*NEW PHOTOS!

Please click on Picassa Web Albums below to view photos from the rest of our trip in China. Sorry it took so long to post these...

P&G

The Shanghai Bargainer

A few days before Grace arrived in Shanghai, I was walking down Nanjing Lu when I encountered the most persistent street vendor. He approached me as I walked by and wanted to sell me two fake Mont Blanc pens.

"Cheapie-cheapie, 100 kwai!", he said (~ $14 Cdn). "Booyao xiexie," (don't want thank you) I replied in one of the few but likely the most useful chinese phrase I have learned.

The man started walking beside me saying "Okay okay 3!, cheapie-cheapie 100 kwai" adding a third pen to the box....."Booyao xiexie", I replied......."Okay okay...... 4!, cheapie-cheapie 100 kwai" reaching into his pocket and adding a fourth....."Booyao xiexie", I replied mildly amused now......"Okay okay 5....6....7.....8...........13! Cheapie-Cheapie! 100 Kwai!" After offering the 13th pen, the box, which was built for two pens was bursting open with pens falling out....... "Booyao xiexie," I replied fully laughing at the whole ordeal now........"Okay okay 13!......and Omega watch, cheapie-cheapie, 100 kwai!".

At this point, I realized I was not going to lose this guy too easily. What probably spurred on his persistance was my snickering at the peculularity of the whole situation. Finally, wanting to shake him I stopped walking and stood to cross the street, hoping he would get the picture that I was not interested. "Come, cheapie-cheapie he repeated while tapping my arm for about 15 more seconds before finally relenting.

A couple of things strike me from this experience; one is that being friendly and acknowledging some of these vendors is not the best way to avoid their persistent sales pitch, the second is to never take their first offer, as there is a good chance that you will be offered 11 more pens and a watch!

~Paul

Hot Pot & A Bowl of Ice

It is the equivalent of ordering a pizza with no dough, but we'll get to that later...

It was our first day in Shanghai without our trusted guides and hosts, Andrew and Becky. But no worries, we had spent an entire ten minutes learning how to order our favourite dishes in Chinese, how to order a glass of cold water, and standard issue side dishes like fried rice or vegetables. We were armed and ready.

We had been walking for a few hours and had already successfully ordered "dumplings to go" at a street food stall. Apparently, Chinese is not such a difficult language to learn and can be mastered in only a day.

We later stumbled upon a quaint courtyard in a sea of storefront clothing and furniture stores and decided to stop for lunch in the restaurant within it. We were not completely certain it wasn't a tea house, as the only english sign said "Tea Hot Pot". We very elequently asked whether they were serving lunch my using hand signals and inquiring: "Food? Food?". We were led to a private booth, still not completely confident that they served anything but tea.

We were shown a menu with food items written both in Chinese and English, and non-exhorbitant prices so we decided to order. We pointed to a beef dish, spring rolls and shrimp dumplings. The waitress pointed to soup options, but we opted out. It was an extremely hot and humid day, so hot soup did not seem like a refreshing option. She continued to point to various items on the menu, but we refused, as a beef dish and a couple of appetizers to share should be adequate, and we were not going to be up-sold. She seemed unsatisfied with our choices, but left the table, smiling and nodding.

She returned a few minutes later with another waitress and two burners. We signed to her that we would be sharing one, and she again pointed to the menu, asking if we wanted any additional items. We began refusing again, but she repeatedly pointed to the soup section, saying "Hot pot. Hot Pot".

The fog lifted and we realized that what she was trying to tell us was that a hot pot is exactly that. A fondue/Korean barbeque of sorts, where the ingredients you order (or singular ingredient in our case, as all we had ordered was beef) are added to a hot pot at your table and cooked in the soup base of your choice. Laughing, we pointed to chicken soup and she seemed relieved that we finally understood the concept. In essence, we had been trying to order pizza with no dough.

We added noodles and collected a few dipping sauces, finally understanding how ridiculous our order must have seemed. I won't embarrass ourselves any further by recounting how we ordered ice water and received a bowl of ice. Delivered again by our waitres while smiling and nodding.

The moral of this story? Chinese is a difficult languange to learn and cannot be mastered in a single lesson. Even if you believe you have mastered a few phrases, attempts to use them will be met with a myriad of responses from giggles to looks of bewilderment.

Yang Yang, Shen Shuang, and the $23 tea lesson

It is needless to say that foreigners stick out in China; even easier to say that a lone Caucasian male walking by himself with a backpack might offer further distinction. This is how I came to meet Yang Yang and Shen Shuang.

