Suzhou and Zhoushang

Our first tour with Top China Travel was on Saturday, May 26th. We took a van for a 90 minute ride to our first stop, Suzhou ("Sue-Joe").  The van made a terrible high-pitched scream about every 80 seconds (I counted).  I believe it needed new belts or pulleys. We all pretended we didn't hear it
and no one talked about it. But I bet we all were visualizing our group stranded and sold into a black
market of slave tourist workers.

The town of Suzhou is 2500 years old...an old vacation spot of the emperors.  There used to be over 3000 classical gardens (royal & private) at one time. Ironically they called it the 'Garden City'. Now there are only 20 gardens left. We visited the Humble and Lion Forest gardens.  The Lion Forest being 700 yr old and famous for it's rockery.

For lunch we ate at the Silk Factory and then toured it. I'm glad we did the lunch first because the in-depth look at the larvae being extracted from all these cocoons was kinda sickening or at least certainly not appetizing. At the end of the tour they gave use the heavy pitch to buy garments and quilts made of pure silk.

From there we went to Zhoushang ("Joe-drun"). Our guide who I had been calling Chen all day, only later to find out it was Chin, told us about a famous artist who painted a a scene from there in the mid-1980s that became a well known piece of art and really is what propelled the town into a tourist trap.  We all tried taking a picture from the vantage point she said the painting was done from. If I just couldda waved all those people off the bridge, it wouldda been perfect!
I saw a copy of the picture two days later, at the Jade museum, on our first tour in Beijing.  I might put that up in the house in a cheap frame.

It will go nice with our cheap-a*s art copies collection.  We did the little boat ride and listened to our driver lady sing for tip.  She sounded as though she was in pain singing. I wanted to tell her "you bad" when I smiled and tipped her but Randi wouldn't have liked that  :)  It was really a beautiful little water town and calls itself the No. 1 water town. If I were to redo the trip and make a change to our itinerary, it would be to actually stay a night in Zhoushang and take the high speed train to Beijing from Suzhou the next morning.  Randi and I would have liked to have had dinner and drinks next to the river that night, after our boat ride but the tour must drive on.

This would be the only group tour we would take and by the end of the day we got to know our 10? other tour members pretty well.  They were from all parts of the world.  They included a gregarious Italian guy from Milan, who was funny even though no one knew Italian. He was very animated and seemed very happy.  We were happy for him.  Then there was a black kid from the US who wouldn't shut up.  He was chewin the ear off some other guy on the bus. The only time he stopped was when he fell asleep. But he did seem very nice. There was an older lady from Copenhagen who was touring without her husband.  She seemed very sweet and found Randi to be the same.  And a yound girl from the Czech Republic who was very well traveled. We took pictures with everyone and even exchanged email addresses to exchange pictures.

Working in Shanghai

Our week in Shanghai was dominated by work.  Randi would go off each morning with Josh, a PTC Sales guy who we would have breakfast with every morning and would accompany her to the office there everyday.

I stayed in the hotel, except for Tuesday and Wednesday I went to the Oracle office and was hosted by a hardware manager named SK.  He set me up in a visitor's office and pretty much left me there for the day.  However, the one day I went with him and 3 other folks from the office for a classic Shanghai style lunch. This was really the one thing I was hoping to accomplish, seeing as it really was the highlight of when I worked in France.  While it was only one experience, it was a good one.  We ordered 9 dishes for the 5 of us and could not finish it all.  SK paid for lunch and seemed happy to have me there.  I really liked the pork in brown sauce, even though each piece had kind of a gelatin side to  it, whose texture seemed kind of gross to me.   I manged to get a picture of it off the menu.


The second day I was at the office I couldn't find SK, so I went for a walk on The Bund, which was only around 5 blocks from the office.  With some good advice from my neighbor, I really enjoyed the 2 hours I spent just watchin people and shopping for trinkets a little.  He had told me that as an obvious American tourist type you are gonna get approached a LOT to buy this or that.  So what you need to do is wear some earbuds, whether you are listening to music or not and just smile and keep walkin.  That worked great!  Actually I listened to Bob Dylan and really enjoyed the walk. Crossing every intersection was an adventure. I had "no direction home, like a complete unknown"

I got a kick out of the look/style of these young kids, with their big hair and makin peace signs.  That's a boy takin that picture, with a hairstyle that looked like my Mom's, circa 1970.  I smiled thinkin that they are trying to be more American...more like the old man snipin their picture behind them.

Mr and Mrs Bund

We finally both had a good night's sleep last night.  That's the first time I could say that for the both of us since we've been here.

