A Day of Walking

My feet hurt. After a late morning start out the door, Gord, Jan, and I did a good day of walking. From our hotel, we walked down a few main streets, and came to a silk market. Some silk was bought, some money spent. Then we tried to find a tea market, but were unsuccessful, and before we knew it, we had to head to another hotel to meet Herrick (from our distributor's office) for lunch. We had a great lunch, with included more duck tongue, and were back out on the street in search for tea. Finally, we found a strip of stores that all sold tea, and we charged into the one right in front of us. Some tea was bought, some money spent.

From there, we grabbed a taxi to the Southwest corner of West Lake and walked around the new development area; then journeyed across a path that cut through the South end of West Lake, with short segments of land and 6 short bridges. The wind was strong, the air cold, and the waters were scattered with row boats operated by certain companies. The path took about 1.5 hours to traverse, and the feet were complaining. After looking at a few last shops, we taxied back to the hotel. During this ride, I actually saw a cyclist get hit by a taxi and his bike crushed. I knew it would happen SOME time. Fortunately, the biker seemed alright, and the taxi driver actually seemed concerned.

Gord and Jan decided to take a break, while I immediately headed back out to a CD/VCD/DVD store we had been to the day before. Some DVDs were bought, some money spent. After I returned, we went to dinner in a restaurant at the hotel because I couldn't put my feet through any more than the traumatization it had already been subjected to over the last 8 hours.

Back in my room, calling it a night.

Kevin, signing off from China... the place where bargaining is more for sport than real deals, people push to get around you, any kind of food can be cooked 5 ways you've never seen... even if you had just learned another 5 ways of cooking it, people sing in public as they're doing their own thing, and money is spent.