Lazy Dayz in Suzhou

So Suzhou hasn't been the most eventful town, but we have met a lot of great people here at our hostel.

The first two days we were here it rained a lot, so we had little motivation to go sightseeing and lingering through all the gardens.  Our first night, like I mentioned we went and watched the light show with the two Israele girls, Shiri and Nathalie.  The next day, we did some laundry, and were going to go see some sights, but at one point, Darren and I just looked at eachother and silently agreed that we were going to stay in for the day.  Later that night, we went on a little boat ride.  The intention was to go for a small boat ride through some of the canals, but we ended up going for a river boat ride, which was fairly expensive, and quite boring.  There was however, some "excellent" entertainment to help pass the time.  Luckily for you all, I have a small clip of our entertainment.  (I just have to figure out how to post it.)

 We did make it to one of the 70 some odd gardens here.  We went to the Huble Administrators Garden and it was nice; but, we figured one was good enough to get a feel for them all.

We also went to the Silk Museum.  We passed it twice without realising.  It was okay.  We did get to see some actual silk worms.  They were cool. 

We also found a pretty great Dim Sum restaurant.  

They have these things called Green Tea Buddha cakes which are pretty fantastic.  I have no idea what they're made of but they're good.

Ya, otherwise, Shuzhou has really just been a place for us to kill a bit of time.  Sorry it's not more exciting.

In Suzhou

Well, we made it to Suzhou in one piece, though barely. We had our first experience with a Chinese train station, but this story begins with our taxi.

So for the most part, our traffic experience thus far has been relatively tame. Yes, there's been the obvious laps of shoulder checking and a lot of honking, but today, it seemed that all of Hangzhou was headed to the train station. Once we passed the main area around the lake, all concept of lanes disappeared. There were two cars in some areas, three in others, and occassionaly a fourth or fifth trying to honk their way in. Honking by the way, is like the universal signal for everything: shoulder checking, signalling, a pre "I'm-going-to-run-you-over-if-you-don't-move" warning, and in our case an "I'm-now-going-to-drive-on-the-side-walk warning. Yup, as soon as we hit the traffic jam (which is what I thought we were in the whole time, but oh how I was wrong) our taxi just pulled up past the meridian pillars and right up onto the sidewalk. We were passing crowds of oncoming people carrying luggage, scooters and bicycles. Darren and I just looked at each other wide-eyed. It was fairly intense; but, kudos to our driver who got us there a lot faster than everyone behind us, and shimmied into a pretty sweet front spot at the station.

Once in the station, Darren and I had to get our tickets. Most of my travel guide says to book things the day of or not too many days in advance, and Hangzhou being as laid back as it is, we weren't too worried about booking tickets in advance. We will probably not make that mistake again. I don't know if it was just because it was the weekend, and/or because of the World Expo, but with a lot of coffee and an empty stomach, my senses have never been so overwhelmed. I imagine the experience was close to something like Wall Street. There masses of lines of people, loud voices transmitted through speakers from behind the plexi-glass, flashing lights and tons of signs and symbols we couldn't understand. We showed up to the station just over an hour early, and had no idea which line to get into, or if we could even still get tickets. We figured it out eventually, and here we are... though coming out of that ticket office- more like stadium, I definitely felt a little nauseous. But we made it, in one piece...

Once we got settled in, Darren made friends with some of the girls in the room next to us. They're from Israel and just spent the last two months in Beijing studying Mandarin (friends like these are good ones to have around). Darren and I spent a few hours strolling through the canals, stopped at a local tea shop and just had a quiet afternoon. Afterwards, we met back up with the ladies and went to go watch a light show on the harbour. It was pretty cool.

Afterwards, we just spent the night visiting with our new friends and having a few drinks. Tomorrow, we're going to visit a few of the 70 infamous gardens, then possible meet up with our new friends for a boat ride through the canals. Hope all is well.

I love Israelies!

So... here I am, on my blog!  A few girls we met at our hostel have the key to restricted access in China!  I will have new updates for you soon!  Kudos to Tanya for keeping people posted... pretty sure you did a better job than I could've.  I probably should've kept my access a secret and just keep letting you post for me.  Ha ha ha!  Thanks hun, you did a wonderful job!

