Streets of Saigon

Over our entire trip, we’ve spent about six days in Saigon, so it just wouldn’t be right if I didn’t touch on what makes this city so wonderful!  Aside from the motorbike incident and seeing the Ao Show, much of our time was spent walking around the city exploring the parks, shops, and restaurants and meeting the people.  We’ve managed to walk all over the city, including the highlights such as the Ben Thanh market, the Reunification Palace, the War Remnants Museum, the Post Office, and their version of Notre Dame.  We found some fantastic places to eat too including, Wang Hai Gnon (It actually means “Delicious,” but I guarantee I botched up the name.), Tandoor (Indian), Jaspers (Awesome Western breakfast, buy 1 get 1 free on Sundays), Pat a Chou (best pain au chocolat around!), and a fruit smoothie food cart in an alley near our hotel.

In Saigon, the street food culture is not as prominent as in Hanoi, but we definitely took a chance on some of the smaller restaurants or food stalls.  One in particular has the best Pho we’ve tried in the entire two weeks of venturing throughout Vietnam.  It was a small family-owned restaurant at the bottom of their home.   One of the best aspects of the Pho is that with each order you get a pile of mint leaves, bean sprouts, lettuce, basil, chilies, and limes to put inside of the Pho while you’re eating it! 

Our lunch was incredibly inexpensive.  We managed to have three Vietnamese coffees and two Pho soups for about six dollars.  And they were so nice that when I asked if I could use their toilet, they cleaned off the stairs to let me into their home to use their personal toilet since the dining section didn’t have one.   

Oh and the Vietnamese iced coffees, woo baby!  They are soooo good!  I could’ve sworn they had chocolate syrup in them or something!  But our friend, Huong (Helen) said that’s just the combination of the rich Vietnamese coffee flavor and sweetened condensed milk.  These are definitely a must-have when you visit Vietnam.

As our trip is coming to an end, here are some final thoughts...  I was most amazed at how well-kept and picturesque the parks were in both Hanoi and Saigon.  With the sporadic French architecture, at times it felt as if I was strolling through Europe. 

The War Remnants museum was a huge eye opener because it is the most Anti-American place I had ever been.  Any coy remarks I have ever heard while studying in France could not match the passive aggressive Anti-American approach of this museum.  The museum showed pictures of at least 20 other countries who supported northern Vietnam and wanted the USA out of Vietnam.  It posted photos depicting American soldiers posing cheerfully while holding the heads of beheaded Vietnamese soldiers.  This is only one example of the wretched things that American soldiers did while abroad… but this museum only told one side.  There was nothing said about Vietnamese soldiers torturing our Prisoners of War, nothing said about protests in America commanding the US to get out of Vietnam.  No, if I didn’t know much about the US, and visited that musuem I would think the worst of our government and people.  Growing up I had heard brief stories of the mental health issues and counseling that war veterans need when they return, specifically about the Vietnam War.  When in a war like this where the Vietnamese soldiers were essentially hiding underground and randomly popping up and surprising American soldiers time and again, I can imagine that it drove soldiers to paranoia and being immersed in this environment drove them to do things completely out of character for them.  How can they possibly return to their normal lives when their worst nightmares were a reality just months before?

Along the outside of the museum are American fighter planes and tanks that were captured after the war, very overtly stating the Vietnamese pride for winning the war.  Seeing all of this made me pretty uncomfortable, but the museum gave us such a different perspective on the war that we stayed there for over two hours examining every bit of it.  I must admit that I didn’t feel quite proud to be an American after leaving that museum.

After discussing the how the US was depicted, Eric and I agreed that there are many details that were not told in this museum, it’s only one perspective of the war, and was obviously trying to victimize northern Vietnam, by criminalizing all Americans.  This was a good learning experience, but it also reinforced the fact that you should take just about everything with a grain of salt, biased perspectives often skew reality. 

Prior to coming to Vietnam, I was a little concerned as to how Americans would be received.  Even before coming to this museum, Eric and I told a fair share of locals that we were Canadian.  This claim was a pretty good safe-guard against any people who may hold a grudge against Americans.  What we learned though is that aside from the head honcho at the police station, the Vietnamese were very pleased when they heard we were American, and I admired that ability for the people to let go of the past.  Especially when so often a country's history dictates people’s actions in the present… right or wrong.

Don’t’ get me wrong with all of this talk about the museum and posing as a Canadian at times.  I am still proud to be an American and strongly believe that the values and way of life in the U.S. are highly desirable.   We just know that not everyone is as fond of the US as we are and heed on the side of caution whenever someone, say our motorbike driver has our life in his hands.

Speaking of motorbikes, this is another big takeaway from the trip.  I am normally a big scared-y cat when it comes to riding a motorbike, but I really tried to leave this inhibition back at home in the States.  I’m glad I did because we had so much fun taking motorbike rides with Sai Oms (essentially unofficial taxi motorbike riders) who would take us just about anywhere in the city for a dollar or two.  It was always invigorating jumping on the motorbike and swarming around traffic like we were part of a school of fish.  This and taking that day-long motorbike ride with Eric have made me feel much more comfortable on a motorbike… who knows maybe we’ll eventually get that scooter Eric’s been anxious to buy!

Both China and Vietnam were amazing, but Vietnam was extra good because I had my favorite travel buddy with me!  We went on this trip because Eric was so infatuated with Saigon that he wanted me to experience the thrills too.  What a guy, right?  It’s been yet another amazing adventure, with it’s own flavor of discovery.  We’ve already decided that we need to come back and see the Mekong Delta, Hoi An, Sapa, Cambodia, and Laos.  So many places to go, so much to see.

