Potekai

Last month my Japanese friend Hitomi invited myself and a few of my friends to a BBQ. We went to this BBQ site about 30 mins from Taira in an area called Edo and met a bunch of Hitomis friends and generally had a great time. The best part, however, was that when we arrived Hitomi handed us each a T-Shirt. The T-shirt had the words ポテ会　(potekai in English) and my name in katakana (二コル). It also had a hand drawn picture of Mr. Potato Head. Mr. Potatohead you ask? Well yes. As it turns out Mr. Potatohead is the official mascot of Hitomis group of friends and when they get together they call it a 'Meeting of the Potato Club' or potekai in Japanese. They even had a mini version of the original Mr. Potatohead toy. It was fantastic!! The t-shirts are Great, the food was yummy and it the Potato Club members are all fun people! Yeh for Potekai! The next get together is in October. Can't wait!

Do you remember goin to birthday parties when you were a kid and wacking a pinata with a stick to break it open? Well we kind of did that, but instead we used a watermelon on the ground. Everyone got a try and once it was cracked enough we broke it apart and ate it! YUMmmmm....
This is Nina smackin the crap out of it. She was the first to go and had the best hit out of everyone! I totally missed it! oops...

 

The Potato Club and Sean (one lucky guy)

 

Hitomi and I

 

Me cookin the yummy food!
The group came prepared with all the required equipment, all the food chopped up and ready to be cooked, and even gloves to protect our hands from the heat of the BBQ!

 

Me and my pal Mr. Potatohead!
Cute t-shirt ne??

 

"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens..."

"bright copper kettles and warm wollen mittens. Brown paper packages tied up with strings, these are a few of my favourite things!"

Today I discovered my new favourite thing at the gym. After my work out i went into this empty studio and 'tried' the speed bag. I LOVE IT!! It's way more difficult then it looks but it's super fun! I can't wait to go back and use it again!!

Tiananmen Square

Our tour group across the street from the entrance
into the Forbidden City

inside the Forbidden City
Java Chip frappicino anybody??
(i know, we're horrible horrible people)

Mutianyu part of the Great Wall
No where to go but up!!

Woohoo!!! I made it!!

and isn't it beautiful!

It goes on forever...

Good mornin' sunshine!
I love trains!

Xian- the Beer Garden Concert and the Bell Tower

Terracotta Warriors

apparently the faces of the warriors were
modeled after the workers who created them
(its all pretty wierd if you ask me...but totaly neat to see)

Suzhou

Shanghai Old Street

Shanghai- Let's go shopping!
Yuyuan Gardens Market

Shanghai- view of Pudong and Jinmao Tower

After Intrepid

The rest of my time in Shanghai was spent in pretty much the same way. The group of us that has more time in Shanghai after the tour, the number kept dwindling as the week went on, spent our time walking between Cheapu and all the other markets. One afternoon we rode on the Maglev. The Maglev is the 'train' that runs between downtown Shanghai and Pudong Airport. It uses magnetic levitation technology which allows it to hit warp speed at 430km/hour. It feels like an airplane but you don't need seat belts.

For the last two days I was alone in Shanghai with the Wendy and Martin, the couple from New Zealand. They were really kind and continued to include me in their daily activities. We did a lot of walking and just soaked up as much of the city on foot as we could. I was really appreciative of their company and it made my time in Shanghai a little extra special.

One more thing about Shanghai, I noticed more homeless people there then anywhere else the tour had been. It was totally 'in your face' and sad. There was one homeless man in particular who Wendy had a soft spot for. We saw him near Yuyuan Market one day and Wendy gathered all our empty water bottles to give to him. Later on in our last week he kept showing up on Nanjing Road near our hotel and Wendy would give him her left overs from breakfast. The smile on his face when got the food was unforgettable. It was a little shocking, all the people on the street. Often is was very young children walking up to me to sell me something or beg for money. Its a sad and unattractive quality of Shanghai.

