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Published: September 20th 2007
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Hello Everyone!!!!
I'm currently sitting in a hotel room with a computer - fantastic. I thought about going for a beer, but the trade off of being able to update my blog in a smoke free room was just not worth it 😊 I'm sure the beer will be waiting in a 1/2 hour 😊
So back to Shanghai. I think we found one of the bigger bars in town, but it was definitely predominately Germans in the crowd... funny, you assume any foreigners speak English but so far that has not been the case. It was a fun night out - patio outside and dance bar inside - pumping out all our favourite 80's and 90's hits! For some reason I decided to get up for the 8:30am walking tour around some of the older parts of Shanghai. The most interesting part was probably the 'pet store'... cats, dogs, fish and of course fighting grasshoppers and other insects... pets... yeah right.... Luckily I was also introduced to the French Concession, a beautiful part of town with great western restaurants, small shops, and clean streets. It was a great break and we went back there for dinner as well. We also
had a beautiful walk back along the Bund - the street with more European archecture - when the buildings are lit up, they look fanstastic!
Monday morning we left on the bullet train to Suzhou - the train got up to 246km/hour. It was a beautiful, hot sunny day so it was great to be able to spend the afternoon outside. We floated down the Grand Canal - the canal and all of the buildings along the water are 1500 years old, so quite nice... but i must say I'm done with the boat rides - big or small 😊 We also visited the Beisi Ta Pagoda (got to walk the 10 flights to top to check out what a city of 3million looks like... turns out there's a lot of apartment buildings and factories!) and the Humble Administrators Garden. Chinese gardens just aren't like the flowered gardens at home. Emphasis is definitely on the ponds and rocks - I guess it's just something to get used to😊 Chinese gardens also have old homes running through them. That night we went to a different garden for a evening performance with different acts in each room of the 'house' -
more like a maze of interlocking bungalows really. So there were dancers, chinese opera plays and musical performances throughout. It was really enjoyable. The real entertainment came when we arrived at the Houston Bar... Michael said that all the bars have 'shows' and he didn't take us there for the girls, but I don't really believe him 😊 There were about 6 girls that spent the evening hanging out with all the guys - playing pool, sharing drinks and dancing... around the pole...
Tuesday was the first rainy day of my trip - I'm thinking anything else I've had was merely showers! We spent the morning at the Silk Factory and market... where I loaded up 😊 It was the most fun I've had in weeks!!!! I got some fabric to take to Bejiing to get a dress made as well (and hopefully leftovers for pillow covers.. that sewing machine of mine might get some use when I come home jobless). I did have my first scare on the way home - it was a good lesson in not being an idiot. I left alone and was pretty sure I had the bus number right... but couldn't remember the
name or address of the hotel. So my only hope was getting on the bus and hoping to see the hotel eventually. I was pretty glad to see it go by after 20 min or so. The sheets of rain coming down were not even a problem to walk back through to get to the hotel.
Tuesday night we were on the train again - headed for Luoyang and Shaolin. Normally the ride on the train isn't too bad b/c you have thoughts of a nice hotel to come to. But it seems our itinery was changed and we were destined to stay at the Shaolin Martial arts school dormitory... where I was able to shower off the stinky train smells with freezing cold water in the dark, as the power was out. Not cool. The restaurant was also quite dirty, but it doesn't appear as though anyone is sick today. The sights somewhat made up for the accomodation. We visited the Shaolin Si Monastery and watched an incredible martial arts show - ie - a guy took a nail and somehow drove it through a sheet of glass to pop the balloon on the other side without shattering
the glass! The Pagoda Forest was also very peaceful and serene - there's 250 stone pagodas ranging from 1 to 14.6m in height and scattered amongst the trees - lovely. The evening involved sitting in the lobby of the dorm drinking cheap wine we bought on the way there. One of the bottles was so bad it made our tongues fuzzy, so Stephane (a Newfie) had the great idea of adding sprite... as it was the final bottle, we were able to handle it 😊 I had been wondering when East Coast was finally going to come out. He's a really funny guy who keeps taking pictures of nose pickers 😊
I woke up this morning to the sounds of a crazy siren alarm going off at 5:22am to wake up the poor boys attending the school - some of whom appeared to be working out until 10pm the night before. There are 20,000 kids (mostly boys) attending the martial arts school and some looked as young as 4. They are either working out or studying all day long. While I was waiting for our bus this morning I watched a class outside practicing some moves... there was some disturbing force used to keep a few of them from falling behind 😞
On a happier note, I got to do 2 hours of Kung Fu this morning and loved it. I'm not sure if I was just excited to be working out or if I have a future in kicking my feet about my head! It was very fun and quite entertaining to watch us all... from the painful stretches to the kick and spin combo! The afternoon was spent at the Longmen Caves - grottoes niches built into a cliff along the Yi River containing statues and images of different Buddhas. Amazing - it took 400 years to complete.
I realized I did forget to mention a highlight on the way to Shanghai. We stopped at a rural school and visited with hundreds of kids. After they got over ther initial timidness, they couldn't get enough of us. I was surrounded by about 10 girls who tried to teach me my numbers (unfortunately I still can't count all the way to 10!)
On the follow group members things are still good. No one has complained too loudly, been too cheap, dampened any moods or annoyed me...too much... but as this is posted on the web, I'll save some good stories for when I get home 😊
We head to Xi'an tomorrow which I'm pretty excited about. Have a great weekend - send updates whenever you have a chance!
Love Steph
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Jer
non-member comment
good times
Sounds like you're having good times Steph, keep up the blog. But i think we need some more juicy stories.