Curiosity is a gift that needs nurtured to flourish so travel the world and watch your curiosity liven your appetite for adventure! 

Ha Long Bay and Hanoi

For the past few days we’ve been in northern Vietnam, and what a pleasant surprise it has been!  Prior to our trip, I booked a one-night stay at Charming Hotel on-line.  I found this hotel on Trip Advisor and reviews really emphasized their genuine attitude and superb customer service.  Boy were they right!  They even saved us about a 100,000 Dong ($10) on our cab ride from the airport.

While in Hanoi, we took a cruise with Galaxy Cruise lines in Ha Long Bay, one of the seven natural wonders of the world!  Ha Long Bay consists of almost 2,000 mountains protruding out of the bay.  It was incredible!  We even took a stroll through one of the largest limestone caves in the world called the “Surprise Cave.”  It’s called that because the first “chamber” you walk into is relatively small, but the next two chambers are enormous!  Apparently, it was discovered by two French FEMALE explorers!  Can you imagine how amazing that would be to uncover a ginormous limestone cave?!

After visiting the cave we went kayaking in the Bay which is also considered the South China Sea, and later went swimming.  Not just swimming though, we jumped off of the very top of our boat, at least 20 feet high!  There have been few times in my life where I’ve been as scared as I was when I jumped off that daggone boat.  At first I planned on holding my nose, but when I was in the air my body went into panic mode and I started flailing my arms as I fell into the water.  Luckily the water was nice and warm so it was a relief when my feet crashed into the water. 

Afterwards we had a fantastic dinner and finished the night off with squid fishing (didn’t catch anything though) and karaoke.  There were only about 14-16 passengers on this boat; a Vietnamese family of about eight, Eric and I, a New Zealander, and a British couple.  Alex, from New Zealand and Val and George (from England) really made this trip extra-good, especially after a night of singing… I Will Survive, Mountain Roads, a song about Sheila, Sweet Caroline, and some beautiful Vietnamese love songs, our karaoke night was a blast and really put this trip on a pedestal.  Although, I must admit, our Vietnamese boat staff pretty much blew us (the Westerners) out of the water in regards to talent, but we were most definitely the life of the party; dancing and carrying on till the crew told us to go to bed!

Back in Hanoi we had the opportunity to venture about with our new found friend, Long (his name means dragon king in Vietnamese, how sweet is that?!).  Long took us to the best ice cream shop in Hanoi, Kem Trang Tien.  Trang Tien has only one flavor of actual ice cream, vanilla.  But this wasn’t your average vanilla bean flavor you get in the States.  This vanilla tasted like a pina colada!  It was sooo good we had one of those and were so enamored with the new flavor that we tried three of their fudge popsicle assortments; coconut milk, green bean, and the com rice flavor.  They kind of tasted like Indian burfi sweets.  Yummy!

One of the neatest adventures we went on with Long was ironically on Long Bien bridge, a 100 year-old bridge extending about two miles.  Our last night in Hanoi, Long took us for a walk along the wooden boarded sidewalk atop this crazy long bridge, and we found a pleasant surprise just as we approached the middle of the bridge above the river.  Many young people were gathered along the railing sitting on bamboo mats.  They were playing cards, sipping on iced dracontomelon tea, and just enjoying each other’s company.  We decided to join them for a bit and bought a few glasses of this Vietnamese iced tea made of up small balls of sweetish, sourish fruit called dracontomelon.  It was delicious and tasted like an exotic version of lemonade with mini melon balls in it.  We sat there for a while and left while a child around four years old started busting a move to Michael Jackson.  (I joined in a bit, but didn’t want to take the spotlight away from that little sweetie!)

We spent the night traipsing around the Old Quarter and ended the night with some sweets, including a red dragon fruit smoothie!  No joke!

Our last day was started bright and early at Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum.  Now I didn’t know what a Mausoleum was before this, so just to fill you in a bit, this was essentially a memorial or shrine for the infamous Vietnamese leader during the first part of the Vietnam War, Ho Chi Minh.  Vietnam’s most famous city, Saigon, was actually renamed Ho Chi Minh City because it was this leader’s favorite city.  Anyone looking to rename Chicago to Obama City?  That’s what this would essentially be like doing. 

Ok, I’m exaggerating it’s a bit different.  I’m no expert on the Vietnam War, but Ho Chi Minh was the Communist leader of the North leading the Communists to eventually win the war.  From conversations with Vietnamese who are living in Vietnam, it seems like he is highly admired for his good nature and caring attitude.  In fact, he’s commonly known as Uncle Ho to the Vietnamese. 

In the Mausoleum, we walked through the room where his preserved body lies.  It was like walking through the funeral of a highly revered individual, except no one was crying, everyone was completely silent, and did not take their eyes off of Ho Chi Minh’s preserved body lying in the middle of the room.  Even I was pretty mesmerized by this lifeless body just lying there in the middle of the room. 

This was an odd experience because throughout my life I’ve heard about how bad Communism is and here I see so many people admiring this Communist leader, even willingly calling him Uncle Ho.  Both young and old generations were doing so.  In these circumstances, it’s very easy to forget why Communism is disliked by Democratic societies.

