Suzhou

Today began with check-up for Glynis at her doctor. Apparently Peanut may be making his/ her way into the world sooner rather than later! The doctor told Glynis that the baby would probably be born in two or three weeks - a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. She also gave Glynis the green light to travel to Suzhou.

After the check-up, we walked to the nearest metro station and made our way to the main train station to catch the train to Suzhou. At the main station, we managed to find our way to get tickets and they even had an English speaking counter. The tickets were dirt cheap - 15 RMB each. Once we had our tickets, we went to hang out at the waiting lounge with about a million other people (ok - a slight exaggeration) for an hour or so before the train was due to leave.

Although the train wasn't the fast train that we expected, it was only a 45 minute journey to Suzhou. Once we arrived, we spent a bit of time scouting out where we should go and how we should get there. Luckily we literally ran into a woman selling maps so we picked one up, headed to the taxi rank and made our way to the center of town.

After lunch, we decided to head to Tiger Hill - a monument and garden on the highest point of Suzhou. It was late afternoon by the time we arrived and the light and the temperature were just perfect for wandering around. It was really picturesque as you can see by the photo and definitely worth the visit.

We spent a few hours there and then tried to find a taxi back into town - easier said than done. There were a few taxis but they refused to take us into town as the traffic was too bad. Finally one taxi driver took pity on us and agreed to drop us near the center of town.

We forgot that most of the attractions closed at 5pm so not much was open by the time we got back into town. We wandered around a bit before getting tired and decided to try and get to the train station. We faced the same problem with taxis and ended up walking around for quite a while before one agreed to pick us up and take us to the station.

We had bought our return tickets already so it was just a matter of waiting an hour and a half before our train left at 7.20pm. We were all pretty tired so it was actually quite nice just to sit for a while after walking all day. This time, the train was a high-speed train so the journey back was a bit quicker. After negotiating the metro again, we ended up near Kevin and Glynis' place where we had a quick bite at Blue Frog before falling into bed exhausted after a great day.

Walking tour of Shanghai

This morning Glynis and I headed out in a taxi to downtown Pudong to do some shopping at the City Shopper store - a western style supermarket where you can buy all those small things like raisins, tahini, ravioli etc. Glynis and I trolled the aisles and then she headed off home by taxi and left me to continue on my way by myself.

I walked along the promenade close to the river. Because it was a clear and warm day, it was really enjoyable unlike the weekend when Ross had been in town. I took some great shots of the Oriental Pearl Tower and also across at the Bund before heading to the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel which was an experience!

Once in the tunnel, I boarded a capsule and was subjected to a psychadlic light show while an English broadcast said random words like "Magma", "Fossils" - I guess the idea was that capsule was traveling through the layers of the earth. The journey only lasted about 2 minutes and was pretty lame but funny nonetheless.

From there, I thought I would try and walk along the Bund side of the river. I managed to find an underpass to the other side but when I got there it was absolutely packed with Chinese tour groups so I took a quick couple of photos and headed back to the other side of the road. I tried to find some of the buildings that the guide book suggested to take a look at but the construction was so bad that it became pretty impossible. I gave up and walked along Nanjing road to the subway.

From the subway, I headed to the French Concession Area getting off at the Changshu Road station. I surfaced from the metro and attempted to "feel" my way to Fuxing Road. Unfortunately, I picked the wrong way but I didn'twalk far before I worked this out. I backtracked and found my way to the intersection of Ulumuqui Road and Fuxing Road to start my little walking tour.

First stop was a tiny Tibetan store called "Sunlight". I managed to spend all of the Quai in my purse here on earrings and a necklace. I continued down Fuxing and headed down lane 37 to look at "Shanghai Trio" (Shop 8) - a small shop in a villa that was set up by three French expat women 10 years ago. They have beautifully made cloth bags, bed linen and are also bringing out a newborns line (which is actually why I went there to see if I could get something for Peanut). The lady in the store was lovely - she gave me juice and told me a little bit more about the business.

After leaving there, I headed back to Fuxing Road until I hit Songa Road. Here, I took a left and headed down the way to "Platane" - a groovy little homewares store. One of the owners is Australian which when plainly obvious when I came across a little koala made out of sheepskin. The funny thing about this toy was that he was completely flat! I just had to buy it for Glynis and Kevin's baby as well as some flash card type games in Mandarin about colours and numbers.

Back up to Fuxing Road and I wandered along looking a the various shops until I had come almost to the end of the road. I stumbled upon a little row of shops including a great homewares place and a groovy little cafe called Ginger. I stopped here for a late lunch of eggplant quiche and a fresh juice. It was beautiful sitting outside with the heaters and watching the other patrons (mostly French) and a few with their dogs.

Unfortunately, when I went to pay with my credit card, it didn't work and I didn't have any RMB left. The staff were really great and pointed me in the direction of the nearest ATM and trusted that I would return to pay the bill (which I did :-)).