We went out to eat last night to 'Mr and Mrs Bund'.  Love the name.  I wanted to tell people "my name is Bund...James Bund".   It is considered the best French restaurant in Shanghai according to Frommer's Guide book.  It was really very chic and very good.  We didn't have reservations comin into the place and they were packed.   But they managed to give us what seemed like the best table for two in the place.  Maybe they knew we earned it! after a year of dealing with the French  :)  Later in the week we decided to go to the other Paul Pairet restaurant in Shanghai called 'Jade on 36'.  We went there for the world renowned view of The Bund on the 36th floor but we certainly paid for it...not sure it was worth it. We found 'Mr and Mrs Bund' much more reasonable and liked the atmosphere better as well.

After dinner we went next door to the Peace Hotel and had a drink in the old Jazz club there.  It was lightly raining all night with a heavy fog/smog but it was a comfortable temp and the mist gave the place kind of a spooky nostalgic look I thought.

On the way home we got into a cab with extremely tinted windows and no driver number/info on the inside.  I felt strange about the guy when we were getting in because I expected to have to hail a cab but he was waiting on the sidewalk and asked us if he could drive us.  As soon as I got in I said to Ran I don't like this...I wish I would listen to my gut more.  And sure enough I could see his meter going at about twice the speed it should have been.  I knew this ride/fare pretty well because the Oracle office I went to a couple days was right next to The Bund area. So I knew it should be between 25 and 30 RMB.  But when we pulled up to the hotel his meter said 47 RMB.  I told the guy he was ripping us off but I was using the wrong language of course.  The guy wouldn't give me a receipt and he wouldn't pull right up to the hotel.  We b*tched back and forth at each in different languages until I gave him only 30 RMB and told Ran to get out of the cab.   After we got in the hotel I realized the 17 RMB difference is like $2.50...hardly worth an international incident but I felt as righteous as a blind Chinese activist at the time. It was about the principal of it!!

On the other side of the Earth

The view from our hotel room on the 27th floor at the Marriott Courtyard Pudong Shanghai is immediately noticeable that we are definitely not in Kansas anymore.

Everything has a kind of futuristic look to it.  Even the newscaster looks as though she may be an electronic avatar.

The slow boat to China

Holy sh*t! is that a long flight.  I connected through Detroit and then took a 15 hour flight to Shanghai.  Wow...I thought it would never end.  I kept looking at the flight data which counted off the 7200 miles we were flying and it was like each 1000 files took forever.

I think I actually slept about 30 minutes during the entire trip.

Luckily for me, on the 'long road to see Nutsy' I had possibly the best book recommendation one could get, for someone who's never been to China and doesn't know the culture. It was given to me by a culinary god and friend of mine from my office, Harold.  You can find him most days seeking out new culinary experiences in the Minneapolis Skyway.  The book is titled "The Last Chinese Chef".  It was really an easy read and was able to read the entire book during the never ending flight. It was written by the same author of "Lost in Translation".  It reminded me of the books by Peter Mayle.  And like "Year in Provence" it stressed that food means everything to the Chinese, as it does to the French.  There is a statement in the book that the most important thing is to preserve civilization.  That as men we are the sum of our forebearers...that includes great thinkers, great artists and great chefs!

Besides reading that book I only watched one movie.  That being'Warhorse', with the horse reminding me of a giant Maddie.

I guess I'll take that flight one more time, as it seems to be the best way back.

My PHONE!!

I got everything ready I possibly could this past Saturday morning of my flight, before going to the airport. 

I watered all the plants and the lawn. I did the dishes and even went and bought a coffee cake!

Then on the way to the airport I realized I wasn't positive which terminal we were going to.  I was a little aggregated that I didn't already figure this out and had to call while Alli drove me.  So I found that out, gave Alli a kiss and got dropped off.  As soon as I got 20 steps into the terminal I realized...I don't have my phone!!!

The incredible panic of possibly not having my phone for two weeks in China rendered me paralyzed to remember any number but mine or Ran's and she was in China.  However, Alli eventually found my phone under her purse on the seat and turned around to bring it to me.

Word of advice...keep a small piece of paper in your wallet with phone numbers.   Even better advice...never leave phone in car before leaving country.  Confucius say...it is better to stare at screen and send no text, then to stare at empty hand.

Still packin

I wanted to start the blog before I left for China, so I'd have a place to start jottin some things down as soon as we arrive. Randi is arriving into Shanghai from India, around the time I take-off tomorrow. So she'll be there a day before me.

I'm so jacked! about the 15 hour flight right now. But that will be after I first connect into Detroit with a 90 minute layover. I'm concerned about my back, sittin inside an airplane that long. I looked for some kind of lumbar support for the trip but didn't find anything. However, I decided I'm gonna bring a couple soft footballs (water toys)...I think that may help??

I can't wait to see my Indian Princess, Rindi there in China.

I think I'll start the blog with a picture of our dog (we've done this before). She doesn't mind.
It was taken on Maddie's 2 year old birthday this past week, which she celebrated by eatin some sticks in the backyard.