Just a few days prior to going to Hanoi, we had met a French traveler who has been living in Vietnam for the past six years.  He was the one who had strongly encouraged us to go to the Mausoleum, largely because, he said, in Vietnam it doesn’t seem like it is Communist society, but you are reminded by the Communist mindset when you venture into that room just by experiencing the silence that runs through the walls as hundreds of people pass by Uncle Ho's body… and by seeing the soldiers adorned in white uniforms, standing like porcelain dolls at each corner of the bed Uncle Ho lies in.  I’m not gonna lie, it was a tad bit creepy in that room, and my experience there as well as at the War Remnants museum in Ho Chi Minh City have given me a new appreciation and understanding of the horrors the war soldiers endured during the war.

Afterwards, we explored Ho Chi Minh’s Presidential Palace and almost got pummeled by mangoes dropping from trees on the appropriately named, Mango Road.  We tried all kinds of street foods from Eel Mien noodle soup to Bun Cha, a northern Vietnamese specialty composed of rice noodles, pork patties, and the freshest mint leaves, weed-ish herbs, beansprouts, lime, and chili sauce.  Honestly, it was like we just pulled up an entire herbal garden in a plate!

Lastly, we really put our negotiating skills to work while buying three paintings…  looking forward to having a place where we can proudly put our new home additions on display.

Phu Quoc Island

After our little Cambodian visa fiasco, Eric and I decided to do something that most American tourists in Vietnam don’t do… go to Phu Quoc island.  Just the name Phu Quoc makes you take a deep breath and sigh… 

Just imagine.  Currently, I am sitting outside of our very own one room bungalow that sits directly on the beach.  We have a giant bed with a mosquito net surrounding the entire mattress.  (It’s like Scrooge’s bed in the movie a Christmas Carol!)   Our lullaby at night is the sound of the waves crashing against the sand.  Incredible, right?  We’re staying at a place called the Tropicana on Long Beach.  It’s truly breathtaking.

Our first night here we took a swim and then walked to the Town Centre which is about 1.5 km away.  We had some absolutely delicious spiked banana and pineapple smoothies and milkshakes.  Then we went to the night market which is really a fish market.  There were multiple stands of giant blue lobsters, red snappers, sharks, all kinds of shrimp, crabs, and clams!  And they were all so fresh, probably pulled right out of the ocean that day. 

We picked out a HUGE Tiger Shrimp which they grilled in garlic…. Let me emphasize that we had A shrimp for dinner… THAT’s how big it was.  In addition, we picked out two pretty big squids which were grilled and served with the island’s famous salt, pepper, and lime sauce.  With a side of roasted veggies, it was an awesome island-style meal! 

We enjoyed a nice stroll along the market and on our way home we saw a cute restaurant alongside the road called Chez Carole.  It looked like a Filipino band would be playing soon and I thought we needed some good ol’ dancing to end the night.  So we stayed there for about an hour or two and cut a rug on the dance floor! A great way to finish a flawless day!

Now we were certainly enjoying the serene ocean setting, waking up early in the morning for a swim and spending the evening sitting alongside the water digging our toes in the sand.  BUT… you know the curiosity in us never ends!

I told you that we would be renting a motorbike, right?  Well, on our second day on the island, we rented a motorbike and after that incident in Saigon, Eric has definitely redeemed himself as a highly capable driver!  We rode all the way down to the southern tip of the island to a beach called Bai Sao (Sao Beach).  That’s about 25 km from the Tropicana.  Now this should normally take an hour (if you’re going as slow as we go), but the roads down here are either horrendous or under construction… meaning they are dirt roads.  And there are no signs to direct us to Bai Sao.  AND we’re here during their rainy season so it POURS at least once a day.

So…  given all of that it took us about 2 hours and 45 minutes to reach Bai Sao.  But let me tell you… it was worth it!  We had so much fun getting lost,  switching directions, and running into dead ends. We managed to just barely miss getting drenched in a rainstorm by ducking into a small “restaurant” along the road.  Eric was a good driver too!  Honestly!  I was certainly worried about this…I’m not going to deny that, but he was very even-keeled and cautious, even when the giant dump trucks would want to pass us and were basically shoving us off the road, he played it safe.  I was super proud of him and I loved seeing such untouched land throughout our journey.  The island truly is beautiful, but it’s also a little strange.

The airport is very modern and pretty large considering only five flights fly in and out of the island per day.  And yet, the road infrastructure is horrendous even to get from one beautiful beach (Long Beach) to another (Bai Sao) or to the pier for fresh crabs (Ham Nimh).  At least half of the way to each destination is dirt or rock roads! 

Then when we reached Bai Sao, the white sand and clear turquoise waters were slightly overshadowed by the garbage that we would find laying around.  If Vietnam truly wants Phu Quoc to live up to its claim that it’s one of the most beautiful beaches in Asia then it at least needs to put a stronger focus on garbage cleanup along the beaches.  Now granted, not all areas were like this.  In fact, our hotel at the Tropicana had its own cleaning crew, and we found a beautiful area at Bai Sao that had very little garbage so it was still very picturesque. 

Anyway enough of that rant.  Our lunch on the beach was awesome!  Grilled shrimp with some really yummy sauces and a traditional southern Vietnamese fish soup with okra, onions, and pineapple really satisfied us after such a long journey.  It was easily enough food to feed a family of five, but we did a pretty good job of scarfing it down. 

We stayed at Bai Sao for around three and half hours, and really enjoyed exploring the beach, swimming, and watching a fisherman reel in his seine.  We got so close that we could pretty much touch the fish that he had pulled up in the net.  I’ve never seen so many fish at once! 