From there, I headed back up to the Metro and got off at the nearest station to Xiantindi - Huangpi Road. I wandered into the Xiantindi area and sat outside at Kabb to enjoy a glass of sparkling wine while soaking up the remaining sunshine of the afternoon. I walked to the nearby park where many locals were out and about playing badminton, flying kites, excercising etc. The blossoms around the lake were in bloom and it was just beautiful to wander around and watch the world.

Across from the park is an antique market which I wandered through but didn't really have the motivation to buy anything. By this time, I had called Kevin and Glynis and Kevin said he would meet me at Jin Mao tower to make the most of the relatively clear day to check out the view from the observation deck. I caught the metro from Xiantindi and he left from their house and incredibly we stepped off our trains at the exact same time!

From the metro we walked to Jin Mao tower and bought an 88RMB ticket to get to the observation deck. The view was pretty good - much better than the other day at the Oriental Pearl Tower but we were pretty much done in 10 minutes. I had read about the Cloud 9 bar in the Hyatt hotel which is also in the Jin Mao tower so we headed all the way to the ground floor, changed lifts 4 times and headed up to the 87th floor Cloud 9 bar for a drink while watching the sun set over Shanghai.

This was a great place to see the view and would probably be where I would take visitors rather than the Oriental Pearl or the 88th floor observation deck. The bar was very groovy in dark wood, stainless steel and glass and followed the shape of the building - a bit like the shape of an Islamic star.

We finished our drinks and headed home to meet up with Glynis and order Thai takeout for dinner. It was a pretty early night as I was exhausted after a day walking around Shanghai - but what a great day!

Exploring downtown Manila

Today, Ross and I headed into Intramuros to explore parts of downtown Manila. We started at Fort Santiago and wandered around parts of Intramuros looking at various forts, statues, churches and Spanish influenced architecture.

We headed over the Pasig River into Quiapo and the Chinatown area. In one of the squares opposite a church, UNICEF workers were teaching classes to the street kids. As Ross and I stood in the square, children came running for everywhere to sit with the volunteers. They had a great mobile classroom which was on the back of a small hand-pulled trailer. Chalkboards, displays and various games etc. could all be pulled out of the trailer - it was really cool and a simple idea.

Ross and I wandered through Chinatown which was much more authentic than many we had been to in other countries. There were a lot of ancient churches and cathedrals to look at and as we headed more into the depths, the crowds became more and more. Apparently Friday mornings are very busy in this part of Manila with devotees of the the Black Nazarene flocking to worship a black-coloured, life size replica of Jesus Christ found in the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo.

Surrounding the Basilica, markets about with thousands of Filipinos coming to buy everything from religious icons, fresh fruit and vegetables, fish, meat and an assortment of other household items (including a lot of moth balls for some reason!). Ross and I were kind of swamped by the amount of people but luckily we both stand almost a foot taller than the average Filipino so we were in no danger of losing each other.

We walked through the market area to another bridge that crossed back over the river under which was a handicraft market with many local, traditional items. Ross and I then headed back to the LRT station to brave the local trains on the way back to Tara and JB's.

The train was an experience in itself. The carriages were divided into male and female so Ross and I had to separate. The women's carriage was pretty spacious with air-con and plenty of room to stand. The carriage Ross was on however was not quite the same, the men were packed in like sardines with barely enough room to stand. At every stop, more and more people tried to cram into the carriages. Men also tried to get in the female carriage but were chased off at every stop by the security guards.

At the EDSA station we changed lines for the short trip on the MRT to Ayala. It wasn't too busy this time but as we went to get off at our station we were met by a wall of people. Ross had to put up a battering ram with his arms and barge his way through as the crowd tried to push onto the train. Not so fun.

That night we headed to a local pub called Murphy's where a few of the teachers from Tara and JB's school play together in a band. We were all pretty shattered so we just had a couple of beers and headed home.

A good, interesting and busy day all up. It gave Ross and I a good taste of Manila. A few things stick out as being unique here:

1. Jeepneys: one of the most popular modes of transport.


2. "Mamsir": Hospitality is pretty big here in the Philippines. Every shop, cafe, store that Ross and I entered we were greeted by the phrase "Hello, Mamsir, welcome to ...". Everywhere from designer boutiques to McDonald's the one word colloquialism of Mam/Sir was to be heard!


3. Cheap coffee: a tall skim cappuccino here costs around $2 at Starbucks - cheap as chips!


4. Christianity: Ross and I found it really different to be in an Asian country with such a strong Christian population - churches can be found everywhere with Catholicism being the main religion.


5. Statues: Obviously, Filipinos like their statues. On every corner or road, it seems there is a statue dedicated to someone or some event.
6. Security: Everywhere you go in Manila, you are met with gun toting security. At malls, banks, trains etc. What I did particularly like is the small little sticks that the mall security guards use to pry open your bag to have a look :-)