Response to Carmen's blog

At the moment I am in Suzhou, heading to Hangzhou tomorrow. These are meant to be two of the nicest cities in China (and so, are meant to be two of the more touristy). I'll have to write up some of the things I've done. But first, one last thing on the Silk Road. Kind of appropriate, then, that I'm here, since Suzhou is famous for it's Silk. Silk doesn't originate from here but the city became famous for its silk production pretty early on.

Carmen (fellow ABS employee, fellow Chinese student, fellow traveller along the Silk Road) has written up her account of the Silk Road trip.

Here is my response to a few of the things she wrote:


- Thanks for putting up with having to translate for me. It wouldn't have been as good without you.

Day 1
- I didn't mind the hotel in Urumqi. Even though they kept trying to look at my previous China visa. The girl just couldn't accept that the current visa was the current visa...
- scared of mutton?

Day 2
- we almost had two crashes, which would have been pretty decent if the driver had reacted one second later.
- it is true that I danced and won the pretty girl. Oh, do you want the story behind that?


Day 4
- Yes, this tour guide was great (we had a different one in each place, you see).

Day 5
- What is so embarrassing about getting dressed up in costumes and taking silly pictures? Oh.

Day 6
- Yes, I was the centre of attention as I tried to practise Chinese

Day 7
- The famous temple was actually really intersting, mainly because we got to see the normal every day activities, rather than it just being a tourist attraction. But yes, Carmen was sick :(
- I liked the salty tea. The salty milk was OK too, but I was clever enough not to put any butter in it :)
- The heated argument looked like it might turn into a fist fight at one point...
- What's with the anti mutton propaganda?