Our bike ride home was much quicker than our ride into Sao Beach, exactly an hour.  We made it home just in time to watch the sunset on the beach. 

That night we planned to go back to the town for dinner, but a massive storm came ashore and we were pretty much trapped inside of our bungalow for the night. I felt a bit like a kid camping in a little hut.  We turned off all of the lights so it was pitch black and sat inside the mosquito net and just chatted for hours while listening to the thunderous rain and watching the lightening reflect off the water.  Our dinner that night consisted of blueberry crisp and oatmeal raisin Cliff Bars, a tad bit different from our island feasts we’d been having the past couple days, huh?

Our last day in Phu Quoc was spent swimming in the ocean and the pool for a bit and then watching a storm from a restaurant sitting directly on the beach while having banana juice, spring rolls, and freshly cut pineapple from a woman walking along the beach.

Phu Quoc was such a wonderful adventure!  From the freedom of riding our own motorbike across the island to picking out our own seafood to jumping around in the Gulf of Thailand; it was all amazing!  I really appreciated the slower pace of life at Phu Quoc.  Now back to the city amongst the millions of motorbikes and street vendors!

Visa Fiasco: New Plan

Just to bring down your heightened alert mode, we didn’t actually bribe a police officer.  In fact, we didn't actually know how this guy was related to the police station, but we think he worked for one of the officers as kind of a ‘scrub.’ 

It all started when we were making our plans to go to Angkor Wat, Cambodia.  We discovered that our visas were only single entry to Vietnam versus multiple entry.  This was a big deal because if we left Vietnam we wouldn’t be able to come back and our international flight home left from Saigon.  We discovered that we could relatively easily correct our visa… or so we thought.  (Why is everything harder than what it seems?)

After going to the Canadian Embassy (our visas were issued in Ottawa) and them directing us to the Vietnam Immigration Services, we were given a form and instructed to get the signature of someone at our hotel and the local police station.  Easy enough, right?  WRONG.  (hehe, sounds familiar, eh?)

It was quite easy to get the signature from our hotel, but the local police station was much more difficult.  We initially went to police station and they instructed us to get the reservation confirmation from our hotel.  So we went back to our hotel and they had not input us into the system when we checked in so we could only take our receipt for one paid night to the police station.  A man sitting outside of the police station waved us over and said he’ll help us get the stamp from the police if we pay him 400,000 Dong (equal to $20).  Eric didn’t trust this guy, and didn’t want to be involved in any bribes.  I didn’t see it as a bribe.  I saw it as being necessary in order to get anything done here.  So we agreed that if he could get the police to sign our form by 4:00pm today then we would pay him.  That man tried his darnedest but his efforts didn’t pay off.

In fact, after an hour of waiting in the police station, the police chief came back with our paperwork and started yelling at the receptionist in Vietnamese about our forms while we were sitting right there.  After he left, she said today’s boss is grumpy and that we should come back in the morning when we have a happy boss. Okay… we came back the next morning and the new boss still would not sign our form either.  It was ridiculous!  We were given no explanation either! 

So we ended up cancelling our trip to Cambodia, wishing we would’ve just paid $140 per person to get a travel agency to change our visas.  Lesson to be had… nothing is ever as easy as it seems when traveling and there’s a reason that travel agencies offer visa services because the local police station are nin-com-poops!

We weren’t going to let this sour our time though and wanted to make the best of our extra days in Vietnam.  Since we couldn't leave the country, we booked a trip immediately to Phu Quoc island and northern Vietnam in the capital, Hanoi, experiencing one of the seven natural wonders of the world, Ha Long Bay!  But I’ll leave that adventure for another blog.

Motorbike Misdemeanor in Vietnam

After an unpredictable, yet totally amazing time in Shanghai I was ready to venture off with Eric to Vietnam.  Now let me preface this by saying, “I CAN’T BELIEVE we’re going to Vietnam!”  Never in a million years would I have expected to come here, and yet, here we are! 

After being here for about four days, I am totally impressed by Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).  This should really be a destination spot on its own.  It’s a pretty walkable city with many beautiful parks.  At nighttime, everyone emerges from their homes and into the parks to play badminton, practice dance routines, Tai Chi, and just to hang out.  Even babies and children are out playing until one o’ clock in the morning.  The weather is so unbelievably hot during the day that the night time is their relief from the stronghold of the summer sun.

So far we’ve really made our mark on Vietnam, we’ve managed to bribe a police officer, run a motorbike into a taxi, spend about a half a day in the local police station, and try and swindle our way through the immigration services.  It’s been an amazing past couple of days!

Let’s start with the motorbike incident…  You may know that when we were in India, Eric kept insisting that he buy a motorbike to ride around India in.  Of course, I responded with, “Are you crazy?!”  Even in Boston, Eric was eager to get a motorbike to go back and forth to classes on. I used the “it’s just too expensive and not necessary” line to avoid that request.  Now that we’re in Vietnam, the motorbike capital of the world (or so it seems).  There was no avoiding it. 

While hanging out with our friends Helen and Toan, they mentioned that if Eric wanted to rent a bike, he should do it tonight so that Toan can teach him how.  I felt alright with this, and figured if there were any time for Eric to learn then this would be it.  So we decided to wait until around 10:30pm when there were fewer vehicles on the road. 