Just the Right Kind of Quiet

Hello Everyone, this in Tanya.  I am helping Auria and Darren out with posting on this blog.  Apparently, Google pulled out of China several months ago because of censorship issues.  You can read more about it here:  http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-approach-to-chinese-update.html

As a result, while in China, Auria is not able to get access to this blog.  So our solution, for the time being, is to have her email me, including pictures, and I will post for her. 

I will copy and paste her emails - and!  as an added bonus...I will add my own editorial notes...at least until Auria yells at me and tells me to stop. 

So, without further ado....here is Auria last email, sent May 5, 2010 8:30:44 AM

I definitely think Hangzhou was the perfect stop right after Hong Kong. This city definitely does sleep, and is a nice bit of quiet after the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong. Last night Darren and I went for a walk to find an ATM and the streets seemed deserted. Everything was so quiet and all the shops were closed and boarded up. This morning, we went to walk to the same ATM, and everything was alive and bustling; however, not bustling like it's life or death.

We rented bikes (which are everywhere) today, and toured around West Lake (which the city is centered around). It was amazing and so beautiful. We took our time, stopped at the various parks and such around the lake and just enjoyed the wonderful weather which seems to be following us through China.

One of our first stops was the LeiFeng Pagoda. By the way, the Chinese seem to really like their stairs. It's almost as if they feel like you need to earn your right to enter the temple. I don't think there were as many stairs as Ngong Ping, but there were alot... there was also an escalator which we chose not to take. (The escalators always seem to be busy so the stairs are usually a quicker option, and a better one for working off all the cheap beer and dumplings.) The pagoda/temple was pretty cool. There were awesome sights of the city and the lake, and the detailings of the temple were amazing. The original was apparently built in 9?? AD, and the ruined remains still exist underneath the newly rebuilt version. There's a ton of money surrounding the old remains as well.




I guess it must be lucky or some kind of offering to the gods because people were just hucking coins as the delicate, sandy coloured bricks. The various levels also had different artistic expressions decorating the walls as well.

 

 One floor had panels of wooden etchings describing the story of Buddha's life; another, had very detailed etchings of what seemed to be the story of "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" (the title of one of the scenes is in the photo). Other levels had wooden panels of script and others, Chinese paintings.

From the pagoda, we walked the gardens for a bit and took in all the wonderful greenery.

Back on our bikes, we continued around the lake, across one of the causeways and through the north end of the like. It said there was a women's fashion district there... which there was, but at ridiculous prices. The clothing there was amazing, don't get me wrong, and seemed to be unique to the individual designers, but somewhere in the 7-9 thousand range RMB. No thank-you!

We are not rich white people... and I don't have space in my pack to look pretty over the next six months; hence, why Darren and I both look like grubs compared to all the gorgeous Chinese women... yes... Erika- they all look like shorter versions of you. My friend actually told me that during typhoon season they all wear highheeled rainboots! How do you compare to that. Mind you, she also mentioned that because none of them have boobs they all keep fairly covered up on top, but as I've also witnessed, because they have such tiny legs, they wear lots of short shorts and skirst.

Oh, and yes, Darren and I realize that in all our pictures today we match, but that was an accident, and nothing compared to some couples we see. I've seen several people today wearing the EXACT same shirt (different sizes of course), and others wearing the same shirt, just one more masculine and one more feminine. It's quite strange actually. They really do purposely dress the same.

We slowly made our way back to our hotel, wandering through the parks and enjoying all the lush green scenery. Once back, we took a little break, cleaned up, and got some insider info from the local concierge. The girls here are so nice and are more than happy to help us find the best spots. We were going to go to the Night Market, but she directed us to a different market instead.




I don't know the name of the market. She just sort of circled the location on a map, and Darren and I jumped on our trusty bikes and pedalled over. (Did I mention the bikes are free?! It's like a part of their local transit. You pay a 300 RMB deposit for a card, which you swipe to lock and unlock bikes, and when you return the card, you get back your deposit-- provided of course that no bike rentals are unreturned. It's pretty sweet.) (Tanya:  just have to say that Paris, France is the same way, although the bikes are not free, but they have these stalls where you can swipe your credit card and take the bike, when you return the bike at your destination you just swipe your card again and you get charged a very reasonable rate.  How cool is that?)  On our way to the market, we stumbled upon some sort of community square.

