August 2009

Thursday was a rainy day. After a wonton breakfast, we took a cab ride to Moganshan, a large group of galleries similar to 798 in Beijing. There were so many galleries, that in two hours of viewing, we didn’t even get through two alleyways. It was great because these alleys were indoors, so we did not have to mess with umbrellas. The art ran from classic to contemporary. There was also a common theme. We were used to seeing Mao as a strong presence in the art, but we also saw many pieces where Marilyn Monroe and Barak Obama were represented. One of my favorite pieces was 20 foot silver ear of corn.

The rain stopped sometime while we were perusing the art, and for lunch, we all wanted a departure from Chinese food. YK found an Italian place with a great lunch deal. Both cab drivers had difficulties finding the location, so we walked a couple of blocks and found the restaurant. Actually, we found where the restaurant used to be. Evidently, the restaurant had moved “5 minutes away” and the sign promised a 20% discount if we made it to the other location.

Our “5 minute” walk was over 45 minutes of walking in the pouring rain. We even paused under an awning to wait for the rain to ease up. It didn’t. When we got to the new location, the building was dilapidated and clearly closed. Then someone noticed that there was another building with the same address that was the Italian restaurant.

Since it was about 2:30 PM at this point, we were the only ones in the restaurant. The special was a salad, choice of pasta, choice of sauce, and coffee or tea. The food was really good. Also, it was an excellent deal and the first salad I had had in three weeks. The deal was so good, Dad didn’t even ask for the 20% discount.

YK had another excellent idea after lunch. We took cabs to the Park Hyatt (the building right in front of the bottle cap building in the picture from a previous email), and we were going to go up to the 86^th floor for an expensive cocktail and a breathtaking view. The 86^th floor didn’t open until 5, which was an hour and half away. Instead, we enjoyed a free view from the 54^th floor.

Unfortunately, it was still grey and cloudy, but the view, as you can see, was spectacular. I don’t think I have ever been that high up in a building ever. I thought these buildings were huge, but from the 54^th floor we were towering over them.

As we left, we thought about going to the bottle opener building next door AKA the third highest building in the world. However, we realized that even if we went up in the building, the view would not have been that great because the top of the building was covered in clouds. This was the view of both buildings from the street:

As we drove off, I saw a sign on the bottle opener building that listed the prices (yes prices) of visiting the building. To go to the 100^th floor, it cost 150 Yuan, the 97^th floor cost 115 Yuan, and the 96^th floor was 100 Yuan (7 Yuan was about a dollar). It seemed like an awful lot to look at the inside of a cloud.

Since the cocktails didn’t work out, the six of us went back to Dragonfly to enjoy massages for our last night in China. We all left jellified, when we got in cabs and headed back to Nanjinglu, the shopping area we went to on Monday. There we were hoping to get dinner from a two-story mega foodery. It was like a swap meet for food. We got into this place and agreed to meet 15 minutes later with food to bring back to the hotel. However, we all were overwhelmed and after touring around the building, we realized that dinner was not there.

I don’t remember the name of the dinner restaurant, but it was beautiful. Though Euigyoo did a great job of ordering, there was some confusion. Euigyoo seemed to clarify everything. One of the things that he ordered was a duck. Soon, a man came that knew English, who was not a waiter or manager. We figured he was one of the restaurant big wigs or something. He explained that they were out of two dishes that we ordered and needed to order some replacements. We did so and thanked him for his help.

Dish after dish came to the table, and finally, the duck came. It was not like the duck that we had had before. Not only was the duck not as much food as we thought there would be, but the head of the animal (on the plate, of course) didn’t really look like a duck. When we were full, another dish came out. It was like the other dish that we thought was a duck, but it clearly was duck this time. The skin was dark like duck and the head of the animal (again on the plate) had a bill. So, we were wondering, what the hell was the other animal that we ate? At the end of the meal, our English speaking friend came over to us and asked how we liked the meal. We said it was great, but I asked, what was up with the animals? It turned out, that when Eigyoo ordered the duck, they only had half a duck left. In its place, he had ordered a goose. Animal #1 was the goose, and animal #2 was a duck. The duck was by far the better fowl.

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August 2009

Tuesday, Jamyoung’s last day in Shanghai, was dubbed The Day Where Nothing Went Right. We started the day wanting to take a bus to the train station. After about a half hour of trying to figure out where the right bus was, we quit and took two taxis to the train station. We again got separated because YK and Dad’s taxi did not want to drop them off at the train station. From then on we made sure that YK and Hyangji were in different cabs because they were the ones with the phones.

I hate the train station. It is like a square that is packed with people trying to get you in a cab or buy things. It is also where I was able to take this picture to demonstrate the way many men in China cut the heat.

After walking around the train station, we found the machine to buy the ticket for our destination. The goal, for Jamyoung’s last day, was take a 40 minute train ride to Suzhou, a neighboring town of gardens and lakes. In Korean, the place sounds like soju, so I continuously chuckled to myself when I heard “we are going to soju”. There, we were going to rent bicycles and explore the region. Dad and YK tried to get tickets for a long time before they figured out the tickets were sold out.

