A long Ride in the slow lane, and a walk amongst the locals.
“Li Xienshsng… Kuai…Kuaide” [Mr. Li, you can go a little faster]
“Haode, haode” so Mario Andretti {NOT!!!!} kicks it up to 55kph {{Grooaannnn}} [the speed limit is 80kph]
In Li’s defense, Chucky is snapping pic of everything from rice paddies and tea fields to Art in public places when he’s not writing a NOWAT, so Li is trying to be accommodating and goes slow as to not blur the shot. Of course everything except the motorized Pedi cabs are passing him and if you know Chuckie… this ain't gonna work.
“Zhege Shi Shenmo?” [What’s this?] crawling past a strange lookng building.
“Neige?” [That?]
“Bu Shi… Neige.} [No, That!] now far enough past it to be “that” as opposed to “this”
“Wo Bu shi Dao” [I have no idea.]He says with a blank stare.
So much for a running dialogue with Li, who’s general exchanges with us has consisted of “Ni Hao” and “Yiger Zhou” [How are you/Hello and Straight ahead …. Which is the same as the now infamous “Sempre Diritto” of Italian fame]
Yep… were on the road to Suzhou and at this rate we might make it by Labor Day… or if lucky… the 4th of July… never mind we have a flight home on Sunday!!!!
“Relax and enjoy the Journey,” the Dragon Lady smiles as she snaps another blurry shot of the sun in the smog.
I resign myself that I can either doze off or write a NOWAT so I pulled out the laptop and started whacking away at Day 8 Beijing-Xi'an Part I as I was several days behind. I get to finish it with Illy’s editorial assistance [read that as she started to mess with the NOWAT and I caught her in the act and was able to salvage enough of the original intent to save for the send in Suzhou.
Mario Andretti pulls into a rest stop and we stock up on more water at a not so bargain rate but cheaper than the hotel stores and were off on the last leg of this trek as we marvel at the amount of construction and rebuilding along the way and the number of Hi-Tech company signs as we get closer to the city. Seems like Suzhou is a bit more advanced than we thought and this is confirmed by our Guide as noted below, who I called from the road just to insure we had the right name this time [remember Lai Lan was a Substitute for the guide we had originally scheduled] Side note… we found out that we would have “Mario Andretti” Li all the way through Shanghai [his current home… at least Suzhou is a bit slower paced so it should be ok.
We pull into the Suzhou Garden View Hotel for one of the more pleasant surprises yet. In addition to being right in the heart of a very busy open mall/flea market type area [they call it a shopping Center], the hotel is so quaint and yet a graceful blend of the old and very modern that works in perfect harmony.
We are greeted by our Guide Shi Ke Jia [Kitty to you Meiguo Ren], a recent college grad who majored in English and was studying for an official English interpreters test [with a book that is way to literal and not colloquial enough. She apologized for running a bit late since when I called, she was just taking her last group of 12 to the airport and we arrived earlier than she expected, apparently she was already aware of Mario Andretti’s deliberate pace. We had already checked in while waiting for her and wanted to know when dinner was scheduled. Her
itinerary had none shown, but mine showed one so we headed to the room to stow the bags while she checked with the agency on the meal. We are led past a delightful garden that also appears to double as a tranquil garden side cafe, past another resting courtyard and up to one of the most delightful rooms of the trip. While it overlooks a little busy Hutong, it is by far the best yet. The Bathroom, not so tiny and [with apologies for my last rant on hotel designers awhile back] Very Well lit, with an in room safe that works, free broadband and water and partridge in a pear tree….Meeting Ke Jia in the Lobby, she says dinner is on our own which is fine by us, we love wandering around in strange places and moving amongst the locals. She offers to walk us to the main area in the adjacent “Shopping center” and points out a few good restaurants and we’re off to see how much trouble Chucky can get into with his “Snap a pic here… snap a pic… there… here a baby, there a tchotchke, everywhere another shotski”.[had to make it rhyme] This Wacko has all of china pointing and giggling at the Fengtze Meiguo with the camera on his hip and a digital in his hand taking pics of and with everyone and everything.
We take a moment in the street, after she almost looses us because he is ducking in and out of places snapping away, to give Ke Jia the same brief [Naw… its Chucky… so not so brief] introduction that we have given the previous guides on what, why and how we want to see China and our desire for spontaneity, explaining his picture snapping frenzy, the NOWATS, etc. We advise her that if there is anything on the agenda that isnt that important to our cultural understanding or is just a repeat of “just another Obligatory Temple or Industrial Hustle, that she should suggest alternatives and we will welcome the change. She is a perky kid who welcomes our fresh approach as opposed to the stodgy groups she has recently had that asked no questions and were not prone to conversation with the guid. She makes a few suggestions and then points out a few choices for dinner, with one being high on her list.
