= c r a c k e d c e i l i n g =

Since we were going to be in Shanghai for that many days, we decided to make a day trip to Suzhou to see-see-look-look so we caught a train early on Day 3 and made the 45min trip there.

The train was surprisingly spacious and new, although nothing like the Harry Potter kind of carriages that always comes to my mind when I think of train rides. The only peeve we had was with the other passengers on the train who talked very loudly especially when they were on hps. I mean, it was like 8am in the morning or something, we need our sleep! Listening to your whole conversation is not something that we're interested in. But oh well. Apart from that, it was pretty uneventful. That said, the train ride was only s$5 each way so how cheap is that!! Got fixed seats too so we didn't have to fight with anyone for seats.

Anyway, compared to Shanghai, Suzhou is alot more dusty and more industrial, although there are very pretty places to see too. It's also supposedly the "Venice of China", with many waterways and "sampans" instead of roads.

See the waterway behind us? We're in Venice!

The first thing we did was to visit Tiger Hill, a more tourist-y attraction. To fully appreciate the place, we hired a tourguide to bring us around and tell us about the history of the place. I understood like about 60% of it only haha. Mostly because I'm not that familar with "cheng yu"s and all sorts of old chinese sayings, but she was a pretty good tourguide and even slowed down her narrations when we asked her to (although she still spoke pretty fast).

At the entrance of Tiger Hill (aka Hu Qiu)

See these cute pony carriages?? I wanted to ride one but didn't think it could take the 3 of us + the tourguide. Didn't want to abuse the poor animal..

In addition to being the "Venice of China", Tiger Hill also is home to China's Leaning Tower of Pisa! Of course, being Chinese, the Tower is MORE slanted and MORE ancient than the more famous Italian one (Can't lose out to ang mohs, can they?). Can't remember the exact details though. As I was there, I noticed that the ground around the Tower ws strangely slanted in the opposite direction (although no one else seemed to notice that). Maybe I'm a cynic, but it seems like a bit of an optical illusion to me. There's no doubt that the Tower slants, but the degree of its "leaning-ness" seems to be exaggerated. What do you think?

I don't think the ground is flat, do you? Look! In photo 1, the area away from the Tower is slanting in the same direction as the Tower. In photo 2 and 3, notice the ground in the immediate vacinity of the Tower and the wall built around it slants the opposite way.

Anyway, we hung around Tiger Hill for a bit before going for lunch at what appeared to be some kind of tea house. The food was so-so only, nothing to rave about. After that, we decided it was too HOT to do anymore tourist-y things so we headed to Starbucks to beat the heat until it got cooler. That's the good part about being on a leisurely trip, you can choose to spend a whole afternoon at Starbucks and not feel like you're wasting valuable time. Starbucks in China is like Starbucks in any part of the world, a refuge from dust/smell/oil/loud music/loud talking.

How we passed the time at Starbucks:

Sharing about his experiences with the Chinese students.

Sharing about his encounters with Chinese students back home.

Me? I took a nap. *haha*

After Starbucks, we decided it was still too hot to visit those gardens that China is so famous for, so we headed to the newly-built Suzhou Museum for some culture instead. Needless to say, we couldn't take any photos within the Museum, but it was pretty impressive, being new and clean and zen-like and all. I especially loved the restrooms, which were the cleanest and nicest thus far. The Museum even had a nice zen-like lake in the middle of it.

Attempting to look "cultural"

The zen-like surroundings

As for the actual exhibits, let's just say G and S didn't really take them too seriously and spent most of their time there either making me laugh or embarrassing me.

After the Museum, we decided it was still too hot and too tiring to visit the gardens so we went to Haagen Daz instead for icecream! *yummy* Then we went for dinner at Suzhou's most famous restaurant (according to S) and had a very yummy fried fish which was supposed to be some emperor's favourite dish and was actually invented by the restaurant. Yes I know I'm being vague on the details, but honestly I don't remember much of it, I was just enjoying the food haha.

After the satisfying dinner, we headed to some little village in Suzhou which reminds me a bit of Tang Chao(?) (the place we have in Singapore near Jurong? Not sure if it's still open).. Felt like we were back in the olden days, although everything looked very new and freshly painted.

At the entrance of the "little village"

My attempt at taking a artistic photo

With the pretty lights I also managed to take quite alot of "ye jing" (night scenery). Here are some pics:

After all that, we had to catch our train back to Shanghai which went pretty smoothly save for an attempt by an old man to 'snatch' our seats. Luckily, another Chinaman evicted him before he could get comfortable.

You'd think that after such a long day we'd head back to our rooms to sleep rite? You're wrong! What we did was ahead straight to the massage place to be rejuvenated by a massage (foot one for me!) then head over to the local KTV place for some late night singing. It was then that we found out S's secret training in singing mandarin songs! I swear he went to Shanghai not to study law but to train for Jue Dui Superstar haha.

The photos I took were all blurry partly because they were singing so energetically and partly because I was laughing too hard to be still. But we had fun. We sang for only 2 hours and found it too short! Made plans to pull an all nighter the next day... :)

Ok, this brings me to the end of Day 3 (and an extremely long post).. Tune in for more Shanghai updates coming soon! :)

bernice @ Monday, May 28, 2007 | Leave Comments in Tagboard!

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