Saturday, November 18, 2006
10 November, 2006
We had half a day to spend in Suzhou before our train departure and we were on our way to another garden. It was The Humble Administrators Garden and much bigger than the other one. There were loads of tourists and it was quite busy. There were many ponds, streams and bamboo lanes and beautiful halls. The Bonsai section was so pretty and the garden was so different to a Western garden. We then caught a cab to the shopping zone to try and grab some breakfast/lunch. “Try’ being the operative word. We ordered some steak package and the salad and bread was as far as I got, Rich would suffer at a later date. I was so desperate for food that I actually broke down into tears because Rich kept telling me I was so fussy and boy oh boy did I get mad! The food in China was inedible! Anyway, we finally got to the train station and left on the wrong train but in the correct direction to Shanghai. It was a quick and pleasant journey with all the locals but when we reached Shanghai it wasn’t so easy. Our backpacks are pretty heavy- not the real backpack size with our chargers and all- and we were dripping with sweat and ready for a massage by the time we reached our hotel. The subway was boiling and quite a walk! The room was really clean but tiny. We were staying in the French Concession area and we decided to take a walk along Huaihai Lu (road), the shopper’s Pudong. The street was bustling with people, vendors and modern shops and shopping malls. We eventually stopped for another inedible meal (chicken fat drolletjies) and then decided that we actually needed a massage. Unfortunately it was not a very good one but it did help with all the knots in our shoulders from our backpacks.
We had half a day to spend in Suzhou before our train departure and we were on our way to another garden. It was The Humble Administrators Garden and much bigger than the other one. There were loads of tourists and it was quite busy. There were many ponds, streams and bamboo lanes and beautiful halls. The Bonsai section was so pretty and the garden was so different to a Western garden. We then caught a cab to the shopping zone to try and grab some breakfast/lunch. “Try’ being the operative word. We ordered some steak package and the salad and bread was as far as I got, Rich would suffer at a later date. I was so desperate for food that I actually broke down into tears because Rich kept telling me I was so fussy and boy oh boy did I get mad! The food in China was inedible! Anyway, we finally got to the train station and left on the wrong train but in the correct direction to Shanghai. It was a quick and pleasant journey with all the locals but when we reached Shanghai it wasn’t so easy. Our backpacks are pretty heavy- not the real backpack size with our chargers and all- and we were dripping with sweat and ready for a massage by the time we reached our hotel. The subway was boiling and quite a walk! The room was really clean but tiny. We were staying in the French Concession area and we decided to take a walk along Huaihai Lu (road), the shopper’s Pudong. The street was bustling with people, vendors and modern shops and shopping malls. We eventually stopped for another inedible meal (chicken fat drolletjies) and then decided that we actually needed a massage. Unfortunately it was not a very good one but it did help with all the knots in our shoulders from our backpacks.
# posted by Heidi & Richard's travels @ 1:48 AM 