Eric was so excited to finally ride a motorbike in Vietnam, you should’ve seen the giddy expression on his face.  He carefully backed the bike out of the rental shop, Toan showed him the controls and Eric strapped on his helmet and said he’ll take it for one practice round.  Before we knew it Eric was off!  Toan tried to follow him, but Eric whipped away faster than expected. 

Helen and I stood outside of the rental shop for about 15 to 20 minutes, waiting for Eric and Toan to come back so that we could hop on with them.   I was getting a little worried, but figured that Eric was just enjoying his freedom on the motorbike.  Then…. Helen received a phone call from Toan saying that Eric hit a taxi.  I heart beat so fast I thought it was going to jump out of my chest.  We rushed off to find him.  Luckily, Eric was okay, not a scratch on him, the motorbike was under the taxi and there were some pretty good dents in the vehicle.  Get this… Eric didn’t even make it 200 feet, then while trying to turn, that poor guy ran into a PARKED taxi!  The taxi driver yelled at Eric and told him to pay $100 USD.  It’s a good thing Eric’s been traveling in Asia for the past two weeks and has been in his negotiating mode because even in Eric’s state of shock, he managed to bargain the guy down to $60.

Helen and I had a good time teasing Eric about this one.  He didn’t do much more riding that night.  Well, Toan gave him some more in depth lessons on riding motorbikes, but there’s was no more solo bike time for Eric that night.  We’re leaving for Phu Quoc tomorrow, a remote island just an hour flight away from Saigon, and we plan on renting a motorbike there and taking it all over the island!  I am super excited!  Phu Quoc will have much fewer vehicles on the road, too few to worry about Eric running into anything again… maybe a monkey or two but that’s it!

Shanghai to Tongli: Water Village Woes

So let me tell you about the day I lived off of cereal bars and almost broke down from frustration over almost getting lost on my way and then coming home from a water village called Tongli.

Based on a strong recommendation from a friend (Thanks, Katy…), I decided to go to a water village that was supposed to be about two hours outside of Shanghai.  My plan was to leave at 10:30am, be there by around 12:30 for lunchtime, walk around the village for about four hours, and then leave to be home by 8:00pm, just in time for dinner in Shanghai and to go out for some good ol’ dancin’!  After doing some research, I figured I could get there in an hour and a half…  WRONG.

ROUND 1: Shanghai to Tongli: I started my day at 10:30am, walked about a half mile to the metro station where I got on at the Shanghai Zoo stop.  After a 15-minute metro ride to the Hongqiao Railway Station, and after about a 30-minute wait in the ticket line, I managed to get a train ticket to Suzhou South Station.  Okay.  Everything is good so far. My train left at 12:15pm and would arrive at Suzhou South Station by 12:46pm.  Another hour bus ride after that and I’ll be there.  Easy peazy.

Now you should know that I didn’t actually have concrete directions to Tongli.  My friend, Selena, wrote down each train station or destination that I was seeking in Mandarin so that I could show the characters to people and they would point me in the right direction.  I did know I needed to get to Suzhou South Station and then there would be a tourist bus to shuttle people to this water village.  Pretty easy, right?  WRONG.  It was horrendous!

When 12:46pm came around, I noticed that the next stop’s characters matched the ones I had written down, BUT the stop was called Suzhou North Station.  So I showed a train assistant the characters and asked if this was the right station to go to Tongli.  He nodded and motioned his hands for me to leave the train at that stop.  Being a little skeptical, I nodded, said, “Xie Xie,” and scurried off to find another train assistant.  She indicated the same thing and motioned for me to leave the train at this stop.  Ok… this must be it, right?  WRONG.

After leaving the train, and then asking at least five different people which bus would take me to Tongli and getting many confused looks… I had obviously gotten off at the wrong train station.  ARGH!  Finally a security guard motioned towards one of the city buses. 

I got on thinking this bus would take me directly to the water village, and even showed the bus driver the characters for where I needed to go.  He nodded and waved me forward.  Obviously, these nods and waves forward mean nothing.  After about 20 minutes on the bus, and passing suburban  shopping marts, and rural farms, I saw a few Chinese girls who looked like they were about 16 years old and figured they may know a bit of English.  Luckily, the one young lady knew enough to understand what I was looking for, and told me what stop to get off at.  She said that I would need to catch another bus from that stop, but she did not know which one.  I figured this was better than nothing… so about 30 minutes later, I get off at a bus stop/train station.  At this point I knew I was pretty far outside the city.  After asking multiple folks, security guards, and walking into a couple dead ends, I finally found the place to buy a bus ticket to Tongli.  This bus left at 2:15pm.  Alright…. Now I’m on track.  This bus should drop me off right at Tongli, since it’s a shuttle bus especially for Tongli.  WRONG. 

I spent about an hour on that daggone bus sitting next to this guy with grossly long fingernails (I am not digging that trend here in China, not in the least!)  This kid’s fingernails were so long they made a tapping noise every time he texted and then he would make this flicking noise with them every couple minutes… UGH!  I couldn’t wait to get away… just imagine, it’s hot, I’d just been traveling for the last three or four hours and I also hadn’t eaten, which if you know anything about the Bhullars, we get grumpy and irritable when we are hungry.  (Yes, even me!)  Luckily, I had some cereal bars and nuts in my purse so I scarfed them down for some temporary satisfaction.

Anyway, we finally arrived at Tongli station.  I was so relieved to finally be there…. But then I get out of the bus and there was no water anywhere to be seen!  No signs either.  Nothing but a shanty old town.  “Where the heck am I?!” I thought. 