We came around a corner, and all there was music, and all these people were dancing in unison. It seemed to be some sort of dance lesson, and beside that, it looked like kids were taking roller blading lessons. It was pretty crazy.  (Tanya: when my parents were in China they also commented on this phenomenon...all these people seeming to do a line dance...at all hours of the day.  Strange.)

Anyway, the market rocked. Each little booth was some kind or another of a specific craft/trade. One guy made and sold fans (one of which I bought); other places made those little tastle things that people have on their phones or their keychains or their cars; there were shops that sold swords; jewellery; stamps; antiques; wood work; toys; clay/stone tea pots; you name it. There was all types of stuff there. Tanya... I found the best little shop for jewellery and bags and all sorts of stuff. It was like a mesh of African and Asian styles. It was pretty crazy.  (Tanya: I love shiny things!  I hope you bought me a present!)

 

Darren and I also had some stamps made.

When the two stamps are side by side, they complete a character, which apparently means "in love"-- cheesy, yes, I know. We got each of our names done, mine and Darren's (not his Chinese name). It's not exact of course, but it works I suppose. They're pretty cool.

The tops of the stamps are a dragon (Darren's) and a pheonix (mine). We really enjoyed the market though, just walking up and down and checking out all the shops. We enjoyed it a little too much actually.

We had asked the girl at the front desk where to eat, and she gave us the insider info. She also told us that for the time we were planning on going, it would probably be kinda busy, so we thought we'd go to the market first. Well, unlike Hong Kong, everything in Hangzhou seems to close around nine/ten. We were at the market so long we didn't end up leaving until around nine, and we were both starving. We returned our bikes, hopped in a taxi and headed to the restaurant that was recommended to us... it was in a hotel on the second floor, and it was closed. Starving, Darren and I wandered the streets looking for something that was open, other than street food... which probably would have been better than what we ended up with. By the time we found anything open, we didn't care that we couldn't read anything on the menu but the prices. It was basically China's answer to... I don't know... but basically, we just pointed to pictures of "combos". Well... pictures can be deceiving (they were small and far away to be fair).

What we ended up with, was a bowl of congee which Darren said tasted like cat, a bowl of noodle which was quite good, potstickers which I'm pretty sure was pork but we'll pretend it was chicken, and a duck's head. Yup, that's right... I was trying to eat but there was a duck's head sitting on the table staring at me, beak and all. Darren made an attempt at it, but I think he was pretty turned off when the jaw came apart. (Tanya:  AAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!  Assorted meat!  Stay away!  Stay away!  But seriously, the head of a duck?  Mmmmmm....maybe that's a delicacy *gag* in China.)  Yup, it was less than appatizing. I also ordered a drink that looked like iced tea in the picture, but was actually some thick peanut butter drink. Seriously, it was a drink made of peanut butter, and not a good one! Yuk! The real kicker, is that not even a block after we left duck head, we came across a Pizza Hut and some sort of cafe! It was an experience though I guess.

Anyway, before I leave you all to the better things you have going on... there was one other observation about the people here that I did not take a picture of, but at least has to be mentioned:

(Tanya:  I didn't refrain from adding a picture, this is not one of Auria's pictures...I heard about this from my Mom.  Mind you, it might make sense, can you imagine all the Pampers that would be used by the largest population in the world?  Then again, wouldn't their butts get chapped?)









The kids don't wear diapers... which wouldn't be a big deal, except their pants are missing the part that is supposed to cover their goods. You know the sleepers that have that convenient unsnappable flap for changing diapers? It's like those, but without the flap, and without the diaper. There was one kid today that wasn't even wearing the pants (though without the most vital part I'm not sure what the point would be of wearing them anyway). The first time we saw this, it was this chubby little kid at the bank. He was pretty frickin' cute, but the greatest part was that he had a chubby little butt, and chubby little legs. It was like endless roles peaking out of his baggy little apple printed pants. Needless to say, we continued to see this trend throughout our day, in back streets, major tourist locations, and just walking about.

Now, with that image in your minds, I will leave you for tonight. Tomorrow, it's a couple more temples, a trip to the island in the middle of the lake, and hopefully, no more duck head!

"LIFE HAPPENS"

Hong Kong: The city that never sleeps.

    So, a lot of the people we talk to tell us that Hong Kong is the city that never sleeps-- the city that's constantly moving, constantly going.  Well, it's totally true, and when Darren and I got here we hit the ground running... at least until nine or ten at night, and then we were wiped.  So, sorry for the delay, but in true Hong Kong style we have been keeping ourselves busy; not to mention, that our inner clocks are still a little confused and so there isn't much time or energy for me to write in the evenings (Darren is actually passed out face first on the couch right now despite the fact that he says he's already adjusted... it's only noon).
   