I was walking alone in People's Square in central Shanghai, when the two of them stopped, introducing themselves in very good English as students from Beijing. If you have been to Shanghai you can probably stop reading because you have heard this one before; if you have not, please read on and enjoy my slight misfortune :)

Yang Yang (a 20 year old male) and Shen Shuang (a 25 year old female) asked me where I was from, what I was doing in Shanghai and proceeded to tell me that they too were visiting Shanghai, on a school trip from Beijing. They were spending the afternoon going to a tea tasting/ceremony that their professor had told them about. Asking if I had any further plans for the afternoon, they inquired if I wanted to join them. Having none, I obliged, thinking this would be somewhat of a unique cultural experience. We arrived at the teahouse which was a little off the beaten track and were directed to a small private room. Now my friends Andrew and Becky had forewarned me about certain scams in the city, including tea tastings where they invite you to try a variety of teas and then when the bill comes they have charged you an inordinate amount of money for each tea. Feeling slightly suspicious and moderately clever I asked in one of the few Chinese phrases I have learned 'how much is it?'. At this our private tea expert showed me a list, written all in Chinese but with the price of 30Y per person, or the equivalent of around $4.50 Canadian written on the side. Still holding on some reservations my Beijing friends assured me that they would pay their own way. This was enough to make me feel comfortable, as I was willing to pay $4.50 for tea and a unique cultural experience.

Six tea tastings later and after a short intermission of tea cookies the bill arrived. 1100Y or $170.00! Now what I had failed to realize, or had failed to be told was that the price of 30Y per person was actually 30Y per person, per tea! Plus a fee for the tea cookies! Plus a 'service fee' from our expert! I was now on the hook for $57.00 worth of afternoon tea and my unique cultural experience. My face must have went white when the bill arrived as I knew that I had left the house that morning with only 150Y ($23), with no debit card and no visa card. I was mortified that I did not have the money to pay my portion of the bill but my new student friends said they would gladly cover the difference. Embarrassed, I left the tea house and soon parted ways with Yang Yang and Shen Shuang, exchanging email addresses should I like to have them show Grace and I around in Beijing.

That evening I told the story to Andrew and Becky, my university friend hosts in Shanghai. They both laughed and were of the opinion that the 'students from Beijing' were in fact from Shanghai and likely worked for the teahouse, bringing unsuspecting and ignorant tourists in to pay inordinate amounts of money for a tea tasting. Becky then spoke of friends she has known that have been put in similar situations and have had to pay bills up to $300.

So I am glad my lesson in Shanghai street smarts only cost me $23, a price probably worth the story and lesson learned. Since that day, sure enough I have been invited to tea by 'students from Beijing' and an older Chinese man in various areas frequented by tourists. One thing is for certain, I am now once bitten and twice shy.


~Paul

A first hand lesson in the world's people

An opportunity of a lifetime.

Through our travels, we will be taking an opportunity to gain first hand knowledge of the world's people, their struggles, their inherent differences, and the inherent commonalities that invariably link us together in our most fundamental characteristic; being human.

We will be backpacking through some of the world's poorest countries, from Nepal and India to Cambodia and Vietnam, shaping our world view and documenting our travels along the way on this travel blog.

As the stresses of our world begin (or continue) to converge; global economic inequality, energy scarcity, global warming, environmental degradation, and the increasing risk of mega-terrorism, we are in desperate need of a new paradigm and a new era of human understanding, compassion and shared purpose.

Through our travels we hope to develop our own personal understanding of the interconnectedness of the world's people, of human influence and its effect on our natural environment and of the interdependencies between our people, politics and economics.

While we are away please continue to spread the word about the Point Seven Campaign and continue to 'be the change to you want to see in the world'.

~Paul & Grace

Our Itinerary

So here is our rough plan (subject to change of course).

March/April - China
May - Nepal and Tibet
June & July - India
August & September - Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Singapore, and Vietnam

Please stay tuned for our stories and updates of our adventures.

Much love,

Paul & Grace

Preparations

Soon to be homeless, jobless and fleeing the country!!

We will post photos and messages during our travels so we can share our experiences with you. This will also eliminate the dreaded post-vacation slide show. Instead you can peruse at your leisure.

You can keep us updated on your lives, and more to the point, repeatedly tell us how much you miss us and are counting the days until our return.

Just 2 more months,

Grace & Paul