Ni Hao
It is about 6pm and I am waiting for CJ to call or come home from work. I just got back from a 7 hr walk in the rain across the river in the Pudong area. I was drenched from head to toe when I got back and so enjoyed a nice hot soak in the tub and then a shower. Ahhh..I am actually having a hard time staying awake now, I am so relaxed.
So today's adventure went like this..I got up at 7am and worked on Emails a bit, had breakfast, chatted with the operations manager of the hotel and he told me to go to the French concessions area. So I headed in that direction around 9am and passed through the Yuyuan garden area first since it is right next to the hotel here. I walked down a new market street and found some cute Beijing Olympic Fuwa doll magnets, but no luck with pins. Then looked around through an indoor mall like they have in Honduras. It was loaded to the gills with everything imaginable, T shirts, decorations, paper products, sandals,toys, clothes, trinkets of all kinds....
I saw a cute little street and so I took that, which I think ended up being in a little neighborhood and I was getting a few odd looks from people, like what are you doing in here? They all look me up and down form head to toe. Very different than in Japan where they don't make eye contact with you at all nor do they want to get caught looking at you.
Right when I was exiting that area through an archway a girl came up to me and was saying something like, "You have lots of bags so watch them, come here." So I at first thought she was being nice and telling me to be careful in the crowded area I was soon going to be in and to watch my bags, like there was pick pocketers..I had my purse crossed over my chest and another bag with my raincoat,sweater and some snacks hanging on my shoulder. Then she told me to come with her and she led me back under the archway and towards a little house or room. There were several older people inside the arch that were watching me. She went in the door and back into the room and told me to come in. I of course did NOT go in, but stood outside and said what do you want. Then another girl outside with me seemed very nervous as I stood looking in the door but I would not go in. She kept telling me to go in, while looking over my shoulder as if to see who was watching us? It was like she was doing something she should'nt be doing and like she was worried about getting caught. Then when I would NOT go in, she told me go go in a frustrated voice. So I turned around and left. The girl that was in the house then came out very quickly and walked past me very fast and went ahead of me and tried to lead me down the lane in the other direction. I just turned and went out under the archway.
As soon as I left the archway there was a guy with me just like that and he was trying to get me to come with him to buy watches and bags. So right then the lights went on and I realized they were all trying to get me to go to their different shops to buy watches and bags, purses...I told them I was only looking for Beijing pins and I did not want anything else. So I kept on walking down the street, now with the guy and the 2 girls all hawking at me to come with them to their shop this way and that way with the other one, and I could get lots of watches... It was so funny and annoying at the same time. I then realized why I did not miss going there yesterday. I remembered that from last time we were here and how it is so annoying when they don't take NO for an answer.
So I zigzagged down the street in one shop and out another then back and forth across the street trying to get them to leave me alone. They were very determined, and even stood outside the shops and actually waited for me to exit. They kept yelling to me even while I was looking in the other stores. I did find Olympic pins. YEAH! It was interesting how the girl wrote up my order gave me 2 receipts and I had to take them over to the cashier with my money and pay him. Then I took the two stamped receipts back to her and she kept 1 of them and gave me the other with my goods. They seem to be very strict about who handles the money here in Asia.
When I exited that store I just turned around and started to walk in the opposite direction, and finally they gave up when I entered into Yuyuan Garden area. My guess is they are not allowed in there.
I looked at the old teahouse by the fish pond and then walked down by the performance stage and caught a few different acts. Some ladies were doing a musical skit of some kind, then some older men did a dance and chant kind of number. A puppeteer with a man puppet playing a horn did his act and then some young boys in costumes got ready to do juggling on stilts and unicycles.
There too was an art fair going on and about 4 or 5 photographers were busy taking pics of this one artist with his silk fish Lanterns I think. I was taking pics of them taking pics of a mom and little boy looking at them and then they asked me to be in it. They were all so excited and so I made a crazy, excited face and they were snapping one photo after another and laughing. I wonder where those pictures are going to end up.:-P I started to walk away and I then had another man come and get me to go back so he could take more. I just stood there talking with the artist and the guy motioned to me to make more faces.... so I did.