It just so happened that Wendy and Martin had to be at the airport at the same time as me on Friday, the last day. Through Intrepid they had prearranged a car to drive them to the airport and since I had planned on taking the train the let me go with them. It was nice to end the trip with company to the very last moment.

I could have spent more time in China and I really enjoyed my experience. This was my first crack at a tour and I was really impressed with the organization but at the same time easygoingness of Intrepid. Vivian was extra friendly and incredibly helpful. We couldn't have asked for a better tour leader. China has soo much to offer and every place we visited was very different. Two thumbs up!!

Day 9: Every Good thing comes to an End!

This was our last full day on our tour and it was filled with the sounds of Chinese market vendors selling us all the PLADA, KUCCHI and LOUVUTTON we could possibly want!

After our visit to the Shanghai Museum we discovered the clothing market which was ironically called Cheapu. Ok, so that's probably not how it's spelt, but its funny non the less. The market was a lot of fun! We got to really hone in on our bargaining skills and enjoy the experience. The vendors would walk up to us and say something along of the lines of 'watchyourbag' and all of us girls would grasp at our day bags, but really they were just saying "watch or bag??"and then they would usher us to secret lairs of Plada, Kucchi and other such products.

"Only 1 dowlla!!, watchyourbag?? Plada Plada Plada!"

So it went, our last day in Shanghai as a whole group. Sad! Oh...We went out to a bar and a club the last night to celebrate our wonderful time together but our shopping had tired us out (ok and the music was kind of sucky) so it was a short lived night out.

Day 8: The City On The Sea

Nothin like a Starbucks breaky to start the day off right! Then it was a two hour bus ride to Shanghai, or City on the Sea as the Chinese Characters suggest. Shanghai is truly a modern, big city. The central business district is called Pudong and is only 20 years old. We started our time in Shanghai with a walking tour. We walked from our hotel down Nanjing Donglu, one of Chinas most famous shopping streets (our hotel was conveniently located off this wonderful street), to The Bund (great view of Pudong and the Jinmao Tower), around Yuyuan Gardens (touristy market area), down Shanghai Old Street and around Dongtai Lu Antique Market. It was a scorching hot day and after our 2 hour tour our group split up for our own relaxing sight seeing and shopping an. And what would cool us down better then Starbucks?? Twice in one day for me....sick I know!

Dinner was a great Japanese style hot pot. Hot pot or nabe as its called in Japanese, is just as the name suggests. The food is cooked at the table in a hot pot of broth (like soup with everything in it) and people just pick out what they want and dip it into their own flavours in front of them. We made the mistake of thinking that our opinion of spicy was the same as a Chinese persons, we were wrong! Yummy food though and I really like this style of cooking!

After Dinner we booted it (literally we were almost running to make it in time) back to The Bund where we boarded a ferry type boat for a night cruise along the waterfront. We got to see all the lights of Shanghai and a great view of Jinmao Tower. Seriously weird shaped tower though. Good times!

Day 7: Suzhou and Silk

Weather- yucky hot!
Traffic- Still nuts!

Suzhou is located one hour away from Shanghai along the Grand Canal. The city is famous or it's classical gardens, cobbled alleyways, canals and silk! It actually looks more like a fusion of an old Chinese city and European one. Although the population is approx. 6 million (around Torontos pop.) Suzhou was still small in comparison to Beijing and Shanghai.

After a group lunch (mmmm sweet and sour pork, beer and sprite...the beer and sprite combo was the theme for all our meals) we went to the Silk Factory. Wow- very interesting. The factory served as a small modern factory as well as kind of a museum for the history of silk production. We followed the production line from the beginning where the silk worms were still growing to the end where we actually got to try our hand at stretching the finished material into a duvet. The old ladies who were actually making the duvets had a good chuckle at our expense because it looked a lot easier then it was. Those were some tough ladies! Another highlight of the factory were the toilets. Let's just say they flushed, they were clean, they were not squatters and we were happy!

Next we took a boat ride on the canal. From a far it looked very beautiful but up close the houses were all run down and dirty. I imagine that maybe in 15 to 20 years or so all the old people who are living in the houses will have passed away and the younger generation will move in and let the area reach it's potential. It could be amazing!

