Tattoos

Saturday comes and we head out for a day with John, myself, Jo and Robert.  We had decided to head on the big red bus, a sightseeing bus that takes you on a loop around the city and drops you at various places, for $5 the ticket lasts for 24 hours and you can get on and off as often as you like.

My boy was over t-shirts, collared shirts and polos, so in true John style out came the singlet or as I refer to it tank top time.

We headed downstairs and there is John in his tank top with his many tattoos out.  People stared all day, kids would look around and I guess when I think about it you don’t see many Chinese men firstly in tank tops and secondly covered in tattoos.  Also many of John’s Tattoo’s are Chinese so I think that drew the looks as well.

At one stage when we got off at City God Temple and Yu Yuan Garden, when we were heading through the garden two separate people stopped John and asked for photos with him.  I caught another lady taking his photo without his knowledge. 

The garden Yu Yuan Garden was $40 RMB around $8 and it was magnificent if you ever come to Shanghai it has so far been the highlight.  It is peaceful, beautiful and magnificently put together.  There are rocky gardens; pavilions with wonderful names like the pavilion of the thousand flowers and the pavilion of the intended quiet, there are waterfalls and bridges, Kio Karp as far as the eye can see.  These Karp are around 50 to 60 cm in length and the colours are magnificent, they come in the traditional orange, yellow, black and wonderful shades of red and black and white.  There were turtles and ducks.  It truly was a beautiful place.

John and I left Jo and Robert who headed off into the modern part of Shanghai and we hit an outside bar and sat and pondered just how lucky we are.  All in all another fantastic day in China.

Old meets New

Shanghai like Beijing has the old areas and the new, however most in China believe Shanghai is the modern city of China.  Having now been to Beijing as well I would agree that this is correct.  Shanghai feels more modern, it looks more modern and I believe the people here like not only the influence of the western culture but they want it.

The buildings have to be seen to believed.  The tallest here in Shanghai which was, as was the case with the Taipei 101 building, once the tallest in the world stands at 101 floors.  It looks like a bottle opener, it is build with a huge square cut out along the top floors so that the wind can pass through the building and ensure it does not sway.

We went out and had the most amazing dinner last night, my vegan and animal loving friends may want to skip this post, but I tried bullfrog and it was delicious.  We had duck in the tradition of the Peking duck, pork, many vegetables, which are always beyond delicious and as usual the meal ended up costing around $15 a head.  Never would you find a feast like we ate for the money in Australia.

We then headed out to the river to look over at the ‘Modern’ Shanghai this is where the TV tower (very space aged looking building) and the big bottle opener are.  Many visitors come to this river every night and do the sightseeing thing.  It is called the Bund area and as with Australia it basically is a bund for the river to ensure it doesn’t overflow.

We also visited a memorial, which we interpreted to be for all the fallen men, it was in the shape of three rifles leaning on each other and stood at least 20 floors in the air, it was really beautiful.

As usual we walked and walked and walked, Shanghai is easy to get around, the back streets are not at all what you would call dingy or have you worried who you will meet.  I have always felt safe here in this city, a city I am growing to love as much as Beijing.

Beggars

Kindness they say is free and you should give it out in abundance, but what of generosity?  This usually comes at a cost and therefore is not practiced as often.

Beggars roam the streets in Shanghai, they are usually elderly and they usually hit you when you are stationery.  The first night we were crossing the lights and an elderly woman came and kept touching her tummy saying how hungry she was, I had no Chinese money as yet and it affected me deeply to walk away.

I watched this woman walk amongst the many waiting to cross the busy street and all the ‘white’ people said no, it was the Chinese who gave her spare change.  This didn’t sit well with me that we visit their country and even though this is not our issue as such we still fail to see the kindness required in being generous.

I vowed that if I saw her again I would give her money.  So the very next time at the very same crossing she came and I did in fact give her money, and yes the inevitable happened, from no where they came more begging at you, because you’re a foreigner I believe as this was not what happened the previous night.  I couldn’t continue to give out money, or else I would also be one of those beggars on the street but I did feel a little better within my soul that I had helped a little.  I felt I did something, if I had more I would give more, but I gave what I could.

But as I walked to find my Jimmy Choo handbag the irony struck me, as I am sure those who feel the internal pull of right and wrong will have gotten from this story.

Stuff is stuff, it’s a beautiful handbag and it brings me joy.  I work extremely hard for my money and the little we have after all our huge expenses each month we do use to buy things we like.  But it’s usually just things and stuff.  I like, well lets be honest I love things and stuff, I like nice things and stuff.  But when you break it all down, when you strip it all back it is only things and stuff. 

You cannot feed the world, or solve the issue of poverty and hunger alone but each of us doing what we can does help.

Kindness is free give it out in abundance.

Generosity costs but it does build your soul.

Xo

Shanghai Surprise

I have been to China before but not to Shanghai, when I visited Beijing last year I was told that Shanghai is more modern and busier.  They were right.  But after initially thinking Beijing was my favourite Chinese city Shanghai has won my heart.

The shopping here is an experience, if you want to go to Shopping Mall’s they are everywhere, the pricing is pretty much on par with Australia perhaps a little cheaper, their style however especially for women is not my style, its what we are referring to as baby doll.  Girls clothing for women, it’s pretty and frilly and soft and short and always skirts and dresses.  They love their short shorts here and their high heels.  They love colour and they love sparkle.  That’s ok because again my size is not Chinese size so clothing is not a priority for me.

