DID: Day trip to Tong Li, one of a string of canal towns outside of Shanghai. Chose this one because we heard it was less tourist-packed than some of the other villages (and with only one bus per day from Shanghai, it was a pretty safe bet this would be true). 1000+ year old town described as the ‘Venice of the East’. East of Venice is probably a more apt description if any comparison is to be made, but an enjoyable place to spend the day nonetheless. Particularly enjoyed rock climbing at the Pearl Tower and trying on traditional Chinese wedding dresses at a little shop along the canal. Saw lots of docked boats over the course of the day, no one seemed to be offering rides. Eventually the tourist office led us to a ticket booth selling tickets to ride long wooden boats. $10/boat for a half hour tour…sold! Should have passed the cost on to the Chinese paparazzi who swarmed the canal banks to get their snaps of GnR. They also had a field day when we were trying on the costumes. Also saw a bunch of Buddahs here and there around the town – every time Rhys sees one he points and says ‘Funny Man!’
Bus back to Shanghai, taxi driver took us the ‘long’ way back to the hotel ($4 cab fare – outrageous!), incompetent butler and/or taxi driver got us to the wrong address for dinner, 2nd taxi got us there just after closing. Sat down but abandoned ship at a restaurant down the street, ended up returning to the place we’d gone to the first night that was around the corner from our hotel. Service was slow, Gavin and I ended up leaving Jason at the table so that I could get one of Shanghai’s notorious foot massages before the spa closed. Ended up with a manicure/pedicure – both excellent but neither of which included any element of massage other than a small application of lotion after the polish was complete. Spa was really fun though – and super lively even at 10pm. Seating was mostly plush leather love seats with foot rests (reminded me a bit of Silk in San Francisco). The ladies all loved Gavin (of course!), even convinced Gavin to have his thumbs and big toes painted sparkly blue (same as me – he picked the color for both of us.) Jason and Rhys got confused about where to meet us and ended up visiting every spa within a 5-block radius, plus had the hotel making phone calls to try to figure out where we were!! In fact I only meant to have a pedicure but it was nearly finished, Jason hadn’t shown up and I didn’t have any money – so naturally the only thing to do was to have a manicure while we waited. Rhys of course had the ladies wrapped around his finger, especially now that he’s finally gotten the hang of smiling and looking into the camera. Maybe next trip to Asia I’ll fund the vacation by hooking GnR up with an Asian modeling agency for a few weeks. J
On the way back to the hotel, GnR were performing what has become their ‘end of the night’ routine. First they start with singing ‘Oh My Darling Clementine’ while holding their noses (they are imitating a sing-a-ma-jig doll that Megan gave Rhys for Christmas). Next they start saying ‘Hakuna Matata’ in funny accents over and over again between peals of laughter. I don’t know what got them started on that but they crack themselves up!
ATE: Hotel breakfast. Quality slightly improved, thinking maybe the hotel kitchen was affected during the construction, perhaps they only had limited cooking facilities at first but now things are being returned to normal?? Leisurely lunch at restaurant near the main gates into Tong Li. Roasted pork shin (a local specialty), spicy fried chicken (breading and flavor was really good but pieces had small chunks of bone and other hard-to-manage-bits), and a purple variety of spinach. Dinner, back at TeShiHui for more sweet and sour pork and soup dumplings. Also had a breaded/fried pork cutlet (yum) and the hottest beef soup Jason has ever had. Unfortunately they were out of the green beans so we couldn’t get those again.
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