Ueno Station, originally uploaded by kdt.
One for the Gunzels. A night time photo of Ueno Station. There are a lot of Gunzels in Japan and they have very very expensive cameras. We took a ride out on the line past the Disney Resort and there were hordes of Gunzels.
Maid Paraphernalia, originally uploaded by kdt.
Photos are not allowed in maid cafes so you will have to be happy with a photo of some maid propaganda. If you want to see our photo with out maid, you’ll have to ask me to see it. It’ll be in my wallet!!
There is not much need to describe what happens inside because Japan in July described it so well. Only difference is that one of the Maids dropped a large tray of drinks just next to Helen, with a few splashes of sticky drinks and icecream on Helen’s feet and a lot of apologies from our maids. :)
Golden Half, originally uploaded by kdt.
I’ve upgraded from my Canon DSLR to a Golden Half. That’s right a plastic fantastic that takes twice as many shots per 35mm roll of film. That is a 36 exp roll gets you 72 exp. Awesome!
Riding Bikes in Shanghai, originally uploaded by kdt.
A proud owner of a wool and cashmere tailored suit is writing this post! It was one of my goals of this trip to buy a tailored suit. It is quite an experience, not because of the flourish but rather the ruthless efficiency. We arrived there sweaty (long and some times lost walk from the Metro station) and within 15 minutes I had selected my fabric and been measured up. That was Sunday, they had three days to finish the suit because it need to be ready by Wednesday. So another fitting was booked in for Tuesday and with pickup on Wednesday.
I am impressed, Dave’s Custom Tailoring managed it. The two subsequent visits were also less than 15 minutes.
Our second visit involved us riding our bikes from our B&B to the shop through the centre of Shanghai. I suspect we are amongst a few select customer’s of Dave’s that have arrived by bike. Usually customers arrive in large black European cars or at worst a cab. But no matter, the kind guard at the gate looked after our bikes.
After the second fit, we rode our bikes to the Metro station to catch a train so Helen could give a thumbprint…. Hey Helen when is that story going to be posted?
The second half of the ride was in three words… wet, Wet, WET! I wish I had bought those emergency ponchos I mused about during the Kathmandu sale. Oh well. Riding in Shanghai traffic with one hand on the handlebar and one holding an umbrella is amusing. We didn’t catch a chill though because it was way too hot.
All up we rode about 21kms that day.I have embedded a google map to show our route (so you may need to visit our webpage to see it blog.hmkdt.id.au). You may need to zoom out a couple of levels to see our route.
I bikes were almost brand new and the seats were so low even Helen complained! We got plenty of stares and an occasional smile. We managed to stop an entire worksite as would stood at the side of the road trying to work out where we were. No one offered us their ponchos though.
Here we are playing with Photobooth on our Hackintosh. The camera ain’t too bad. There is on an endless loop of a chinese cartoon about swine flu which extolls the virtues of blowing your nose into paper to keep the swine flu that comes from America away. Plane leaves in 30 minutes it’ll take about 3hours to get Tokyo. We are looking forward to the change in pace!
Updates on red thumbs and wet backs coming tonight.
On Monday we followed in the steps of Monty Don by visiting The Humbler Administrator’s Garden in Suzhou. But first we had to buy rail tickets. If hell is hot an sweaty then I’ve found hell on earth the Shanghai Railway Station ticket office. We lined up only to find that we had to go to another queue for English speakers. It seems like most Chinese are also English speakers so the queue felt very very slow! Only standing tickets were available. I was now getting very concerned, expecting an Indian style crush with me hanging out the door. But everything got better as soon as we arrived at the waiting lounge, air condition, free water from Tibet. Even better the train that turned up was a new High Speed train. Very impressive. In fact the Chinese rail system is very impressive in the way it handles the numbers.
We were feeling a bit lazy so we accepted an offer from a tout for van for 6 hours at the cost $20, less walking, happier legs. Off course we knew there would be a catch and were prepared. I got some ties and a pillow case or two at a silk shop :) and we had a chartered boat for the cruise which was a little more expensive than a regular cruise would have been.
I guess at this stage you’d expect me to write something about the garden. Well the garden is very impressive. But can I do a Monty? No! I suggest you check out his DVD. In the mean time admire the photos we’ve uploaded.
Helen has just arrived back at the apartment wet and with a red thumb from her thumb print given to the Shanghai Police. No need to worry guys!! Full report later.
http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649
On saturday we took it pretty easy and decided to wander around Downtown Xi’an. I converted my digital SLR into a fixed focal length brownie. Zooms are overrated anyway. We took a bunch of shots as we walked past the Provincial Government HQ, past the shops, auctions and street vendors all offering mobile phones. Marveled at the range of washers, air conditioners and refrigerators with interesting sizes and designs. Visited a historical monument or two and designer label shops. The Muslim quarter was the highlight with greats sights and sounds. This is where we settled down for a lunch of 20 dumplings! Finally we returned to our hotel for a peach smoothie and donut not bad eh? Anyway I’ve put together a slideshow for you.
Water Lilies at the Summer Palace, originally uploaded by kdt.
The Summer Palace site is enormous and is best to use the many ferries to get around. We thought we’d be clever and take the boat from the Zoo to the Summer Palace. Not so sure it was a clever idea long waits and a boat change made it a slow way to get there and when we got there we had no idea where our boat had landed us and no signs in English. If there is a motto that has served us well, at least at major tourist sites, it is GO WITH THE CROWD. We did this time and we landed at small pier at which a small boat took about 20 or so passengers across to the South Island from there we followed the crowd over the 17 arches bridge and then we followed the crowd to the long corridor…. but then the crowd stopped. It stopped because the thunderstorm had started…. we need to keep moving so we could catch our overnight train so we did with our tiny umbrella’s up. It is amazing how upwardly flexible taxi prices are when the rain is falling!
