Suzhou

I'm still playing catchup on my China posts so you'll have to bear with me. After the mountain excursion outside of Nanjing, we took a train to Suzhou. This is a smaller town that is a popular tourist stop. I liked it immediately. I think it was the fact that is was smaller and more quaint and well kept-up. We flew by the seat of our pants as far as the hotel arrangements. Ryan and I picked one on the train from his guidebook and miraculously communicated it to two separate taxi drivers (we were in two taxis from here on because four people plus luggage is too much for one). The separate taxis were a bit of a worry because without cellphones and language and maps we would be in bad shape if one taxi didn't end up where it was supposed to. This time it worked out fine.

Suzhou is an old city known for its beautiful gardens. We arrived in time to check in and rest before heading out for dinner. There's something comforting about seeing so many foreigners in a place. It just seems more familiar. We walked from the hotel along a canal to the main drag where all the stores, restaurants and bars are located. The street was filled with people. The stores were great - a mix of fakes and trendy but non-fake clothes. I wanted to do shopping but it's hard with four people. We decided to eat at a Korean place because Han and Shinae could order for us. The meal was amazing. I've decided that I really like Korean food. I'd had Korean dishes in the past which were really good but I think this was my first all Korean meal. It's pretty spicy but the flavors are great.


After dinner we split up by gender. Shinae tolerated my shopping but I didn't buy anything because I could tell she wasn't really into it. After a while we went back to the hotel. We met the boys there and I convinced Ryan to go back to an Aussie pub with me by luring him with a big screen showing soccer (he's a huge soccer fan - I couldn't care less). We only stayed out a while longer but it was fun.

The next morning we set out to see some gardens. They were really pretty but overrun with tourists (we hit the first place at the same time as a large Italian tour group). Also, there wasn't coffee at the hotel breakfast so I was hurting at first. Fortunately the garden had a coffee shop with real espresso!!! You have to understand that until this point I don't think any of the coffee I had in China was either real brewed coffee or espresso. It was all nescafe (instant), even in the nice hotels. It was such a thrill to have an espresso - I think I went on about it way too long but it was just what I needed. After the garden we did some souvenir shopping and then walked to another garden. The second garden was quieter and really well landscaped. There were a set of pagodas and some interesting structural features. After lunch we headed back to the hotel to collect our things and then set out for Shanghai.