We went back to the snack area near the hotel in two taxis and were yet again separated. We walked to all the places that YK had wanted to try, and all had very long lines. Then we went to a little mall, and there were lines there as well. Finally, we found a restaurant, but they wouldn’t sit the seven of us together. YK, Euigyoo, Jamyung and Hyun sat together and Hyangji, Dad and I sat together.

When looking at the menu, we realized that all the people that have been doing the ordering for the entire trip were at the other table. We were on our own. We decided on a curry beef dish, clam wonton soup, and crispy chicken noodles. Later on, when the other four saw our spread, it was clear that we did better than they did. We also spent more money than the four of them.

Hyangji and I continued to find delight in English errors in menus and all around. This place offered a dish of “cloms” and there was a survey on the table that asked if we were given a “worm welcome”.

We walked and shopped. Jamyoung and Hyangji bought new purses and then we decided that we were going to take the ferry around the river. Since the whole surround part of the river is under construction for the Expo, we took the bus to try to get to the ferry terminal. After a very long walk, we successfully found the international cruise station, but not the ferry terminal. However, we walked to the top of a parking structure where there was a little park. From here we saw the ferry terminal on the other side of the river bend and a great view of the buildings along the river. Then security came and kicked us out of the park for some reason.

So, we walked for a long way again to find the bus stop of the bus going in the opposite direction. We got on the bus and missed our stop. The next stop was about 3459827342978 miles away from the stop we wanted. We stood ready to get off the bus for a very long time, but the damn thing never stopped. The stop was right next to our hotel, and we were so tired of walking that we quit, and went home.

A stop at the supermarket followed and YK bought a bag of kiwi flavored Lays potato chips. We showered, napped, had some beer, regrouped, and did anything we wanted to do to make ourselves more comfortable. We deserved it.

Before we went to Shanghai, Aihua had told us two things. First of all, that the people in Shanghai do not speak Mandarin, so they do not understand anyone from this region. Dad’s Chinese during this portion of the trip was rendered pretty useless. Second, she said that there were no spices here, so the food is mild. For dinner, and Jamyoung’s last night, YK found a spicy food place. We went outside and it started to rain, making finding two cabs impossible.

We quit yet again and decided to eat close to home. The restaurant was right around the corner from our hotel and not only was the menu filled with mistakes, but they had also blown up pictures of the food on the walls. One of our favorite mistakes was a dish called “Speculation Shrimp”. We also were seated right next to this sign:

Clearly the picture was not a big bucket of vanilla sauce. We never did find out what dish they were trying to sell. We ended up with chicken, chicken curry, clams, noodles, garlic greens, beef soup, and of course, Chinese whiskey. We ended up taking the chicken back with us. Take out costs 1 Yuan.

The rain had let up a bit so we started to walk around to find a place for a massage. Then it started to POUR. We hightailed it back to the hotel. YK did some detective work and found a place called Dragonfly to get massages for the ladies. The guys wanted to stay back and drink.

It was at this point that the day started to go right. Leaving the men behind, we went downstairs and the rain had stopped. Since we knew that getting a cab might be difficult because of the weather, I went across the street to try to hail one going in the opposite direction. I found one and the other three ladies crossed the street to join me. The cab driver waived them away, shaking his head no. I started to get in and told the ladies to do so, and the cab driver wouldn’t let them. It was then that we realized that he was “protecting” the Caucasian lady from the three Asian ladies that were trying to “steal” her cab. He thought he was being a hero, but soon figured out his mistake. We got a good laugh from the scenario.

We found Dragonfly right away. It was beautiful. Unlike the last massage we got, this place was like a spa. We were offered Jasmine tea before we were brought up a candlelit staircase to our rooms. YK and I shared a room that was dimly lit with a curtain spacer. We were given soft PJ type clothes to put on and there was even a little box to put our jewelry. We lay down and the “Chinese Massage” started. In Beijing, our massage included constant Chinese, a loud television, snoring, and the loud suction cup noise through the walls. Here we heard soft music in a room that was created for the sole purpose of relaxation. Also, we finally got the massage that the Beijing massage was supposed to be. There was firm pressure, but no pain or faces like the last one. We left, after another cup of jasmine tea, fully “jellyified.” All this for only 135 Yuan (about $20).

A cab was right outside as if it was waiting for us, and we went back to the hotel to join the guys. They had bought more Chinese whiskey, the same brand as dinner (36 Yuan, about $5), and they had already broken out the shot glasses and chopsticks for anju.

I got an email asking me what anju is, so I thought this would be a good time to elaborate. Anju, from what I understand, is food that is served while people drink. Koreans don’t just sit and drink for the sake of drinking, it is considered improper to drink without anju. From my experience, anju is usually kimchi, dried squid, peanuts etc, but in this case, it included the chicken from earlier in the evening as well. After we had some whiskey, ramen noodles were made. We were amazingly creative considering we did not have any dishware.

Euigyoo is a smoker and made frequent trips to the window to smoke. From the window one can see a sign for a gentleman’s club. We joked that the guys should have gone to the gentleman’s club while we were at the massage place. Eigyoo commented that he wasn’t interested in a gentleman’s club, he wanted a ladies’ club. I had to clarify for him that a gentleman’s club was where woman danced, and that he would be very disappointed if he went to a ladies’ club. He agreed.

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