So our next adventure would take us on a four hour bus ride the ghetto country. Just Jack dropped us off at the bus station and told us how to get on and the whole shabang. We had the first two aisle seats on the bus. It was greyhound-esque in style. That is, if the greyhound bus was built in 1974 and had been attacked by landfills 15 times in the last month. Other than that... it was great.
Since I was sitting in the aisle seat, right behind the driver, I had a completely unobstructed view of the terror that is chinese driving. I nearly screamed out loud on multiple occasions.
You see, in the U.S. giant buses tend to not PASS others on two lane roads. We played chicken with 18- wheeler container trucks more than I'd like to say. And then one time our bus driver took a phone call... and yelled... a lot....
classic. I seriously thought that I was going to meet my Creator via chinese bus crash- alas, we did no such thing. I'll see you later, Creator.
Fancy Lancy (factory gimp) and Mama Wong (owner) picked us up from the bus station. Mama Wong (named so because she is the cutest little grandma business owner B.A. you ever did see! ) was dressed to the nines, so much more fashionable than many of her American counterparts! She didn't speak a lick of english, but she loved to smile!
It was around lunch time so they took us to an ITALIAN restaurant for lunch. You cannot imagine how excited I was for this ! The owner came over and talked to us, all was grand. He told us that they used to send their chefs to Italy to learn how to cook, but then the chef's wouldn't come back to china so now they send them to Shanghai !
We asked Fancy Lancy and Mama Wong if they like Italian food, they both answered NO but said they bring their customers there because its what Americans tend to like !
Factory tour, ya da ya da ya da... business meetings.... Bettie driving hard bargains. The standard.
After the business was done, they took us to the train station for our train to Hangzhou. We had stopped by earlier for Fancy Lancy to help buy us tickets for a train. Bettie told her we wanted to best tickets there were. This translated into two top bunk sleeper car tickets.
Mama Wong and Fancy Lancy sat with us at the train station while we waited for our chariot to arrive. Mama Wong just couldn't stand not buying us something so she got us so giant bottles of water, to remember her by. Our train was about to arrive so the four of us went outside to find our spot on the platform. When it pulled up, Mama Wong and Fancy Lancy got on with us to help us find our car. They opened up the door to our "room" to find a woman sleeping in one bottom bunk and a man reading a magazine in the other. Neither spoke ANY english. Side note: there is circa de NO ROOM in train cars for big luggage. There is usually a luggage rack, UP IN THE AIR. So it was a really special bonding moment with the Chinese man while we tried to hike our luggage up there. The train whistle blew waay before we were settled in and Mama Wong and Fancy Lancy had to run off the train so they wouldn't get swept away with us. I looked out the train window to see the waving good-bye, laughing . Mama Wong knew we were in for a treat !
We are now on day 3 (ish ) of our Chinese journey. This morning Goofy picked us up at the hotel to take us to the Shenzen airport. He walked us to the check in counter and took care of everything for us because, we are after all, completely incompetent white women.
The Goofster departed and we shopped around for a bit (shocking).
On the way to security line a ton of people we just walking up to trash cans and dumping out their water bottles in them. I've never seen that in the states haha. Once in line for security, I looked up and saw 4 flat screen, 3-D televisions! You have to realize that we are in a super crappy airport in the armpit of China and there are 4 brand new, glasses free, beautiful 3-D flat screen televisions. China with the win. And also... I HATE 3-D tvs... they hurt me eyes, (that was supposed to say "my" but I mistyped and thought it was funny in a " don't touch me Lucky Charms" kind of way) you have to wear funky glasses (except in super trendy chinese airports) and they generally freak me out. I don't like mind games. BUT THESE were kind of awesome.
Moving on... Bettie's passport got bomb tested on every page in security. She definately looks like a terrorist. Point China.
We met some people in the airport who were from Dallas. Duh. Had a nice chat about missing good ole texas food. They told us they had done to a restaurant with a factory that had cages of chickens (easy), squirrels (what!?) and SKUNKS ( oh no they didn't) for you to pick from for them to cook it up for you. I think its safe to assume they all went for the chickens. Lets just say I would have DIED if we had walked in somewhere like that. I mean dead on the floor kind of dead. You know the kind.
We boarded the airplane early (Point China) and it was gorgeous. Clean, spacious, trendy. (Again, point China... are you seeing a trend here?) And we were off.
I don't know how long the flight was... but eventually we arrived in Ningbo. Just Jack, factory gimp, picked us up at baggage claim. Then ensued the usual routine, drop by hotel... check in... freshen up... our hotel name was Hotel SMILE AND NATURE!!!!! (S&N for short) While we were checking in, a GIANT tourist bus full of chinese tourist pulled up... they don't understand personal space, as I was nearly stood on top of at the check in counter (point America, whew... we were due).
The hotel's thing must have been having really cool chair everywhere... because they had AMAZING high back chairs all over the place... hence this photo shoot....
then I decided to join the fun... I'm trying to act out the personality of each chair... which I'm sure is really obvious... ha.
End Scene.
and then I thought the hallway by our room was really gorge...
and Bettie liked this guy...
Ningbo isn't exactly what you would call a pretty city. There was construction EVERYWHERE! And also shantys. That was really hard to see. This was one place where they were obvious extremes right next to each other. EXTREME wealth and oppulence, then EXTREME poverty... They were building new highways but along side and in the esplanades were gorgeous flower beds, unlike anything I've seen in the states. There were workers gardening for MILES and MILES. I cannot exaggerate this. It was definately another 'there are 2 billion people in China' kind of moment.
So this night we stayed in at the hotel and hung out... ate dinner at the super "not western friendly" buffet. There was "boiled bull frog" and and all time classic "steamed yellow croacker clinical" (Point America). Lets just say we ate a lot of rice and bread the next few days.
The next morning Just Jack picked us up from the hotel to take us to
the factory. We met with him and the owner, Mac Daddy for a while then
took a tour of the show room. This mostly meant Bettie doing serious
work, and me playing with all the fun gadgets they had just waiting for
me to mess up!
Mac Daddy and Just Jack took us back to the hotel for lunch.
Instead of eating at the wicked scary buffet they took us to the seafood
restaurant. I was terrified. Now, I normally LOVE seafood...but
chinese seafood is a little different. First, its all in tanks when you
walk in and second, if could still be a little alive when they bring it
to you (AAH). Fortunately, Bettie has been playing this game circa de
10 years and knew what to tell Mac so that our food would be white
people friendly. Anytime we were offered seafood, she would first tell
them we didn't like it... then tell them we would eat it if was was
fried and very well cooked. (The fried part would ensure that it was
DEAD!)
So Mac Daddy did an incredible job of ordering and we had a
delightful meal in a private dining room (which is pretty much what you
do in China). The waitress had on long skirts with almost longer slits, up the their bums in fact, I might have caught a glimspe of panty here and there. classy.
Back to work. Somehow we got started talking about cars. In china, cars cost about 2x what they do in the states because of all sorts of taxes thrown on top. Mac Daddy was asking me about my car and what I would get if I were to get a new car. The conversation turned to Porsche's and he told me how Porsche Cayennes aren't expensive and that I should go for something better (not that I'm trying to get a Porsche.) Point China.
After a few more hours of being business-y it was back to the hotel to hunker down for the night and pack for our morning departure.
Our travels have brought us to Monday morning, October 24. Bettie and I woke up circa de 6:30 (a.m.... yes, I'm that good) and we ventured downstairs to partake in the breakfast buffet. It was... interesting. It was more in the style of a European breakfast, rather than western... which is interesting at best.
Our next appointment factory man picked us up from the hotel at 9 to take us to an area about an hour outside of Shenzen. We'll call him Goofy. Mostly because he was really Goofy. He took us to the "Castfast Amor Hotel" ( I can't make this up). We were at first unsure why "amor" was in the name of the hotel... the answer would come crashing in later. We checked into our room and went upstairs to drop our luggage before heading to the factory.
Waiting for us in our room was this little gem...
Classic.
And this here is the view from our room of the complex...
the view from our room
After a few minutes of running around the hotel room trying to see everything as fast as I could (and starting my toiletries collection... I brought home 17 toothbrushes!) we went back downstairs to meet Goofy and head off to the factory. At this factory we saw some products that she was already having made there along with some new samples. We walked around and saw all the different types of machines used to make all sorts of metal and rubber thingys. Cool. We were only there a little while when the Goof-dog suggested lunch and we headed back to the Castfast hotel for a nice buffet.
This buffet was pretty "western friendly" if you will. There was your noodle..your rice... and of course some dumplings. All of these things are, of course, considered "poor food" ... but I still love 'em!
After lunch we went to visit another factory... business business business....
Now the good stuff!! Goofy took us back to our hotels because Bettie and I wanted to walk around the Japanese garden that was in the back while it was still daytime so we could take pictures... pretty self explanatory...
the coolest koi pond circa de... ever !
my yellow fish friend
ah the sun...with its beautiful smoggy glow !
oh and this sign.
They were literally putting this sign in the ground as we were walking up. My aunt described it as "a silhouette that should be on the back of an 18-wheeler mud flap."
