June 24; Nanjing to Suzhou

Day 140

I start off my day with another wonderful breakfast. This breakfast was almost not wonderful as I almost had no ketchup to accompany my potatoes and eggs. I searched high and low and then finally asked the waitress to bring me some.

another hearty breakfast

Day 2 of the tour starts off with a visit to a Jade Museum. We spent so much unnecessary time there. One downside of a tour: doing things you wouldn't do otherwise...

After that they took us to a bridge that looked like this:

so overwhelmed.

underwhelming amusement park

What's so spectacular about it? I don't know. So underwhelming. After 5 minutes on the rooftop thing we spent about 30 minutes looking at overpriced things

hey mao

Lunch time. Food has been alright, but breakfast seems to be the best meal of the day. On the brighter side, lunch and dinner always come with pop and beer.

A two hour ride later, we reach our next city, Suzhou. We linger in the Lingering Garden. As the Chinese guide goes on, most of the youngsters and nonchinese speakers (yes we weren't the only nonchinese speakers on the tour) wander and have a photoshoot.

Photo Cred: TanG

Photo Cred: Cat

Photo Cred: Tanjin

 There are a whole bunch of signs around that garden stating the rules of good behaviour. I find them to be ridiculously hilarious. 

 

After 3 hours of lingering, we prepare ourselves for a boat cruise down the Huangpu River.

through the gates is the dock

chairs.

guide talks in foreign.

because we don't understand Chinese... we sit outside even when we were not supposed to. We got a better view outside though

 

best view on the cruise: Carrefour

her voice was not appealing to me.  There was a little kid who put tissue paper in his ears. LOL

We got souvenir playing cards at the end which will come in handy in the near future. The overall cruise was meh. I give it 2/5...

Anyways, the restaurant is conveniently located in bus parking lot. 

squirrel fish is the red thing on the left. It was actually quite yummy.

The next stop: shopping in Guanqian Street -- jeez another shopping area!

The goal for tonight is to find a place to get Tanjin's nose pierced and maybe get my thirds and Kristie get her seconds pierced. We narrow down the possible places that do piercings by the "twirly twirlies" but unfortunately, we do not find a place that does piercings. We do get exceptional service at one store by many moshisoyos though.

After checking at the hotel, Tanjin and I decide to explore the Howard Johnson we were staying at.

Sharing with Siggy and Tanjin tonight

We see Cat skyping in the lobby

complimentary lemonade and ice tea

Unfortunately, there were no swimming pools at this place... I settle for a nice bath in the bathtub though. mmm bathtub =)

fancy evening with red wine pocky

I look forward to reuniting with my bathroom in Canada.