However if you want to do some ‘underground’ shopping this is when the experience begins, I have never been to Bali but I am told it is exactly like Bali.  You walk into these little shop fronts with the usual knick knacks and get asked ‘You want Prada bag’ and when you show you’re slightly interested you are whisked out of view behind secret panels in the wall and up staircases into rooms filled with Prada, Gucci, LV, Polo, Jimmy Choo and Chanel, brand names everywhere, you want it they have it.

The quality of most is exceptional, I have myself fell in love with the colour yellow while here and got myself the most gawjus yellow Jimmy Choo handbag yesterday, latest style for around $40.  You cannot ask for better than that!

Once you pick out the styles you want, and then comes the rest of their stock, they have wallets, watches, clothing, suitcases, the list is endless.

You choose what you want then the bartering begins, they start high you go low and the dance of the dollar takes over.  Eventually you meet in the middle.  You can offend them if you continue to keep your price ridiculously low so be careful.  I witnessed a German girl try to buy two Abercrombie and Finch t-shirts for $2 Australian and she would not budge, in the end the Chinese girl said get out, and the deal was over, once you insult them there is no going back, so she left empty handed, which I thought was good, she was a moll.

It can be overwhelming as they take you usually into second and third floor rooms with small or no windows and usually no air-conditioning, don’t know if this is a tactic to make you light headed but after experiencing a whole day of it yesterday we never felt unsafe at all Jo or I.

Bartering is fun but it takes time to learn, when they look at you with their big eyes saying oh Misses I not make a profit I usually crumble, this is when my husband comes in as he knows they will not sell without a profit and usually gets a much better price than I am capable of.

The food so far has been unbelievable; we have eaten the most flavoursome food ever, and cheap as chips!  I will post more later on the food.

Don’t Dismiss Taiwan

It’s a country you don’t really I guess think about as a destination for a holiday but you would be cutting yourself short if you did not put Taiwan on your list of places to visit.

The country is rich in culture, food and shopping.  If I was to be perfectly honest with you I did not expect the city I found when we landed in Taipei, it’s a very modern city, the shopping is extremely good, and the price of their dollar to ours is 30 to 1, a rate many would be extremely happy with.  To give you an example my thing is shoes, I have never actually seen so many or different styles.  From flats to thongs to heels to boots they have a million different styles and most I had never seen before.  The issue I had was size, I sit between a 9 and a 9 and a half.  Each time I would walk into a shop and say 41 they basically would say nothing here for you, disappointing but expected they have small feet.  I have been unlucky in life to love shoes but have feet that are more suited to small fishing boats :/

It is easy to get around in this city, Taxi’s are everywhere and the price is ridiculously cheap.  The cars are modern, air-conditioned, well maintained and clean.  Australian Taxi drivers could learn a lot.

English is broken with many but you never feel like they are looking down at you they were try to work out what you are asking and learning to say hello or excuse me and thank you in their language goes a long way.

The weather is hot, which is lovely when you have just come from winter in Australia, its nice to go outside and actually feel a bit of a sweat on you after being outside for a few hours.

The country all in all was one of my favourite 21 countries I have visited in my lifetime, and I do hope to go back again.

Dinner and Night Markets

Tonight we were taken out to dinner by some of John's works connections here in Taiwan, it was a really fabulous meal, we were seated in a small private dinning room and our hosts choose all the food.  Which can be a little worrying but at the same time I believe that when you are the guest in another's country its the tradition to allow the host to choose.

Everything was delicious, we had Pork thigh, we had chicken, vegetables (which I love in China they are always fresh and always always full of flavour), there was bamboo, Tofu soup, Taiwanese pizza and dessert of watermelon and date pizza.  All fabulous!!

We then headed for the night markets, and that was where we finally really got to see some of the traditional Taiwan, there were stalls selling all kinds of weird and wonderful foods, that smelt either fabulous or I am not kidding like actual shit.  There were iphone covers, dog outfits, clothes, watches, fans, chopsticks, you name it they had it.

Dogs - now lets talk about dogs, as with most 'westerners' that they eat dog, everyone in the market had dogs, and they clearly love their dogs.  They had fans on their dogs to ensure they kept cool, they were all well groomed, all either held or were being played with.  So I am thinking perhaps we think they eat dog and perhaps they actually don't its probably just one of those urban myths.

Having said that, have not seen a Cat here, well until tonight when at the market we saw a couple of kittens in cages for sale, I asked one of our hosts tell me they are pets and he just looked at me, I took it that he didn't understand, as they were very cute kittens and reminded me of my two beautiful boys at home whom I miss so very much.

We brought a coke each tonight, as it was hot, like stinking hot and sticky, the coke was in a glass coke bottle, you know the ones that cost you like $4 in Australia per bottle here they are about 65c each.  Go figure.

At the end of the market is a temple and we went in and had a look around it was very beautiful.  The funniest thing was when we came out there were people scratching scratchies and both Leanne and I laughed at this until John pointed out one of the traditions in the temple is to ask for things and they had probably asked for wealth, which in a country like this I understand. 

I adored these markets and had a wonderful evening.  Tomorrow we head back to Shanghai so the facebook firewall hits and this will be my way of communication.

Until I blog again, goodnight and peace and happiness to you all.

My husband

The term punching above your weight is not a term I like or use however it is one I can relate too.  My husband is smart, extremely smart and he is kind and generous and fiery and loses his temper quickly, he is frustrating, he get frustrated, he doesn't suffer fools and stupid people (which is the majority these days unfortunately) annoy him.

But to me he is my world.  I am so very proud of him and his achievements, he works extremely hard, he takes things extremely personally and if he thinks he has hurt someones feelings it affects him deeply, these are the things not many know about my boy, he also loves his family fiercely, unconditionally and puts them about all else.

I love him with all my heart and know how blessed and lucky I am to have him in my life.

Gosh the weather is making me very sappy x