Ninedeuce's travel blogs:
|
|
  | |  |
Let's not get racial, pengyou
Entry 3 of 10 | show all | print this entry |
I went to Suzhou this weekend and stayed at the Scholars Inn on Jingde Lu (Xiangshu Mendi Jiudian), which was a good hotel with down comforters, stuffed pandas, and little packs of underwear, all for about $25.
I went to the gardens I missed last year, starting Saturday with the Yiyuan. This garden is newer and is pretty nice, but not top 5, so I won't write a poem about it or anything. Since I had had a long day already of walking around the train station waiting to go to Suzhou (buy your tickets in advance!!!!!), I went back to rest. After dark I went for a walk and checked out the Suzhou nightlife, which consists of karaoke. There was a lady on the street with a pet monkey that she made do flips, then asked people for cash. I was like, "I didn't ask your fucking monkey to do a flip." Plus, why would I give this bitch money to be mean to her monkey? Total Monkey Awareness she does not have.
After the monkey the weirdest thing that ever happened to me occurred. I went to a foot massage place (these are everywhere in China, 20 RMB per hour, or about $2.75) and ended up sitting next to two Chinese dudes who were also getting foot massages. They were studying English, so we had a chat and I got to practice my Chinese. Anyway, toward the end of the convo, one of them told me he likes Kobe Bryant (the NBA is hot shit here), so I said, "oh, you like the Lakers?" His friend starts repeating something over and over to him that ends in "-ers," but does not exactly sound like "Lakers." Then he looks at me and says "black people." I guess this dude thought I heard Kobe Bryant's name and then asked his friend, "oh, you like [insert plural n-word]?" I finally said "hu ren," which means "lake people" in Chinese and explained how "Lakers" is spelled. The weird part is that this guy whose Enlglish was about the level my Chinese is knows that word. I can't even say "piss" in Chinese, but this dude somehow knows racial slurs. I didn't really realize how weird it was until I was outside.
That's not all. This afternoon, I saw a Chinese girl wearing a shirt that said, "Blacks do it in color." What the fuck? Where did she get that shirt? Who is making that shirt for Chinese people to wear (or anyone, I guess)? I have seen lots of weird t-shirts, but this one was HNL.
Anyway, I vote that if you go to Suzhou, you avoid the local weirdos, and go to: Lion's Grove, Blue Wave Pavilion, Garden for Lingering In, Garden of the Master of the Nets, Garden of the Humble Administrator, Pan Gate, North Temple, Temple of Mystery, and walk down Pingliang Lu for some good canal views.
More random observations:
-Every time I get loced down by a Chinese girl, she looks at my feet. I'm not sure what that's about, but it's funny.
-There's a sign on the main shopping street that says, "you are always under the protection of the police." Oh, so we're calling surveilance "protection" now.
-I ate at a Chinese vegetarian place that makes fake shrimp that are EXACTLY like shrimp. They also had fake pig guts, sea cucumber, and shark fin, so maybe I'll go back and eat those so I can say I've eaten them without actually having to eat them.
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries by ninedeuce, from China or try a new search. |
| |
| Table of Contents |
| 3. | Let's not get racial, pengyou - Suzhou, China Jul 23, 2006 |
|
|
|
|
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
6 votes 
