Chips and Snacks

Chips and snacks come in all kinds of flavors here. No flavors that are normal for the USA though...here's a rundown on some of the flavors Lays makes here:

* Sausage

* Lychee

* Cherry Tomato, Natural and Cool - this means there is also mint in them. So, it tastes like tomato and mint.

* Mexican Tomato Chicken

* French Chicken

* Mango

* Lime

* Cucumber

* Italian Red Meat

* Sichuan Spicy

Oh, and chicken claws and duck gizzards are very popular here as a snack. They are in with the chip selection aisle. Prawn flavored chips are also very popular. I'd like to suggest P### Bone Ham flavor to the Lays corporation. I think it would go over well here, lol!

If the mood strikes you...

by all means don't fight it. These brothers just had to go, so they whipped it out and went! Caught this photo while sitting in a window seat eating.

Day 4 - Wednesday

I woke up early around 5am. Closer to 6am, David was sleeping in, so I scootered over about a mile to some street food vendors. These vendors start setting up early in the morning to be available to construction workers and other workers to have breakfast on the go. David coached me on what to order, so I only knew how to say one thing "Ji Dan Bing". It's like an egg crepe with pastry in the middle. It has onions, hot sauce, and I don't know what else on it. The point is, it doesn't have anything gross in it! The street vendors didn't speak English and were laughing the whole time. Our breakfast was bagged up and I was on my way. To-go food. Scootered around for about 30 minutes enjoying the freedom of the quiet and the non-busy streeets. Stopped to pick up some drinks.

Silk Market

David took me to the silk market today. Hangzhao is known for its silk and being the biggest player in the silk market. We took a cab over there. Streets and streets of silk vendors. You name it, it was made of silk. Mostly saw sleepwear (gowns, robes, slippers, boxers), silk bedding, silk dresses and shirts/blouses and bolts and bolts of silk fabric. Bought us both new robes like the one I've admired in Gus Mayer back home. I was able to buy slippers in my size but no other shoes. They didn't have any size above about an 8. Enjoyed the silk market most of the day.

David had a meeting, so he took a cab away from the area. I stayed around and walked for several blocks. Strolled around the area some. Saw this restaurant with the fish swimming around in the window. You pick out your fish in the tank, and they prepare it...just like lobster is done in the USA. There is one fish in there that is swimming upside down, I don't recommend picking out that one! You can see it in the middle tank. Poor things.

Night Market

Went back to hotel, got cleaned up for dinner, whatever it was we ate, I liked it. Took cab to night market. Shopped there for a while. All kinds of goods, from designer knock-offs to homemade goods. And lots of street food vendors. Saw a handful of foreigners there. They were all Austrailians buying purses for their wives. I helped consult on their purchases. David is #1 at getting the BEST price on items. He drives a hard bargain and they quickly realize it. It is amazing to watch him go! He'll go back and forth with them in Mandarin until they either take his offer or tell him where to stick it, :-). He knows how much things really cost, knows how much is fair for their markup, and doesn't let them go any further than that.
It was fun to look around and see all the action.

Blind Man Massage
Sat on the street enjoying a beverage and snack and resting and taking in the sights. Took cab to get a massage at the Blind Man massage place. It is open 24 hours. The place is no-frills, looks like an apartment. Blind men are the massage therapists. This massage is performed while you are fully clothed. We had a room sectioned off for 2 tables so we could be together. The massage was good, mostly theraputic instead of just feel-good. He hit some spots on my back and leg that I wish he hadn't, :-) And he honed in those spots. Oh good. That was painful.

Took cab back to hotel after midnight. Saw several brothel rooms on the ride back. They look like apartments on the street level with red light on the inside. Pretty Chinese girls all dressed up sitting around on sofas. These places are illegal. So, officially, they are "salons" open 24/hrs a day. But I've never seen anyone getting their hair done in there! It bothers me to see them in there like that. That would be a good ministry to start up here...helping those young girls find there way out of those places.

Hopped on scooters and went to snack stand and then fruit stand. Got another delicious pineapple and bananas from the side street fruit vendor. The street scene looks very old school. Like maybe what the USA looked like in the 1940's or 1950's. People out late eating at tables outside, some playing cards, lots of conversation.

Here's some pics of the tables on the sidewalk and the foods they were eating:

It's after 1am now, time for bed.

Day 3 - Tuesday

Woke up to a very hazy morning here. Ashok was taking a flight somewhere so he brought his luggage down to our room to store. I showered, applied make-up, then went down to the salon for my hair services. What a luxury. They take their time, it is theraputic, and so relaxing. I had a headache, my sinuses are out of whack here. Must be some different pollen and the dust aggrivating them. The head massage they give really helps lift the pressure. Since this was my 2nd trip to the salon, I was a regular. The stylist even did more to my hair than last time. He used stying product and ran the iron through it a bit and really styled it for no extra charge.

They shampoo your hair sitting up using a squirt bottle of water and adding shampoo. Here is a girl shampooing my hair:
Some of the salon staff watching the guy blow-dry my hair:



David and I scootered over to the office. Here's a little video footage David took of his ride to the office:



David was in a meeting. One of Lamont's jobs is to be a runner for the office. He scootered to get our lunch, which was noodles. Not so easy to eat, I'd pay $5 for a fork right now!I just brought the noodles up to my mouth and bit off what I could and sucked in the rest. That's how everybody does it.

Some shots of us eating lunch. Notice Forrest's dog, Roscoe, in the photos with me...somehow no matter where I am, I always manage to make friends with a dog:




We scootered back to the hotel, where I hung out for a bit to rest. Some of the staff swung by the hotel in a cab to pick up David. They went to tour some factory together. I stayed behind to rest.

Tonight was relaxing. We just walked around and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Day 2 - Monday

Woke up to horns honking and beautiful music outside our hotel window. The street noise here is loud, like any other city. It is bustling down below. Music is coming from trucks spraying water on the street. Bicycles and scooters everywhere! Hey, my pale skin is in vogue here. They do not want to tan their skin. They carry umbrellas outside to protect their skin while walking. Some are pretty and some are plain. Gonna have to get one of those today!

David and I walked to KFC for breakfast. We had a fried veggie pattie with egg as a sandwhich. Its like an egg McMuffin but with a veggie pattie instead of canadian bacon. I don't mean a veggie burger like Boca or Gardenburger. I mean a corn/onion/bean/etc pattie. Very good. Had egg tartlets again too.

This photo was taken last night to show how popular KFC is here. Look at the parking in front of it:

After breakfast, walked to Wu-Mart. It's not Wal-Mart. It's like Wal-Mart though. It's 3 stories tall. I recognized about 25% of the items. The other were all in Mandarin. Some of the food items were mind boggling. I couldn't tell if they were meat, candy, veggie, had no idea. The grocery section was interesting. Saw some cute tiny turtles, and they weren't for petting, yikes! Oh no, there's live things here in this section. I've seen enough! Bought a pretty umbrella to use for walking. I'll post a photo of it.

Walked back to hotel. Got on David's scooter. Rode to David's office. Hilarious. I'm sure we looked like grandaddy long-leg spiders on the scooter together. Scooters/pedestrians have their own lane separate from the auto traffic. Scooters are everywhere, and they are bold drivers. They look like they're going to run into you, but they don't! Oh no! David drives HIS the SAME way. Decided to stop back-seat driving and just enjoy the ride. Toured the office. Had fun meeting the staff, The staff asked David in the office before I arrived, "So, is it true, your wife have yellow hair?" Ha Ha! Yes, I'm the yellow-hair wife, nice to meet you!
It was nice to meet Lamont. I've met Lamont video-conferencing from home. Nice to meet him in person. He is deaf-mute who has many responsibilities around the office.

Parking at the office:

The other reason we went to David's office was to pick up my silent electric scooter! Yeah! I have my own scooter. I was nervous about it at first. But, I took to it like a duck in water. It is so easy to use! Here's a photo of me on a non-busy street taking it out for a stroll the first time. David was ahead of me on his scooter driving and taking this photo.

I'm back at the hotel now. David went back to the office to do some work. The hotel has not yet turned on the air conditioning for the Summer. It's 90 degrees here outside, hot! I walked around the area earlier, donning my new umbrella. Went back to Wu-Mart, bought some tea and walked around to enjoy. The people have been very friendly. Some giggle when I walk into their stores. If you're self-concious, this is not the place for you. The giggling and staring is funny. Usually the gigglers just want to say "hello" in English. They know a couple of other words, and that's about all. In this one clothing store, a girl stared at me and when I would look over at her, she would look away and then giggle. I would look away and she would stare again. It was a cycle. She finally came over and stood next to me and gave the shyest 'hello' ever. I asked if she spoke English and she said 'little bit'. I bragged that her English was SO good and she was so proud of herself. Her friends crowded around, so sweet!