At night we went to the Garden of the Master of Nets. As I mentioned Suzhou is famous for gardens and this is one of the best! The Garden was laid out in the 12th century, abandoned, then restored in the 18th century as a residence for a retired government official turned fisherman. Every night started at 7pm there are different traditional Chinese performances such as skirts, instruments and singing. The atmosphere was perfect and it was something I probably wouldn't have seen had I not been on the tour. Well done Intrepid!

What's more, outside the Garden on Bar Street (local bars as the name suggests but also lots of shops) we found what I like to call DVD Heaven! Also, Vivian bought a dress and it really put things in perspective. She stood in the shop wearing the dress for over 35 mins bargaining over maybe what ended up as a $8 discount on a $35 dress. Ok, so that is a pretty big discount on a $35 dress but after the purchase Vivian was second guessing her purchase for the reason that it was too much money to spend on clothes. Us ladies hanging out with her that night got a little reality check. There we were spending $30 in DVD Heaven on luxury items and our tour leader was stressing over a $23 article of clothing that she said she needed.

Great day all in all!

Train Ride 2: Xi'an to Suzhou

Stocked with beer, munchies and our favourite local Chinese wine, Changyu, we boarded the next train for a 16 trip to Suzhou (pronounced Sue Jo). Vivian was lucky to get a seat this time - phew!! There was another, not so friendly, Intrepid tour leader in our berth so we all crammed into the other bunks to hang out, eat honey roasted peanuts and drink our wine out of paper cups - classy classy I know. This time I slept much better but the toilets were way worse. We came prepared with air freshener though and made sure to use it liberally! We got to see more countryside in the morning too -rice paddy after rice paddy. I love train travel!!

Day 6- Terracotta Warriors

Our second day in Xi'an (Dad- that's pronounced She-Ann hehe) we went to see the 2000 year Terracotta Warriors. They are an army of Terracotta soldiers that were built and buried underground in battle formation to protect the Emperor. There are about 6000 of them. What's neat is that they are life size, and every one of them is different. There are also horses, weapons, and chariots. They were found in 1974 when some farmers came across them while they were digging a well. One of the farmers is still at the scene on display signing books. It's a little sad though because he doesn't talk and he looks really unhappy. I guess I would be too if I was made to sit there for 30 years while others displayed my amazing find. I imagine that he didn't receive much of a reward for that. The location of the Warriors was quite beautiful at the base of mountains about an hour away from central Xi'an but it was disgustingly hot! By far it was the hottest day of our trip I think.

On the way back from the Terracotta Warriors we stopped at a school for the disabled called Hueling School. Most of the students had some form of autism or down syndrome. The school made us lunch and talked to us about their projects. The volunteers take the students to stores, parks etc and teach them how to shop and just interact in social settings. We got to see the students perform some songs and dances and one of them played the drums. The song was "If You're Happy and you Know it" in Chinese. We all joined the students and danced around and sang. I was really excited to see the students that excited about the arts. Of course they wanted us to donate money or potentially sponsor one of the students, but they didn't really push that and we could take what we wanted from the experience. I bought a cell phone dangly thing that the students made and donated some Yuan. It was a change of pace from our usual trip events and a little reality check.

After our trip to Hueling School we boarded Train #2!

Day 5- Xi'an

Ok so I've technically been back from China for two weeks now but I have had many requests for posts about the rest of my trip so here they are! Pics to follow!!

Our first day in Xi'an was spent recouping from the train ride and walking around the city. Xi'an was super easy to navigate as the city is walled and the four main streets all come together in a big square with a Bell Tower and Drum Tower in the middle. We ventured into the two towers, through the markets and into The Great Mosque in the Muslim quarter. We also enjoyed a yummy Japanese Tapenyaki lunch.

At night we caught the final night of the summer beer garden in the central square. It was a beautiful set up because the drum tower could be seen above the crowd in the dark. The night was a lot of fun despite the weird combo of music (Kenny G meets Chinese Opera).