Then I saw two people with backpacks, and, you know me, I walked up to them and asked if they knew English.  They kind of chuckled then said, “No.”  They said they were from Beijing.  I tagged along with them anyway, and I’m so glad I did because we had to walk another mile and  a half just to get to the water village.  And… there was no way of knowing where it was unless they asked random townspeople for directions in Mandarin!  Finally, after following those two lovely folks for about 30 minutes, I made it to Tongli, yes the water village part, around 3:45pm.  The water village itself was neat because it looked like how China may have been about 100 years ago with small wooden bridges stretching across the water canals and its small winding streets. 

I was so excited that I had finally reached the village that I forgot my hunger and just strolled around the town.  My favorite part was walking alongside the canal in the back of the village where the locals lived, washed their clothes in the river, and hung out along the dirt path.  I walked as far as I could in that area and then ventured onto the main streets to look for some food.  Many of the restaurants served essentially the same thing, but there wasn’t anyone eating at these restaurants, so I was a little skeptical about the food.  Then, the restaurants that I decided to take a chance on were not serving food because it was in the weird twilight hour between lunch and dinner.  Eventually, I found a place that served at least fruit salad (AKA giant grapes).  At first, I wasn’t going to eat there, but after using their bathroom and being impeccably impressed by its cleanliness and design, I decided to hang around.  Although, I do think the window in the bathroom was a bit lower than expected so I had to remain semi-crouched down to ensure passing townspeople didn’t get an unwelcomed peep.  Awkward! 

I order my fruit salad and a mango passion fruit tea.  Now this little café was brilliantly decorated, and pretty out of place.  It had comfy black and white couches, played calming Norah Jones-esque music, and had images of cats all over the walls (reminded me of my bedroom in my house in Somerset).  I was the only person in the café, and even found the waitress sleeping on one of the couches.  She shot awake when she saw me come in!

I took a seat at a bar stool overlooking the canal through a wooden gated window that opened to the canal.  It was so serene and really provided the peaceful atmosphere that I needed.  My tea came and it was fantastic!  Then the fruit salad came…  my yummy giant grapes were SLATHERED in mayonnaise!  YUCK!  Can you believe that?!  Even after the day I had, I didn’t care how hungry I was, that was not appetizing in the least.  So I finished my bag of nuts off, sipped my tea, and left for my journey home.  Eager for a good dinner that night back in Shanghai.

It was about 5:15pm when I left the village (That’s right!  After a five-hour trek to get there, I could only spend about an hour and fifteen minutes exploring it… argh…).  BUT I was glad that I Ieft when I did because it took me just as long to get home despite taking all of the right vehicles.

ROUND 2: Tongli to Shanghai: I walked back to the bus station and hopped on the first bus that was leaving (it happened to be around 5:45pm).  I reached the Suzhou South Station (ah, yes, it does exist.) 

First, it took me forever to find the ticket office for the train, and when I finally did, remember those crazy long lines from Shanghai’s station, well they were even worse here!  There were probably 15 long lines leading up to ticket windows.  I got in one that seemed to be going rather quickly.  After waiting for about 20 to 30 minutes, I was the next person to purchase my ticket.  I stepped up to the window and would you believe it…. That &%$%##% woman pulled the curtain down on me?!  It felt like she was playing a joke on me and was going to pop her head up any second to say, “Just kidding!”  I just stood there staring at the curtain for moment in utter shock.  Then I went to the back of another line to start my wait all over again.  I repeated this at least twice more.   One time the computer broke in the line I was in and I had to restart my wait again (Yeah, I was really ready to hit my limit.)  Over the next hour, I managed to get my ticket.  *Sigh… Finally!  I would be leaving at 8:14pm and would be back to my apartment by 9:15pm….

Around 8:05pm we started boarding the train, I slipped my ticket through the machine and it denied my entry. Hmmm.. perhaps I just put it in upside down… I flipped it over and slipped it again.  Denied.

I went over to the Train Assistant and showed her my ticket and she just waved her hand from side to side with no explanation as to why I could not go in.  I kept asking her why I couldn’t and tried to rephrase it as best I could to understand her when luckily a Chinese man came up behind me to help.  He explained that I had been issued a ticket for May 26^th rather May 24^th at 8:14pm and that I would have to go up to the ticket office again to correct it (yeah, that stupid crazy long line AGAIN!).  This was it.  I had hit my limit.  The Train Assistant wouldn’t let me through no matter how much I begged her.  I ran upstairs hoping that I could get a ticket before that train left, but the line I went directed me to a different number… eventually I got another ticket back to Shanghai for 8:44pm, which in all honesty was much better than I expected. 

So that was the last of my series of holdups and the most frustrating day of travel in my entire life.  I eventually got home at 10:00pm and still hadn’t eaten dinner or really any meal for that matter.  In good American style, I made a peanut butter and mango sandwich and a glass of red wine.  (Well deserved red wine if you ask me!) 

The night ended up being amazing though.  I went with the International MBA students, and my colleagues Kim and Selena to a crazy dance club called Club 88 and we danced the night away!

It felt so good to just let loose on the dance floor.  That was the best stress-relief I could’ve ever found!  In fact, this place in particular played awesome music and had performers up on stage that looked like characters out of X-Men!  It was crazy!  I can definitely tell that the nightlife in Shanghai trumps Boston, Philly, and Pittsburgh 100 to 1!  A crazy and fun time to end a crazy and horrendous commute to the outskirts of Shanghai.   

