mitchjet

well, this is like Mitch's "Get in Touch With Your Ancestry" Month: first a trip to China, followed by a trip to Scotland where mum's mum was born

admittedly Glasgow was cold and wet, but the place was a lot of fun! the people are great, and there was plenty for me to see in the city

when i told some people i was thinking about catching the train down to Edinburgh to see the castle , they looked at me like i was the craziest human to walk this planet since Britney Spears -- and so that idea had to be put on hold til i'm next in Glasgow on a day when the weather isn't so miserable

there weren't NEARLY enough people walking around in kilts for my likings, i was semi-hoping that a kilt was something not only worn on special occasions, but also something that one might throw on before ducking down to the shops to pick up a litre of milk; or even something they may have worn to do the gardening in -- but alas, it seems like i'll have to wait for a festival in summer or a wedding or a big occasion before i see anyone getting 'round in a kilt

...and of course i did something that EVERYONE must do when in scotland: go for dinner in a chinese restaurant -- seriously, what were we thinking?! it was probably a good thing though, cos i'm not adventurous enough to try eating haggis, and after having recently been in china, it was nice to eat chinese food without any risk of eating dog! i really oughtta give the chinese folk a break, they probably don't even eat dog -- but they MIGHT!

here are the photos:

stay tuned, next week: LONDON!!!

let the good times roll!!

back in china!
i swear i cause these people so much confusion: they just don't know what to do with a guy like me who looks like "chinese peoples" but who just shakes his head in confusion when they start rambling at me in their language

shanghai just wasn't what i expected -- well, i don't know exactly what i expected of shanghai, but what i found was an ultra-modern and clean city, with manicured gardens everywhere -- and from the looks of the skyscrapers and buildings, i could have been in any major city. i guess i'm a little ashamed to admit that my ignorance had me expecting it to be a little poorer than shanghai actually is

English is understood and spoken everywhere, it seems -- well, MOST of the time their english is great from what i experienced, although the communication breakdown always seemed to happen during the bargaining period at the markets -- haha maybe just neither party wanted to believe the prices we were throwing at each other: their prices ridiculously high; my prices offensively low.

shanghai was an eye-opener, they certainly don't believe in small supermarkets! when given directions to a "normal-sized supermarket" i wasn't expecting to eventually find a supermarket that even Captain James Cook would have had trouble navigating his way through

looking forward to seeing how China takes on the honour of hosting the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing -- good times!

my adventures in Shanghai:
walk through a town square, and have a difficult time dodging the people trying to sell me a kite -- don't get me wrong, i love a good kite, i just didn't want to have to origami one back into my suitcase . go with your fellow crew members to a bar called "Lucky Bar" and have a girl sit in your lap for the entire duration of your stay there -- haha some might call that "lucky" indeed . catch the hotel shuttle bus to the market place, and take a deep breath because you know how exhausting it can be to haggle for a good bargain (or seven) . go to a restaurant, and as you've not yet acquired the taste for dog (and having no intention of ever acquiring that taste) order purely vegetarian meals . throw a guy a filthy look as he hocks up a giant loogey and spits it onto the ground -- indoors . after receiving a "special price for you" because the stallholder tells me i'm "a good-look man", silently wonder what price i would have had to pay if i had a face like a busted ass . purchase the obligatory fridge magnet for the collection . attempt to catch the underground metro -- but admit defeat after one glance at the map of the metro system . feel like screaming my head off at the queue of taxi drivers who all refused to take me to my destination -- it's probably a good thing they did refuse me, i was probably asking for them to take me into the depths of the Shanghai equivalent of The Bronx . drink Chinese tea, in China! . sit and watch a bus pull up and be so grateful that i wasn't on a bus that was absolutely choc-a-block with passengers -- and then watch in wide-eyed amazement as an additional seventeen people squished their way onto the bus . at the supermarket, wonder if i would ever think that it would be a good idea to buy a packet of "smoked and spiced duck tongues" -- whatever happened to snackin' down on a good packet of Pringles? -- to each their own i guess!!

here are the photos: