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.