First Day in Shanghai: Scam Artist and All!

It’s official.  I love Shanghai!  (well, most of it) What an awesome city, with its abnormally modern subway, futuristic financial district, unique fashion, and tea performance scam artists, it’s sparking my curiosity in every way. 

I began my first full day in Shanghai at 8:20am, out the door and ready for the chaotic calamity just waiting outside the doors of my serene hotel.  What I found is that Shanghai is strangely clean and modern with a hint of the old-style intermixed into the daily life (i.e. the toilets are still holes in the ground and you have to carry your own toilet paper).  The streets are not mass chaos as I had imagined (based on my experience in Amritsar).   

The best part about Shanghai is the people, well, SOME of the people.  In an effort to pay for my metro ticket, a young man gave me 6 RBM (equal to $1) because the machine would not take my 100 RBM bill.  I felt a bit like a panhandler so I offered my 100 RBM bill (equivalent to $15).  He refused (good guy, right?) my generous offer and let me be with the 6 RBM.  That was ‘act of kindness’ number one. 

Act of kindness number two happened right about noon and actually to be nothing but a scam… and the sad thing is that I didn't realize it until NINE hours later!  Let’s see if you see the signs.    

I strolled down Nanjing Road all the way down to People’s Square when a guy named De Ji and his friend, a cute girl about 5 foot tall named LeeLee asked me to take a picture for them.  Of course I’ll take a picture for you!  Now these two were quite the curious pair!  I’ve never had two people comment so much on how beautiful my big nose is!  MULTPLE TIMES!  We could be talking about the Dragon Boat festival and (whoop!)  one of them would mention my beautiful big nose again and my double eyes!  They insisted that these features are valued in the Chinese culture.  Whether this is true or not, it sure was comical to hear their excitement and how they described my features in their broken English. 

Apparently, they were on their way to a tea performance and asked if I wanted to come with.  Of course, why not, right? 

Now, a tea performance… I didn’t really understand what this was, in fact I actually thought it was a dancing performance for the dragon boat festival based on our conversation (their English was pretty choppy so it was hard to follow the conversation entirely).  But they said it was at the Champs Elysee. This is nothing like Paris though, folks.  We walked for about ten minutes until we reached  a large old red gate.  They took me to a building where a woman dressed in light pink traditional attire greeted us at the door and guided us into a small room with cute little tree stumps as seats and beautiful traditional decorations. 

Then the tea performance started, or tea tasting rather.  My two new “friends” were so excited to translate the history of China, and we oooooed and awed at the tastes of the six different teas that we sampled throughout the next hour.  They taught me “Gambei!” (Cheers in Mandarin).  They told me stories of how tea merchants always wanted tea leaves from the mountains because they were the purest of all.  De Ji would happily explain the health benefits of each tea.  He would say, “Ah, yes, Pink Lady tea for young woman to keep you looking bootiful.  You and LeeLee are Pink Ladies!  Then LeeLee would joke and say that De Ji is a Pink Man which essentially means a ‘Playa.’  

All-in-all, this was definitely a performance, by not only the Tea Specialist.  When tea was poured, you should have seen how excited De Ji and LeeLee got.  It was like we were all kids seeing a magic show!  Especially, when the Tea Specialist brought out the Fairy Blossom tea, which blossoms into a flower when hot tea is poured over it.  And then there was even a tea cup with a black dragon on it that changed to red and blue when you poured hot tea in it.  We were all just carrying on and having a good time cheering at every little blossom, change of color, new tea to taste, I mean we celebrated EVERY LITTLE THING... and I was just eating it all up! 

We were really enjoying ourselves, in fact this tea performance and meeting this comical pair was the highlight of the entire day!  They were just so happy, energetic, curious, and just easy to be around!  It’s weird, they were almost spellbinding.  I’m sure you can imagine how happy I was in this setting…. Tasting different teas, enjoying lots of conversation with these two delightful people, sharing in a typical Chinese cultural experience (yeah… a scam), being complimented on my big nose, double eyes, and how smart I was since I just finished my MBA.  Pshhhh… 

Then we got the bill.  Now they showed me the prices beforehand and I didn’t want to be Debbie-downer on their tea outing that they had already planned so I didn’t care so much about the prices.  The final bill was like $2,500 RMB (equivalent to $387!).  I guess I didn’t realize that it would come to THAT price!  De Ji showed me the bill and asked me kindly, “How would you recommend we pay for this?”  (Which I felt was a bit odd.)  I suggested to split it in three ways.  And then I realized that I was the only person who had purchased tea to take home so I offered to pay a little more. Surprisingly, De Ji said, “No no no… you don’t need to.”  So I forked over 850 RMB, which is about $130.  This is an insane price to pay for a tea tasting especially in China!  De Ji then handed me (with two hands, in typical Chinese gift-giving tradition) a bag of Fairy Blossom tea balls and thanked me for coming with them and then insisted that I marry him. Lol Can you believe this kid?!   

So anyway we walked back out onto the main street where we gave each other hugs, and said our goodbyes.  I felt so good about that daggone tea performance until… I started writing this blog and noticed that some of the things that took place clearly made this a scam.  The location of the tea room, the speed of which the Tea Specialist explained things, the email addresses that they gave me (all numbers@ QQ.com), the fact that they were ready to part right after the tea performance, the PRICE of the performance, asking me how I would recommend paying for it...  Ugh… I’m such a nitwit sometimes. 

