Saturday, November 18, 2006
6 November, 2006
We started the day with a healthy breakfast and one of the waitress’s name was Winnie Wee. Rich thought that was great hence our cat Minnie Me. We had a bit of a laugh. All the embassies were located around our hotel so we abused the opportunity and headed out to get our Vietnam Visa organized. We got there seconds before closing, quickly filled in the forms and were told to come fetch the visas two days later- quick and easy- unlike home! We then booked our train from Beijing to Suzhou and that was quite a fiasca in itself. To cut a long story short, Rich found a train on the internet for a certain price and duration and when we got to the station they knew nothing about it. Of course he was really frustrated and insisted on this particular train and he even showed them on the computer his great deal. Anyway, turns out there are two “Suzhou” places in different parts of China spelt the same way in English but differently in Chinese. Finally someone explained this to us. We would have landed somewhere else and that would have been no fun. It is hard enough being somewhere one has actually heard about and knows about. The wind was really blowing and it was quite cold walking around. The day seemed to fly by and we spent most of the afternoon in the pedestrian shopping zone with all the fancy shops. Not that we bought anything- crazy huh? We got back to our hotel and I went off for a haircut to a local hair salon. We had to catch a cab their but it was worth it. The Asians really do know how to cut hair. Rich and all the other guys reading this will probably think it is crazy to make all the effort just for a haircut but at least I feel human again. At least the gals will understand!!!
We started the day with a healthy breakfast and one of the waitress’s name was Winnie Wee. Rich thought that was great hence our cat Minnie Me. We had a bit of a laugh. All the embassies were located around our hotel so we abused the opportunity and headed out to get our Vietnam Visa organized. We got there seconds before closing, quickly filled in the forms and were told to come fetch the visas two days later- quick and easy- unlike home! We then booked our train from Beijing to Suzhou and that was quite a fiasca in itself. To cut a long story short, Rich found a train on the internet for a certain price and duration and when we got to the station they knew nothing about it. Of course he was really frustrated and insisted on this particular train and he even showed them on the computer his great deal. Anyway, turns out there are two “Suzhou” places in different parts of China spelt the same way in English but differently in Chinese. Finally someone explained this to us. We would have landed somewhere else and that would have been no fun. It is hard enough being somewhere one has actually heard about and knows about. The wind was really blowing and it was quite cold walking around. The day seemed to fly by and we spent most of the afternoon in the pedestrian shopping zone with all the fancy shops. Not that we bought anything- crazy huh? We got back to our hotel and I went off for a haircut to a local hair salon. We had to catch a cab their but it was worth it. The Asians really do know how to cut hair. Rich and all the other guys reading this will probably think it is crazy to make all the effort just for a haircut but at least I feel human again. At least the gals will understand!!!
# posted by Heidi & Richard's travels @ 1:30 AM 