David came back to the hotel after working. We hopped on our scooters and rode about a mile to one of David's favorite fruit stands. It is on a side street. No foreigners there except us. Only older locals. Some holding baby with their rear-ends hanging out of their pants. The babies/children here do not wear diapers. You can buy them at the store, I've seen them. How would you dispose of a billion diapers every day afterall? Their pants look normal, but they are called 'split pants' because they are split down the middle. You can see their private parts. The purpose of the split pant? Allows children to squat in the street outside or wherever they are to use the bathroom. Eew! That's different to me.

Here is what it looks like:

The owner picked out a fresh pineapple and cut it up for us and put it in a plastic bag. We took it to Pizza Hut. Yes, Pizza Hut. Okay, they do have pizza there, but it is the only thing they have that seemed normal for Pizza Hut. We ate the pineapple as our appetizer. Best pineapple I've ever had. We ate pizza, but everyone else was having steak, crab cakes, shrimp, etc and drinking fruity non-alcoholic drinks. Pizza Hut is considered a nice place here. I went to the restroom to wash my hands before the food came. Oh no. They don't have a toilet. They have a squatter, and this is considered a nice restaurant. The squatter looks like a toilet that is flush with the floor. So, you really have to squat and hover over it to use it. What a thigh workout, feel the burn!

Picture of a squatter:

We took a cab to a market. All kinds of stuff to purchase here. Silks, handmade goods, jewelry, lots of buddahs. Very crowded.

It was dark out, and David and I scootered over to a nightime snack stand. All kinds of snacks....yes, chips, crackers, chicken feet, mystery meat, black eggs, stinky tofu... you name it, it's all here.

Afterwards, we scootered back to the hotel, met up with Ashok and all enjoyed a foot massage. Here's David and Ashok:

Stayed there til around midnight, decided we were hungry. Scootered over to McDonalds a couple miles away. What a blast scootering at night on the streets of Hangzhou together. Like we're a little scooter gang. Here's a photo of David and Ashok at a red light.

There they were, the golden arches...luckily, I speak this language! No translator needed here. They don't have apple pie here. They have pineapple or banana. Both were really good.

What's this? Cucumber on my burger? Okay, tastes good. It has a spicy sauce on it.

Day 1 - Sunday

Trip Preparation
It's not like me to deadline something, but I didn't start packing for China until the night before my flight out. I've been busy the past few days. Traveled to Nashville and back in one day to sit with Weenie at the hospital. She had a pacemaker put in. And I worked late most afternoons trying to finish things up so my co-workers would not be too burdened with things during my absence. My flight was at 6am. I finished packing about 3am and decided to go ahead and stay awake so I could sleep on the plane. Called a taxi to pick me up at the house and take me to the airport.

The Flight
Birmingham to Chicago: The flight from Birmingham to Chicago was uneventful. Very small plane, felt all the turbulence, you get the idea.

Chicago to Shanghai, China: Terminal was packed with Chinese. The flight was full. It was about 75% Chinese/25% Americans. The Americans on the plane were all study-abroad college students. I sat next to a very nice Chinese family. The dad spoke pretty good English. Since we booked my flight 2 days in advance, my seat was 3rd row from the back. It was the biggest and longest plane I've ever been on. As Granddaddy would say, it was a 'huge bird' and it glided on in. Hardly felt turbulence.

Food on the plane:
Snack: pretzels with drink
Lunch: chicken stir fry or beef noodle with salad
Snack: chinese noodles with tofu and rasberry shortbread cookies
Dinner: your choice of turkey sandwich or chinese noodles with yogurt and some kind of cookie.
Which brings up the ONLY downside to sitting in the last 3 rows...all the other American college guys on the plane chose the turkey sandwiches, therefore the only item left for me was the chinese noodles. No big deal, I'm getting ready to eat those for 2 weeks straight anyway, might as well start right away!

What did I do during the flight?
(A) Watched 8 in-flight movies
(B) Slept on and off with my sleep mask on
(C) Talked to Chinese family
(D) Ate Cheetos (brought from home) and drank copius amounts of ginger ale
(E) The Chinese flight attendant brought me a glass of champagne to enjoy. It was a fun way to kick off the trip.

