Lots of steps and stairs

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Geo: 23.12, 113.25

Mel - This morning for breakfast Mum and I decided to go to McDonalds so we walked there except they didn't have a breakfast menu. Mum and I bought a chocolate milkshake but wasn't as nice as Australia's as they hand-mixed the chocolate in. Instead of the drinks being given to us in a cardboard tray as in Australia, they came in a plastic bag especially designed for drink cups. We walked a bit further down the street to a food market and went to a bakery and bought 4 egg tarts (yuk), apple pie (there was very little apple in the pie) and a croissant.

Crossing the road here can be a challenge as there will be busses, taxis, people in cars and bikes going crazy. The traffic lights say to walk across the road and for the cars to stop except the opposite happens - the vehicles may still drive around the corner. You have to still watch both ways and it is more confusing because everything is opposite. When we were walking along the road there was a truck backing into a narrow laneway. The driver was watching us and not where he was going. It was quite scary until Nana realised that the man was the passenger and not the driver.

We walked down further looking at the other food market stalls. We saw everything from sweet corn on the cob to Aussie BBQ mutton to egg pancakes and freshly squeezed juices. There was a stall that only sold cooked meat on skewers. We walked back up the food market and around a small area taking more photos of the bronze statues. There was a rickshaw statue that I was able to get into - just.

Pa went to off to look at watches while we took even more photos of the statues. Nana went and bought a corn-on-the-cob. It was rather bizarre. It tasted cold and the corn was white coloured and tasted yuk and not sweet at all. It was very heavy tasting - very hard to describe. (Mealy Nana called it) None of us liked it.

We saw Pa smiling like a kid in a candy store and furiously trying to get us to go over to him so we decided to cross the road but there was a massive bus in the way of the zebra crossing so we had to skillfully and carefully cross the road without getting hit. Pa was so excited that he had found some cheap watches but he didn't have any money. He hadn't been calling us - he'd been calling the money. Everyone bought a watch except me and Pa bought 3.

We walked slightly further and still couldn't find a 2 Yuan shop but we found another shop like it but everything wasn't 2 Yuan. It didn't take me long to find some bracelets that I had been looking for. The bracelet was made of woven brown cord with spheres of jade threaded on them. We left the shop and FINALLY found a 2 Yuan shop - YEA!!! I ended up feeling sick as the shop was small and there were a million people in there and so it was hot. We ended up buying 4 nail clippers, a precision screwdriver set, packets of tissues, tweezers, scissors, a book on how to learn Chinese using pictures and a little notepad for me.

We caught a taxi to the 6 famous banyan trees. Near the entrance to the Banyan tree there are a million and one beggars throwing tins and bowls in your face and doing some trick hoping you'd give them money. The absolutely freaked me out. We went into the Banyan Tree and looked at the temples with big Budda's in them. People were burning 3 incense sticks in front of a Budda then bowing three times then putting the incense in a pot to finish burning. We walked up a 8 storey high temple and the stairs (160 of them) were really high and the roof low so it was more tiring to walk up than normal stairs and every time you got near the end of the flight of stairs, you'd hit your head - it was so annoying. Once we had reached the top it took about 7 minutes to get Nana's attention so we could wave to her. Once I was bored, I ran down the stairs and left mum at the top.

Once we had finished at the temple, we went to a computer and electronics market - Pa's heaven. A chick who had blonde hair recognised Nana and Pa from their last trip here two years ago sold them some items for Pas camera. It was very hot in there so Nana and I went outside and sat on the stairs while Pa and Mum kept looking.

We walked to the underground station which didn't really look like it was going to be there. We walked down stairs where there was a big supermarket that sold EVERYTHING. They had people from Avon, Olay and heaps of other beauty places like that. They had people on little taste testing tables everywhere with samples of dumplings, cornflakes, and other weird things like that. They had a massive spot with lots of chocolates and lollies. They don't sell many chocolates here except snickers, M&M's, dove and Mums favourites - Ferrero Rocher. There were boxes about 15cm long with mini bars of chocolates , little tubs of jelly (?) lollies, lollypops and other stuff I can't name. I bought little pyramid shaped packets of M&M's - they're so cute. This shop also sold a large range of blenders, milkshake makers and other electrical appliances. They were open tables of meat for you to choose from - including a large pile of chicken feet - and my favourite - aquariums. You could buy fish or turtles to eat. We left there and walked and walked around until we finally found the station. I used a little machine to order tickets - I worked out it was 9c to travel from one station to the next per person. We found our platform (platform 1) and went down more stairs and waited for the train. Within three minutes, it was there. We got on and went 4 stations before we got off. I found a sign that said there were no animals or balloons allowed in the station. We then walked back to the hotel for a rest.

We met up with David - a man that used to work at this hotel as a bell hop last time Nana and Pa were here. Their friend had kept in touch with David. We went out for dinner with David and he ordered us our meal. After tea we walked back to the hotel and mum downloaded all of Pa's photos onto her computer using a new thing that Pa had bought at the market today.

Kate - After we left the Banyan tree I was approached by ‘monks'. I later found
out they were just people/beggars dressed up as monks. One of them offered me a
gold disc which, stupidly, I accepted. He then followed me asking for money. I
tried to give the disc back but he wouldn't take it from me. He just kept
following me, badgering me for money. It was quite scary. Finally a local man
came to my rescue – taking the coin from me and returning it the ‘monk' and
yelling at him in Chinese. I was most grateful.

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Comments

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