friday evening we went to get a drink at the old British Consulate in Shanghai. its now a bar/restaurant and where events and weddings go on. the yard and entire area is absolutely gorgeous. the man that now owns the place brought in old architecture and interiors/exteriors from around China and set it up around the large yard. it has bonsai's, chinese maples, weeping willows...def. one of the most beautiful places i have ever seen.
On our way home, in an entrance to a neighborhood, there were a couple of men and they were laughing because one was trying to hula hoop. and this isn't a regular hula hoop - its one of those crazy weight loss hoops. ah, good ol China - as Bill says, "China has no lack of irony".
we got up early saturday morning, to run a fair amount of errands.
first we headed to an eyeglass shop, where we all tried on glasses for about an hour. i pick up two pairs, with lens, for a little over 700 RMB.
next, to the most wonderful photo place ever. its about 5 floors, with the fifth being all used equipment. i was racking up a $10000 USD bill in my head from all the things i needed and wanted. and its all private stands, so there is some haggling, and not a monopoly like dear ol' B & H in dear ol' NYC.
strangely enough, the point and shoot camera i wanted, didn't shoot RAW in the Chinese model. weird. but again, T I C - This is China.
there is a costume party this evening, so we need to go to a costume shop with Bill. its a shop that sells costumes for the Chinese Opera. They had a lot of beards, that it takes over 10 years to grow the cow's tail that long. They had embroidered pieces of clothing, all hand done, taking more than a century to complete.
i spotted mustaches in the display case. the Ox tail is wound around a piece of metal resembling a septum ring. great pieces...i must purchase more than i have a nose for it to fit. 15RMB a piece. the man that had been making them for years had recently died, and the quality of these were perhaps the last of the kind.
after a long day of walking, haggling, roaming, and making strange purchases here and there, Bill decided to take motorcycles home. yes, Motorcycle taxis!!!!! These are not scooters, they are not electric bikes, they are motorcycles that all americans are familiar with.
"Bill, where will I hold on"
Bill points to two men on a bike - "If those 2 grown men can ride bareback like that, so can you!
The one man on the corner waves down 2 more bikes and we put on our helmets and hop on.
Can I tell you that this was one of most crazy, exciting, and at moments scary experiences of my life. We weave through traffic, while the leader of the pack honks his horn through the streets constantly. More than often we don't get over 20/km an hour but at a few times we get to 40. There were moments I was worried about my long ass leg getting ripped off my a taxi or a bus.
At a light, we pull up with other bikes, scooters, carts. And one driver looks at me, laughs, and then turns to his right and points at the other random white girl on the back of a cart. She and i are about the same age. He gestures and I am assuming that he thinks its funny that she and I look alike. The girl catches on to the whole situation and so does her chinese friend. We all start smiling and some gentle laughter, but I don't know if we were all humored by the same thing. I am just thinking that its a strange situation.
There are times, when we would go through intersections, or turn corners, we would be weaving through oncoming traffic of bikes, scooters, and other motorcycles. Remember, these guys are professionals...they know what they are doing. The ride was about 20 minutes and we go through back streets and alleys. Bill has the daredevil driver, and honestly a quite handsome one. Jason's looks like he may have been in the Village People, maybe because his head protection is a hard hat, and mine is a round middle aged man with a quasi houndstooth dress jacket on.
There are moments when there is no traffic on the streets besides the 3 motorcycles with 2 per and I watch the speedometer try to go over 40 km/h while they honk through the streets. Going down the middle of the road, with buses on my right and oncoming taxis and cars on the left.
When we get to our destination, mine asked me in Chinese "one more time", still laughing at the situation (i think?) I thanked them all with a great smile and waved goodbye. If only I could speak, I imagine hanging with these dudes, riding around on motorcycles and throwing back some beers. Hey, a girl can dream......
Outside, after we get home and style our new mustaches, my favorite pan handler approaches us, "mr. miagi" (sp?). He is about 5' 3", I would say in his 70's, he wears sandals, slacks with cuffs, and sometimes has one of those hobo bags on a stick (or maybe thats just in my imagination). The first time I ran into him, he stuck out his cup and says in English "Hey young lady" - while an eery chuckle at the same time. The second time, he approaches us, and he is laughing. We give him some change...he is just too cute. He has thinning grey hair and a grey gotee (beard) that goes down to his chest - looks identical to those cartoons of chinese men and their facial hair. This third time, he looks at the 3 of us with our mustaches and just starts laughing. He loves mine, I can just tell because he gives me a big smile and and gives me a thumbs up. Bill asks him how long it took for his to grow, 20 years. He continues to laugh, and we all wave goodbye and he is on his way. No cup for change this time....I love that dude!
We go to a costume party with a wonderful view of the city. Lots of American dudes. Lots of Chinese girls. Sandwiches!!! Such a rare food here. I eat 2 halves, along with Cucumber Lays chips, and some Skittles and a snack size Snickers. God, I am a fatty. A couple of chinese beers and then to some bar in the Bund.
Yeah, its weird. We make a couple of friends. One of the girls throwing the party demands on pouring 2 secs worth of champagne in our mouths. I learn how to say "I know" and "I don't know".
You know, I am not much of the party goer, as I did enough of that in my early early 20's...so I am ready to go home and take off my new awesome fake mustache. Though, throughout the night, the locals loved me and my mustache. Lots of smiles and waves, like the bus of chinese men that were waving at us. Maybe I need to wear this thing around more often...because I really enjoy these stairs and laughter, much more than what I encounter a lot of time.
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