While we were walking around the garden, Goofy kept asking us if we wanted to go up to the top of the hill. We could see a "church" and some flower beds that he said we could go look at. Bettie and kept telling him we were too tired and lazy. But the Goofster wouldn't have this. He just kept asking and asking and then finally told us that a hotel car was going to pick us up and give us a tour. Some people just don't listen! But turns out that this time, its us who should have been listening !
So this little guy pulls up to take us!
Hey little friend!
So we hopped on the green golf cart and were off!
First we saw this giant castle they are builiding... aka the Castfast Amor tourist center....hmmm curious it seemed...
then there was a giant CROSS hanging in the sky... extra curious considering we were in CHINA... with the COMMUNISTS...
Then we reached the top of a hill to and stopped for a while. There was a really cool view of the city... at least of what you can see of it through the pollution
And the olympic characters!!! Goofy went through and read all their names to me.
I love them.
And there was, of course, and giant three story bird cage full of birds (duh) and the bottom floor... and SNAKES on the top. hissssss....
and then he told us this place is used for a play every sunday night...
so we were kind of getting the feeling that this place was a little out of the ordinary as far as Chinese hotels go, and that it catered more to tourist (namely Chinese tourists... this wasn't exactly a city most westerners would happen upon)
But there was one thing that we still hadn't figured out... on the drive up the hill we kept passing signs like these...
They say "successfulland.com" and all had a bride a groom on them in some super dramatic pose.
Then we noticed that we were SURROUNDED by brides... quite literally EVERYWHERE!
We were told that 300 couples get married here PER DAY! And take their photos at all these little locations set up everywhere. There were fake churches, a fake village, meadows of flowers, a WINDMILL and of course, outdoor grand piano.
The couples are almost all wearing rented gowns and suits and they come to a place like the CASTFAST AMOR (the amor part clicked somewhere in here) to take their wedding photos!!! Can you imagine 300 couples EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK!! We were there on a Monday and this is what we saw...
the inside of the church had a beach scene at the front, then snowflakes the sides....duh
this is a train on tracks if you cant tell
It was like the Disneyworld of Chinese weddings! I was running around with the BIGGEST smile. I mean, lets talk about wonder and awe. This was truly something I had never even imagined existed before. We walked around the happy couple's for about 45 minutes, all while traveling the world! We saw them take pictures in Holland (the windmill), at the beach (er..church), Angel Love Italian Cafe (its the yellow building), a western saloon, the meadows, a house that looked strangely out of Pleastantville, Suburbia and so much more. This began my dream to make a documentary about Chinese wedding culture.
Then, sadly it was getting dark- and we hadn't eaten in at least 3 hours, so we left the festivities and went to dinner at the hotel. The restaurant in the hotel overlooked the pool (which had GLASS sides) and over to the other side of the hotel complex. Halfway through our meal we noticed a lot of Brides and Grooms walking together.... then more and more .... and think we figured out that they were all processing as part of a wedding video that they would get as part of their little photo package. it seriously went on for about 15 minutes. I'm still in shock. There are 2 billion people in China.
Bettie had told Goofy that we wanted a foot massage that night (they are super cheap and EVERYWHERE ) so he said he would take us somewhere good. So we got in the van and drove maybe a block to a giant strip center COVERED in neon lights. It definitely did not look like a classy joint. When we walked in we were suddenly transformed into another world. Everything was covered in marble. Every person who worked there had on uniforms. IT WAS AMAZING. Goofy told the nice people that we wanted a foot massage. To We also had the option of taking a shower... we opted out. ? So a gorgeous lady led the three of use up some stairs, down a hallway, down some stairs to a hallway with no lights... (at this point I was pretty sure we were going to die) then through a landing, and all of a sudden there was an indoor, underground water park glassed in the center of the building. There was a giant pool, water slides... the works. Adjacent to the water park was the foot massage section. There were three rows of about 35 recliner chairs, each with it own adjustable flat screen tv. Duh.
The ladies brought over a tub of warm water for us to soak our feet in, along with cantaloupe and tomato salad (aka a plate of baby tomatoes). She told me to turn around and sit on the foot rest with my feet in the tub and she would give me a should massage while they soaked. So then I had the most amazing shoulder massage to ever exist. Then I sat back in the chair and she gave me a scalp massage that changed my life. Then an arm massage. THEN she got to my sleepy little feets .
Heavenly.
There is a video of this that I need to get from my aunt. It'll help set the scene.
Anyway. Our simple little foot massage that we wanted turned out to be an hour and a half full body massage of wonder and joy! Goofy knew what he was talking about.
So then, when I thought the day couldn't get ANY better... we walked out to witness this....
