Hong Kong and Yangzhou

I ended up liking Hong Kong more than I had expected...It reminds me a lot of England, but with a lot more yellow people...After having asked around, I came to the conclusion that there's not much to do except shop and that's pretty accurate...the quantity of goods cramped on this tiny island is mind-blowing...if you can think of it, they have it

I walked over from China, crossed the border by foot (a great majority of people do so) and took the train into town...I got off at the wrong station and ended up hauling my suitcase down the street for a good kilometer until I found the Cosmo Hotel, little sister to the Cosmopolitain right next door...While I was a bit taken aback that we were next door to a Sikh temple, I noticed that the more expensive Cosmopolitain had a muslim cemetery behind it so I didn't complain for long

I checked into my room and rushed in to scope out the view...



Talk about advertising...quite representative of the city though...The room itself (and the whole hotel for that matter) were in this neo-futuristic decor...turns out, the rooms are color-coded (lime, lemon and orange) and the desk clerk is supposed to assess your personality and assign an appropriate room to you...oh the inferences




At 7.30, I went downstairs into the lobby and waited to see if Nicholas Charles would show up...low and behold, he did, his sister Charlotte in tow...we went out for supper at a poly-asian restaurant (Thai, Cambodian, etc)...the food was not bad, but what made the meal was the LIVE! Band...we could even request songs, and I ended up having "I've Had the Time of My Life" dedicated to me on the occasion of my 5th wedding anniversary...a special guest even jumped in to help with the bongos



The next day was spent wandering the streets, stopping at every couple of rickshaws and carts to gawk at the jewelry, Communist memorabilia and Tkin'latte mittens...at night, I bid farewell to Nick and Charlotte and returned home the next day...all in all, a brief enjoyable stay in Hong Kong

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After returning home to Shanghai, I packed up again and left for Yangzhou (not to be confused with Hangzhou, where I was a week ago)...it took us 3 hours, innumerable tolls and one pee pit-stop to get there

Yangzhou used to be a really prosperous and important city, economically speaking (it's well-located around masses of water)...but these days, it's just plain jane...it's not boring but I'm glad I only stayed a day and a half...everything is really spread out, there's no traffic and the streets are really wide



I was shown around by this couple named Lewis (Liu Wei) and Iris (I have no idea what her chinese name is)...they went/go to school in Halifax so they could get by on English...their mom, on the other hand, couldn't understand jackshit of what I was saying but she was really nice about it so I have no grudges

We went to this ancient park, hitched a ride on a boat...enjoyable but would have been more had it not been freezing cold...a very sweet Chinese girl gave me the tour in English...she was quite impressive!



After that, we went to eat...now, here's the thing..the food in Yangzhou is the most amazing Chinese food I've ever tasted...and I'm pretty picky...everything was so simple yet tasty...nothing flashy, or too spicy..just enough for the taste buds...I didn't even take any pictures of it because the minute it got to the Lazy Susan, it flew off the serving platter



We left the next day, right after having gone to a newly-built history museum...so back in Shanghai...until I come back...it's nice to finally settle down