This morning we leave the comfort of our amazing Shanghai hotel and head for Suzhou.  But before we go, Billy arranged for us to have a taichi lesson. (Picture me wringing my hands-evil laugh-we can definitely bribe the men into doing this).  We have our breakfast-I’m already looking forward to my noodles every morning! Yay Mr noodle!!! And then we head out to meet the taichi master and disrespectfully giggle the entire way through the lesson while filming our devastatingly uncoordinated men make fools of themselves!! The perfect morning!!  The master began to teach and Chris and Gary imitated him-ending up looking like drunk Kungfu pandas.  Actually, Chris looked like he was chopping vegetables most of the time, and Gary looked like he’d be better suited in a window in Amsterdam. They gathered quite an audience of locals who laughed and pointed with Nicole and I.  It was a whole thing.

After taichi, our tour director decided to give us the opportunity to go on the new Mag-lev train (magnetic levitation).   Once we purchased our tickets he informed us that this train was built in 1 year. ONE YEAR.  I feel like this is the kind of thing we read about in the Globe and Mail…. or CNN pushes to my phone. “6783 people died today in China when new magnetic train was found to only be 1/2 finished.”  But hey, we will only be here once, so Chris and I decide to go ahead and give it a go-Nicole and Gary decide to pass-opting for MacDonald’s hunting. It makes it to a top speed of 437 km/hr! And it was terrifying-but I’m very glad I did it. If it was just a straight track it wouldn’t be as scary-but when the track turns the entire train leans into the turn-banking at about a 30• angle. When you realize that the train rails are levitating between magnets and not actually touching anything-you do have a panicked moment- but it was only a 7 minute ride-the drive would have taken about 2 hours if there was no traffic. Crazy.

From there we had a drive from Shanghai to Suzhou-about a 2 hour drive. A nice break actually for a sleep. We were driving for 1.5 hours and Billy informed us we were still in the Shanghai city limits. The city is never ending.  It is approximately 2,400 square miles in area.  PEI is about 2200.  That puts it in perspective.

We arrived in Suzhou and went to lunch-another lovely family style served meal.  Traditional Chinese meal-very very good. And beer. Always beer. They actually call beer a soft drink in China-it is a staple.  Our restaurant was attached to an embroidery museum so we visited there for a few minutes after lunch-amazing. They boast 5 embroidery masters- women with over 30 years of stitching experience with the average piece taking them a dull year to finish. And they only averaged $20,000 USD to buy-but hey-that’s taxes, duty and shipping. So we picked up 3 or 4.

From there-a cruise on the grand canal. It was the most rural area we have been to yet, although it was in a large city. The government puts restrictions on this area-if you live along the waterside you are not allowed to change the house structure in any way from the original-and you are not allowed to sell the home. You may pass it down to immediate family, but otherwise you have to sell to the government. The cruise was on a traditional boat and on a narrow canal where the homes had access to the river by way of old stairways leading down to the murky water. The canal was lined with red lanterns, tea houses and medicine shops. THIS is the China I had expected.

From then we went to the Lingering gardens of Suzhou.  These were owned by the family of I. M. Pei.  The famous designer who designed the famous inverted pyramid sculpture that sits at the Louvre in Paris. The garden was beautiful and traditional- but I have to say that the jet leg hits HARD at about 4pm every day. And they serve us beer on the bus. The kind of hard hitting tiredness where you are basically flapping your feet when you walk, all the women look a little like Alice Cooper, and if you stand still for too long you fall asleep.  So I’d love to go into detail about the garden, but I honestly had to ask Chris just now where the heck we went after the canal cruise….. so I got nothin’. Pictures below-I don’t remember taking them, but they are really nice!

Our stay last night was at the Pan Pacific Suzhou and it was incredible. Pretty sure Kungfu panda lives here. It has the most beautiful garden I’ve ever seen-and beds. The most comfortable beds in the world. Like honestly, the sheets, comforter and pillows are all 100% silk, and I’ve never slept this well in my life.

I should take a minute to mention a little something about the significance of today. May 10th. I won’t go on and on, but 20 years ago today Nicole had brain surgery when it was discovered she had a large brain tumor. It was VERY touch and go, and I distinctly remember the moment the Dr’s came out half way through her surgery and told us things were not looking good-the tumor was much larger then they had anticipated. They told us we needed to prepare for the worst. And I did so by throwing up and hyperventilating. Although I think my sister thought the world of me-I was a bratty teenager and not at an age where you contemplate the importance of your family. But all of a sudden my world became as small as that hospital room-and it was rough. She pulled through, and I took care of her like she had me when I needed her early on. My sister, and a life LIVED became much more important to me that day, and have remained so. Thankfully she’s in a much better place now-in many ways. And when life comes down to the fancy car or the travel experiences with my family-the memory making will always win.

Interestingly, Nicole bought a small child’s kimono at an antique market years before that awful day. I remember her LOVING that thing! She hung it framed in her bedroom-went on and on about how beautiful it was and how much she’d like to visit China one day.  Just before she went in for surgery-we each had a few minutes with her-alone-To say what we needed to say.  To lighten the mood-probably quite inappropriately (it’s the Karen way)-I said, “so……can I have the kimono or what???”. We both laughed.

 This year it  was deemed my travel pick since I’m turning 40-anywhere I wanted!

and I picked China. You’re welcome. Xoxoxo

more tomorrow…..