We bid her adieu and agree to get an early start at 830AM to beat traffic and we were off on our favorite thing go do in strange new places… Get Lost. Well not really, it was a chessboard lay out of intersecting streets and lanes so we decided to walk this way… and then that way and then back down here… and “oooooh lets try this cute little street”. You get the idea. The plaza is brimming with night life of all kinds, ages and desires. Shops here and there, from small local kiosks and tattoo parlors to government controlled department stores and
international chains. We can’t seem to get away from Pizza Hut, KFC [which the locals seem to love enough to stand in lines around the corner to get into] as well as as the ever present Golden Arch’s of Micky D’. as we turned the corner after a trip down some pretty dark lanes lined with local shops willing to bargain on anything that begins with an “A” we stumble on a local Temple whose gate is guarded by the most unusal “Good Door Keeper… a giant Coca Cola Bottle and Display. If we failed to touch on “Good Door Keeper’s”, lets stop here and see if I can get this right because the Factoid keeping Dragon Lady is watching my explanation.When a temple or even a home is built there are 3 major devices that must be in place. First is the Gate announcing where you are, be it the homes front door or the entrance to the courtyard of a temple or Pagoda. The second is a threshold type device that spans the door way to keep good fortune from flowing out and to keep small ghosts
from sneaking under the door and is built high enough [usually 10-12 inches high] so the little ghosts can’t step over it. And the third, is called the Good door keeper. In the case of a temple as well as a house… they place a screen or large sculpture or wall with a mirror inside the Gate or door as the Chinese belive that the tall ghosts that can step over the threshold can only walk in straight lines and cant walk around the door keeper. They are also repelled by mirrors. Sooooooo, this Giant Coke bottle is blocking the path of all Non-Cola Drinking Ghosts from getting past the giant gate leading to the temple. Now that’s what we call a Good Door Keeper. Now aren’t you glad you stuck around fo that whole thing?After striking out on finding any thing she liked to finish off our “tchotchkies to take home” list and not finding any other place to our liking for dinner, we settle on Ke Jia’s suggestion for dinner at: Song He Lou restaurant on the main drag of the shopping center. We were getting used to our guides insuring our menu for each meal but since dinner was on our own tonight we were a bit apprehensive about ordering in my sub-Standard Mandarin. Not to worry,” Ke Jia had said, “They will have English menus”. Which they did… of course some of the translations were as confusing as some of the other descriptions we have read along the way, but the menu was accompanied by a well worn book of pictures of all the dishes… wellllll almost all. After a comical discussion with no less than 4 people trying to practice their English while I stumbled along in Mandarin, we settled on Deep Fried head-on Prawns, Pork in Clay pot with Roasted Egg and Sweet potatoes [while still as fatty] not quite Dong Po pork, but good flavor, the country egg drop/tomato soup… a bit thinner than the last one but good as well and some Fried rice that was…ok. Local beer good… service fair…***
I must take a moment to discuss the “Prawns”… coming from the hospitality industry, we are accustomed when someone has the audacity to call it a prawn, that it’s usually a lot larger then the nail of your pinky finger after the head is taken off. Unfortunately these deep fried, and over done little fellers were falling apart by the time you get the shell off and what was left you could put in your eye and still have room for tears. [Maybe we were supposed to eat them shell and all?!?!?]
After dinner we decide to explore a little more and of course Chucky is again bopping all over snapping every thing that meets his fancy. As we wander down some pretty questionable streets we stumble on one interesting grotto after another and carefully avoiding the KTV bars, which we had discovered are Karaoke bar where, truth be told… there is way too much smoke inside for either of us. It does bring to mind however the Presidents Club for BellSouth in Toronto in ’93 when after way too many adult beverages a few of us stumbled into a Korean Karaoke bar next to the Four Seasons Hotel and though the only \westerners in the place we’d had just enough to drink to find it way too amusing… and actually went back the next night but wait…. That was then… this is n now…and we’re in China…so “No Karaoke for You!!!!”
We finish our stroll and decide it was late enough and head back to a great room and also the best bed yet, in a wonderfully quaint hotel in the middle of Chaos [I later found that it was managed by the Shangra La Hotel chain… which explains the excellent service and operation]. Illy checks e-mail and the news as I lay out tomorrows garb and then settle in to finish another NOWAT as she struggles to stay awake long enough to supervise but is horizontal in no time flat.
Tomorrow will be a full day so I only get one more NOWAT out besides the one written on the trip in before I have to crash.
再见朋友
Zài Jiàn Péng-You
Chuck and the still limping but not so badly and still very game
Dragon Lady.