DAY 1

    Courtesy of our wonderful hosts, Tom and Rosemary, the night we got into Hong Kong we already had a full itinerary for the following morning.  Bright and early (since we were both up at the crack of dawn), we headed out on the MTR (Mass Transit Railway) for Diamond Hill, to visit the Chi Lin nunnery, and the Nan Lian Gardens.  The Chi Lin nunnery was absolutely beautiful.  The architecture is based on the old Tang dynasty style apparently, and it's the largest wooden building in the world built without the use of nails.

Despite being in such a busy city, the nunnery was quite peaceful.  In each direction (North, East, West, South) there is a different shrine with a different god/goddess of Buddhist belief.  You're not allowed to take pictures of the shrines so I'm sorry I have none to show you.  I do have some photos of some of the amazing detailing though:

      

The nunnery is also home to a "Lotus Rock Garden" which was pretty cool:

    From the nunnery we went one station over to Wong Tai Sin, and went to the Wong Tai Sin temple to have our fortunes read.  Basically, this consists of shaking a can of sticks while praying for something (money, work, family, love etc) and then purchasing the fortune that corressponds with your number; then, if you're a foreigner like us, paying someoe to translate the fortune for you.  The extent of the fortune was basically, you're going to have a good year, or a bad year.  Yes, very detailed.

This temple was a short visit-- a tick of the tourist checklist.  From here we went to Mong Kok to the "Ladies Market" which was terrific, but I'm afraid I wasn't able to take any picture of it.  It was pissing rain and we soaked.  I discovered that I'm terrible at bargaining.  Although I'm aware it's the custom, I just feel like I'm taking advantage of them, or lowballing them... I know they're inflating the cost by at least 200% but I can't help but feel guilty.  I tried my hand and ended up paying way more than I should've.  Especially since a few days later I saw the same shirt priced for only $5 HK more than what I bargained the other for.  Oh well...

    From the Ladies Market we headed to Kowloon, walked through the area to the Star Ferry and then over to Central.  (btw- for those who aren't aware, Hong Kong is split up into several "districts".)  We meant to do somemore sightseeing around Central, but we were pretty exhausted.  Not to mention, we got stuck in some sort of torrential downpour and were absolutely drenched.  We just wanted to go back to Tom and Rosemary's, have a warm cup of tea and relax.  So we did... but just so we could do it all the next morning.

DAY 2

    So before we left Vancouver, we checked the Hong Kong weather report, and we were expecting an entire week of rain and thunderstorms.  Even the night we got there, Tom had checked his iPhone and the forecast was not pretty.  Saturday however, was beautiful.

   

    We decided to take advantage of the nice weather and headed out to Lantau Island to go see the "Giant Buddha".  The MTR took us just over an hour to get to the island from HK island, but it was well worth it.  We basically stepped out of the MTR station into bright sunlight, and walked three minutes or so to the cable car which would take us through the mountains and to Ngong Ping to see the Giant Buddha.  The views were breath-taking and we really lucked out with the weather.  Normally it's hard to see anything through the smog, but it s quite a clear day.

We walked through the village to the Buddha, and needless to say, I have about a million pictures of it; but, it's so cool... and massive.  The entire thing is made out of bronze... oh, and if you can't tell from this picture, I'll show you in the next... but you have to climb over 200 steps to get to this thing.

This lady, started at the bottom, and prayed her way up.  She would crawl up a few steps, pray, crawl up a few more, pray some more... We went up to the top, went inside, walked around, took tons of pictures, and she was barely on the second flight when we came down.  It was so hot that day too... that's dedication and faith for ya.

    Our next stop was the monastery for lunch.  Ruth told us that if we got the chance we had to try one of the vegetarian meals cooked at the monastery, and it was delicious.... and also way more food than either of us could handle, despite the appetite we worked up climbing up and down all the steps.