NINE HOURS later, when I realized that I was scammed, I felt even more stupid than when someone points to your chest, says, “You got something there!”, you look down and get your nose swapped at.  Yup, I felt a million times more stupid than when that happens.  It’s the oldest trick in the book!  That’s why! 

Even while I was telling my Director and colleague about this whole experience, they kind of looked at each other, and said, “Ya know, that’s pretty expensive.  You may have been scammed.”  I said, “Nooo… of course not.  They were so nice!”  Pshhhh… Pammi! 

Yup… I was scammed and I didn’t even realize it the whole time, in fact, I had a such a fantastic time, I would’ve recommended it to others despite the price!  That’s a true scam artist… they make you feel good about the experience. 

Prior to finding this out, I was in such a cheery mood so let me tell you about the next person I met.  On my way to find The Bund (a beautiful riverwalk along the Jetson-esque skyline of Shanghai), I saw a foreigner looking at a map at the crosswalk, I walked up to him and asked if he spoke English.  He said very fervently and with a thick Russian accent, “No. Russian.”  I said “Oh, ok.  I am from the U.S. (chipper as ever)," and continued to walk across the street with him.  I kept talking with him despite him indicating that he doesn’t speak English, and learned that although he can’t speak it, he’s decent at understanding it. So I tagged along with him asking him questions about his visit.   

[This poor guy; he was enjoying his lovely lone walk when this crazy American girl jumps in to put a stop to his peace.]   

When I would ask questions, he would answer with one word and would often ask me a question by using fragments and using his Iphone to speak/translate.  We went on to talk about Shanghai, and I said my favorite part are the people, they are just SO nice.  I explained the whole tea performance and how lovely those individuals were and how fun that whole ordeal was.  Yeah… if he knows about this whole scam tradition AND understood anything I was saying then he probably found this story ridiculous, especially because I was still so oblivious that I’d been scammed.  

Within minutes of walking with him I saw a cart with a GIANT slice of Chinese cantaloupe, and I gasped and said, “Oh Wow! Do you want one?”  He grunted, “No, no sweet.”  As I got my money out the woman handed my cantaloupe on a stick to this Russian guy, lol and so this TOTAL STRANGER is stuck holding this giant fruit on a stick waiting for me to find two coins instead of continuing on his pre-planned route.   I can imagine that he felt a little silly and was probably thinking, “WHAT THE HELL IS THE CRAZY GIRL DOING AND WHY AM I HOLDING HER FRUIT LOLLIPOP?!” 

I take a bite and then I hand it to him and ask again if he wants some, lol, now I think about it, and it’s like, “Pammi.  Honestly. Who wants to eat after a girl they just met walking along on the street.  Of course he doesn’t want any!” 

We walk along and run into a Chinese couple who asks us to take a picture for them.  They ask where we are from and Roma (that’s the Russian man’s name) says, very proudly, “Russia.” And I say, “The U.S.”  These two Chinese folks were so confused.  I mean think about this for a second.  It’s like the beginning of a joke.   

A Russian and an American are walking down street and they run into two Chinese folks…  

Now to understand how ridiculous of situation, you relaly have to think about like movie in your head. I’m walking along with this Russian guy, who is insisting that China is the most powerful country in the world.  We run into this Chinese folks who for all I knew would love to take us to a freakin’ tea performance.  They apparently thought this guy was my boyfriend.  But I just met him about 15 minutes ago on the street.  I've got this giant Chinese cantaloupe with juice ripping my chin and I'm talk to these people.   It's kind of ridiculous scene...  I mean if the leaders of the countries could just be as friendly as we all were then the world would just be a better place, right? 

I walked along with him chatting and just really enjoying his company (primarily because I was eager to find a traveling buddy).  You could tell this guy got a kick out of my reactions to Old Town, and the architecture and all that so I really did think he was enjoying my company as well.  Although, there was that one time when he seemed to drop a hint that he loved traveling alone… Pshhh  

As we were getting closer to the Bund and the Ya Yuan Gardens, I reassured Roma that I wouldn’t tag along much longer because I was planning to go to the Bund (whereas he planned to go to the Gardens).   But once we got to the Gardens, I thought, “Wow! I want to explore this place!”  So I followed him into the Gardens and asked, “Would it be alright if I came along with you into the Gardens?”  And he looks up and kind of cringes his eyes and says, “Hmmm… meh.”  I wasn’t sure if he was being sarcastic, but I took it as a clue to leave him alone so I chuckled at his honesty, shrugged a bit (not gonna lie I was disappointed), then shook his hand, and said thank you so much for the company and wished him luck on the rest of his trip. 

The rest of the day was filled with fun times on the Riverwalk, in the Bund, the Gardens, and a unique dumpling lunch of prawns and kale and some yummy dried mango and papaya.  I had a great time that day and it’s funny when I think that the best part of my day was with those two mangy little swindlers.  I’m not gonna lie, I felt pretty cruddy that night when I realized I was scammed, but after talking to my Director, she insisted that I was never really in any danger and that it’s just a business transaction to them.  That's kinda what hurts though.  I thought I actually found friends!  Oh well, I did really enjoy the experience, and boy does it give me a good story!  Honestly, the in-person version of this story is much funnier…. But I tried my best to reenact it.   

Moral of the story… don’t trust people on the street…. Ugh…  That’s no fun…. I will just be more skeptical next time.  Oh well, this is why we travel, right?  To experience other cultures, scam artists included!