I then continued on down the street and towards the French area or so I thought, but when I came to the main street I was actually going in the opposite direction. So I decided to head to the river instead and go there a different day. I too thought I had better go see if MR P really showed up again, as I did not want to go against my promise.
I walked through some more side street neighborhoods and watched a man scale his fish for supper. Many people were in and out of their houses and still in their pajamas. I think they might have been a bit surprised when they exited their homes and there was a big white girl right there face to face with them. They were probably thinking she is sure off the beaten path, but then those are the places I love the best. I have all I can do, to not ask if I can go in and see the inside to one of their little homes. At least they look little from the street, but from my visit in 2004 they usually are not as little as they seem. Most go back into a main courtyard and then have several seperate rooms off that.
So I then headed toward the Bund area and ran into more construction and so I was walking down a narrow corridor walled in on both sides by billboards hanging on the construction fences. It surprised me when I came upon a women sitting out in the middle of nowhere selling her corn on the cob and chinese goodies on a stick. I wondered where she was getting the fuel from. She must have had a propane tank under her counter?
When I got to the riverside promenade..not boardwalk I saw MR P walking towards me. He was headed to the terrace as I was an hour late and he did not sleep well last night and needed some coffee. So we no more than sat down and the rain let loose. I had tea and he had coffee and we chatted a bit while he made some phone calls about his school job. He did not talk as much today as yesterday and I could tell he was a bit precoccupied with his phone. I told him it was not necessary for us to stay here, and I could be on my merry way as I was planning to go across the river and see what was going on over there anyway. So we talked a bit more than he wanted to take me to show me where to get on the ferry. So we left our coffee and tea sitting at the table and went to see the ferry ticket area and then went back. He had a couple ears of sweet corn on a stick for 3 yuan a piece and drank the rest of my tea. Then he said he had to leave for his class and got up and left. I then got up to go and when I went to leave the area the lady yelled to me you have to pay. I said he paid and she said no. I said well I am not paying for him I will pay for my tea and that was it. It was 45yuan for a cup of tea. That was kind of what I expected him to do,as he kept asking me yesterday if I wanted to go and get a drink or bite to eat and I said no as I assumed he was going to have me pay. That is one thing I do NOT like when people take advantage of others like that. It is that same old thing where we Americans have money and so everyone wants it. Heck he invited me so if he was polite he should have paid for me or at least gone dutch.
So after I paid up I went and got my ferry tickets and made my way across the very busy river. There were boats coming and going in all directions. It was very rainy and foggy too.
When I got to Pudong I walked down along the riverside promenade on that bank and enjoyed the heavy rain. I was out there pretty much all alone. Then I walked over to the TV tower and to the convention center where I finally decided I had better put on my raincoat, as I was getting soaked to the bone. My dress from my thighs down was totally drenched.
Walked back along another road up through the park and over to the new financial building. Then walked in a big rain puddle along the traffic jam and back to the ferry and my ride back across the river. I walked on different streets back to the hotel and saw many folks trying to stay dry in their rainbow assortment of rain gear. The ponchos were big enough to drape over the motorbike and had a clear plastic portion that went over the odometer so they could read the dials.
I too passed many a shop with very colorful bags of powder. It was for dying material. I found another indoor mall across from the hotel and bought a couple very cheap counted cross stitch kits. Oh how I wish I knew what other people might want as they had such a variety to choose from and the prices seemed so much cheaper than back home?
Back to the hotel, where I enjoyed a hot soaking bath, shower and draped my wet clothes, purse, bag all over the room to dry. It reminded me of our Fuji hike and how everything was soaked again,but I was thankfully not freezing like then.
CJ came back to the hotel and we were both tired so we ordered room service and ate while he had a phone call with guy from MN. We had Chicken Caeser salads and French Onion soup. I'm finishing this blog and then I'm off to bed, CJ is already alseep.
Pretty sure CJ and I get to hang out tomorrow and possibly we will go to the French area?
Sayonara
Karla and CJ
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