    After Ngong Ping, we went home and meant to take a half hour nap... but somehow ended up taking a two hour nap.  I have no idea how that happened.  Nonetheless, we woke up, and went to the Temple Street night market.  It was pretty crazy.  You can seriously find anything there... and I mean ANYTHING!  Seriously... fortune tellers-sure, clothes- plenty, purses- of course, "antiques"- yup, sex toys- why not!  Ya... that was strange to stumble upon.  There's also a ton of street food places on Temple Street as well.  We kinda missed the boat on that one... We were randomly looking around for a place to eat, and some old man starts gesturing us to the curb of his restaurant where there are a few plactic tables and chair set up, and the entire menu basically plastered in picture form on the side of the building.  We were tired and hungry, and the old man was persistent so we gave in.  Oh, and for napkins, there was a role of toilet paper on the table (apparently this is normal).  We just pointed to the large picture of beer and sat and watched, ate some noodles, and were on our way.  Two blocks later, maybe less, we come across this gap between all the tents and nock-offs to a block of street food.  Both sides of the street, the entire middle of the street, is one large street food market with tons of plastic tables and chairs, and locals and tourists alike slurrping noodles and drinking beer.  When we're back, we're going there.

DAY 3

   Day 3 was a Hong Kong public holiday, another gorgeous day, and Rosemary and Tom's weekend, so we all went to Stanley together.  Once there, Tom and Rosemary took Ryan to go play, and Darren and I wondered through the market.  Stanley is where all the rich people live, and there are a lot of foreigners in the area... consequently, the vendors at the market aren't as concerned about your purchase, because they know someone with money who doesn't care about bargaining will walk by shortly... so although I tried my hand, I once again failed.  It was an experience though, and the markets are always exciting.

    From Stanley, we headed to Repulse Bay (where my mom used to work).  It was beautiful.  The only beach I've really seen so far in HK (since most of it is paved conrete and sky scrapers).

   After relaxing at Repulse Bay, we took a taxi to the Victoria Peak, which is basically just the peak of a mountain that gives you a really cool view of HK.  Otherwise, all that's really up there is a mall.... like everywhere else in HK.  There are malls everywhere (including underneath Tom and Rosemary's apartment complex).

    After the Peak, we went down to Wan Chai to meet Tom and Rosemary for dinner; except, that we had about an hour or so to kill, so we wandered.  We wandered right into a basketball court.  We sat and watched, and soon, Darren was standing.  You could just see him getting anxious to play, literally.  He started taking off his pack, his money belt, his watch and walking from the bleachers, onto the court in his sandals.  Apparently the guys he was watching weren't fantastic so he thought he could match their level, even in his sandals.  It was a rough start for sure.  But he warmed up, stopped hitting the ball off the corner of the backboard and started making lay-ups.  It wasn't that long that he played, but we were late to meet Tom and Rosemary, and he was sweating like a dog.  He had fun though and he figured out what he was going to do during the day while I was at school with Laura.

    We met Tom and Rosemary (and Ryan), and headed to a place called "Restaurant Under the Bridge"-- the bridge being more of an overpass.  It was so good!  Delicious!  We had fired squid, some tofu called yellow bricks or something (they tasted like toasted marshmallows-- crispy on the outside and so soft inside), some bok choy, and the beat part... fried crab with chili.  It was so good... and on everything, especially the crab, they put fried garlic, which we spooned into bowls of congee (I think the congee was actually my favourite... so assorted meat Tanya).  It was all so delicious... but all that food makes you very sleepy!  Tom and Rosemary kept encouraging us to go out and experience the Hong Kong nightlife, and Darren and I were always in bed by ten thirty!  So old, and so pathetic isn't it!?

DAYS 4 & 5  (I know this is so long.  I guess I shouldn't have waited 5 days!)

    On Sunday, we basically did nothing.  We went to dim sum with Rosemary, then Darren went and laid by the pool while I went and got my nails done.  We watched a movie, and then had a bbq downstairs.  That was fun, and interesting.  It's always a little confusing trying to execute a western style bbq in China.

    On Monday, I spent the day with Laura at her school, and Darren went and played basketball.  It was a good, and busy day.  Chinese students are very similar to Canadian students.  All the same personalities and attitudes really... but Chinese students seem to be slightly more disciplined and they start going to school at the age of 3!  They learn two to three languages at a time... and well, they're more disciplined!  It was a fairly uneventful day.  We spend last night here at Laura's house, had dinner with her and walked around her neighborhood.  Next stop... Hangzhou.  I will try to update you more frequently to avoid these massive posts.  Sorry and hope everyone is well!