinese tour groups were in full flock and made a peaceful setting fairly loud and busy. The fishes and setting was spectacular enough to over-ride the hordes. We then went to the Silk Museum which was interesting enough and had a personal guide for no charge. Later we tucked into a Japanese buffet (all you can eat and drink [View Full Entry]

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Slept in late before meeting ben for a 25p lunch which was stir-fried veg in a wrap from a street vender. I also bought the biggest bananas in the world ever!! About 4 times the norm i reckon. We then headed down to see Carly and Paul to finalise thoughts about the football and to see their place. Went to the supermarket near the hostel after the others had stuff to sort and getting an all American selection of Skippy peanut butter, bread, Oreos and yoghurt helped massively. Got speaking to some Danish girls to allieviate the boredom and their expert [View Full Entry]

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Went with Arwan on bus (cue staring) to central Suzhou where we walked and searched for breakfast. We walked upto a stall where the smell filled the entire street. Arwan ordered these cubes and stuff on sticks which looked like chicken. Spices were put all over the cubes and Arwan offered me the lions share being the generous lad he is. If i didnt know already, by the 6th cube i was fully aware i was eating dog. Doggy?!? A dog? Really? I got two at home! It smelt like wet dog! Bought a sprite quick sharp and went to McDonalds [View Full Entry]

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Ben came to hostel in morning still feeling the effects and went to a Lonely Planet recommended restaurant called Yangyang's (their neighbouring restaurant had seen the improvement in custom so copied the Lonely Planet logo on the front!). We ordered sweet and sour pork and jousters (dumpling type things with veg in) which were epic. We got what we didnt eat in a tray for later. Then we hit the hypermarket Carrefour (French i think - imagine Tesco's extra x 4 with turtles and eels for sale) and bought some notepads for diary and vocab and water for 70p. Ben went [View Full Entry]

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Awoke with a nasty head (suprise? much?) to a fairly empty hotal room as Sam, Kelvin, Mandy and Anita had left for England. Poor Sam..'he will just hate me for a week' and 2 hours sleep = hell. We cleared up and Ben and I got a sickly taxi to the central station carrying all our kit. Got stuck into a KFC (seem to eat more Western filth out here than back at home) which saved the day and absored the naughty inside us. Met up with Carly and Paul outside. We got an amazing train to Suzhou (said Sujoah) - [View Full Entry]

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At 10am everybody stirred and we headed to Sacha's by 11am. We went cos of their buffet/main meal/FREE FLOW champagne scene for 115 yuan (about 8 quid!!). Sat outside bathed with sun and surrounded by plants and beautiful westerners it felt more Puerto Banus than China. We abused the champers to the max and were annoying the already annoyed waiting staff with our tipsy demands. 3 o'clock was the buffet deadline and we pushed thru a bottle each between the 8 of us!! The food was excellent and half cut by 3pm, Sam, Ben and I stayed whilst the others went [View Full Entry]

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Woke on the sofa in the hotel and went with Ben and Anita to look for a laptop for Nita. The technology malls in Shanghai are quite something, 6 stories high and every shop filled with workers. Filled with workers mainly cos they dont have to pay them much and China's need to create 24 million jobs per year to cope with demand. Find a small laptop for about 300 quid (it had poker capabilites which was the only box that Nita needed ticking!) but HSBC were not open (strange) and we could not get any cash from any bank so [View Full Entry]

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Landed in Pudong Airport at 8am after a good flight with plenty of British comedy (Peep Show and Gavin and Stacey) and some fine cinema (Superbad and Hitman) to send me off to the East. 6 hrs sleep in 2 days and landing in dreary wet weather which after leaving a fantastically sunny Heathrow was slighty minor tho! Missing everyone already but over-ridden by a sense of thrill and dread for the unknown and well excited to see Ben and his family. I practised my 'good morning' (Zao shang hao[/i) that i learnt on the plane to the airport workers who [View Full Entry]

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