Arrival
Upon arrival, we were told to keep our seats. Six Chinese Health Officials came on board wearing full hazmat suits. It was like the Blue Man Group meets Star Trek meets ET. They went from person to person zapping each person's forehead with the temperature scanner and reviewing our health declaration forms. Since were were incoming from a known flu hotspot, we were quanantined on the plane until EVERY person was checked. It took over an hour. I have some great pictures of this going on. If someone had a fever, all persons within a 3-row range of the sick person must be quarantined at the hospital. We were all concerned because someone 3 rows in front of us was sick and vomiting the last few hours of the flight. Must have been motion sickness though, because he didn't have a fever, Praise God!






(I had to take this photo fast! That's why it's so blurry.)

The Health Officials announced we were clear to de-plane. After another hour of going through immigration, I made my way to the luggage round-a-bout. It was a madhouse. Chinese people everywhere grabbing luggage. Spotted mine coming, but missed it the first go-around. I would have taken out 3 Chinese people trying to grab it, so decided to catch it on round 2. Got it. Now, I'm ready to find David. It was a hall of craziness. Like walking the red carpet. Chinese people on both sides holding signs of the their company name or who they were picking up. Heard my name on the intercom in the middle of all this, so I knew David was somewhere inside. Looked up and there he was. What a sight! So good to see him. He paged me because our plane landed 3 hours ago and still hadn't seen or heard from me. I almost didn't recognize him at first glance with his FULL beard on. I knew he hadn't shaved in a while because we had discussed how I was going to bring shaving cream for him, and I like the scruff look on him. By the time I arrived it was full beard!

Shanghai
We took a cab straight to the market in Shanghai to get a quick glance at what it is like and what kind of goods they have. In Shanghai we saw plenty of foreign travelers like us. Lots of Russians too. It is now nighttime in China. What a sight. Neon signs in Mandarin on every building. Just beautiful. Then, we walked to the train station and took the train about an hour to Hangzhou, which is where we'll spend most of our time.

Hangzhou
From the train station, we caught a cab to the hotel, the Nanyuan Inn. Very chic. Dropped my suitcase off in David's room. Walked to KFC for a late dinner. KFK is very popular here, but it is not at all like in the US. They do not have mashed potatoes and gravy. I had a very spicy chicken sandwich with fries. The girls who work there do not speak a word of English and the menu is in Mandarin. I just pointed to the photo of the item I wanted! We had a window seat which gave everyone a good view of the big white couple eating at KFC, lol! So far, we're the only foreign couple I've seen here. Hangzhou is not a foreign touristy city. What a surpise, the chicken was all dark meat. Now those of you who know me are laughing already at this. Needless to say I ate all I could of the dark meat chicken sandwich. We ate several egg tartlets too.

Foot Rub
Next door to the hotel is a "foot rub" place. David is a pro at this. We went into a room with comfortable lounge chairs. Since we didn't have shorts on, we took off our pants and covered ourselves with a blanket. So, we're sitting there in our underwear covered by a blanket. They give us a shoulder and back rub while soaking our feet. Then, they washed our feet and legs and massaged them for an hour. The whole process is $8 US dollars. We drank yellow tea and snacked on tiny tomatoes with sweet crackers during the massage.

Hair Washing
By this time, it is midnight here, and time for a hair washing. So we went to the "hair washing" place. Again, David is a pro at this too. We sat in salon chairs and were shampooed sitting up in the chairs. Wierd! Then, they took me downstairs to rinse out the shampoo and condition. Back upstairs for the blow dry. It was the most gentle blow dry I've ever experienced. I fell asleep during the blow dry and woke up when my head rocked backwards. David and the guy were laughing at me with my head bobbing around. Jet lag was setting in. Total charge for my service was $3 US dollars. So, I've decided I'll shower in my hotel everyday, and go to them for shampoo and styling. What a luxury! Having someone else blow dry my hair each day! I could get use to this.

Day one drawing to an end! Back to the hotel for some much needed sleep. Key didn't open room door. David walks back to front lobby to resolve key issue. Staff ribs David about me. They've seen him for weeks here alone, now he shows up with me. They want the scoop. They probably think I'm some Russian escort he's hired! He comes up to the room and looks up the word for "wife". Will explain to them tomorrow that we're married! They don't understand the symbolic concept of wedding rings here, so simply showing them David's wedding ring doesn't clear up the question. It is 1am here, which means it is noon Sunday in US.