The Kindness of Strangers, Pathological Lying, and Four Days of Gardens

I have developed the bad habit of flagrantly lying to taxi drivers when they try to make conversation, and then continuing to run with the lie until I get out, whereupon I feel bad about it but then promptly do it again the next time I get in a taxi.

But we'll get to that story later! First, an update. The past four days have been a WHIRLWIND of activity - one city a day, Suzhou Hangzhou Nanjing Yangzhou. Whoo. Exhale a bit. I'll go through each in turn, but before that...traveling is fun, but TIRING. Especially when you don't know the culture and still struggle with the language. Plus, my feet hurt a lot, because I walk everywhere (Taking a taxi while I could walk? Heck no. But my feet are beginning to protest...) and I didn't really pack any flip-flops, so it's always socks in hot and sometimes rainy weather...fun stuff. I'll know how to pack better the next trip like this I take, I guess?

Now, Suzhou. It has some beautiful attractions and gardens, and the city is pretty nice. I took so many pictures. There were a few logistical problems, though: first, it was raining all day, so my socks quickly got wet and I didn't have any more. It was bad, but in a major victory I found a place to buy some and did! The bigger problem was transportation. The day before, I bought my ticket to Suzhou and asked for one coming back to Shanghai in the night. The woman was like "there aren't any. Ask when you get to Suzhou." So I was like "um...cool." I looked in the guidebook, and saw that there's a boat overnight from Suzhou to Hangzhou, the next day's destination. So I felt better, and departed for Suzhou, only to find that there is no such boat. Or train tickets back to Shanghai. Um...cool. Now, I like plans to be set in stone, and I'm very bad at improvising when things don't work. But I found a hostel (Which was wonderful, by the way, highly recommended. I'm also pretty sure there was a picture of Daniel Carvalho, Saybrook '10, in the lobby.....WEIRD YALE CONNECTIONS ARE EVERYWHERE.) and took the bus to Hangzhou the next day, and everything worked out. It was a huge victory.

Now, after that trying but ultimately very good day, I bused to Hangzhou the next morning. The bus system, like the train system, in China is great, and unlike trains you can just rock up, as Chloe would say. I got to Hangzhou, and was already tired, but I was nevertheless psyched for the grandeur that would be West Lake. Unfortunately...it was just a lake. Very pretty, but nothing mindblowing, or even really pretty like Suzhou. I was underwhelmed, and frankly got so bored I went to a bookstore (bought a book on chengyu, one of Tang poems translated, and a book called "Learn English for Love," the funniest shit ever) and went to the train station two hours early to just rest my feet and read. Oh well, can't win them all. Returned to Shanghai for a night to sleep, and took a train to Nanjing in the morning after booking my return train to Beijing.

And boy, was Nanjing surprisingly nice. The hostel I found was so great, in a really cool location (Fuzimiao, the Confucius Temple that has become a huge shopping and food area where all the young people hang out), and is just really nice. I'm still here using the internet. Nanjing as a city is very nice, full of boulevards and trees and even has a subway! I went up the mountain to see Sun Yat-Sen's mausoleum (He has some nice digs. Too bad he wanted a simple burial...) and a temple, and that took up all my afternoon. I'm sad about that, because there's so much more I wanted to see in Nanjing (Taiping Rebellion museum! Yeah, I'm a geek.) but couldn't because of time. I definitely could come back here, it's a very pleasant city.

Anyways, this morning I took the train to Yangzhou, feeling ambivalent about leaving Nanjing (and tired from not sleeping well for three days) and hoping that Yangzhou would be worth it. And my god. It was the best place I've visited yet. I went to two gardens, the He and Ge gardens (何园 and 个园, weird names...), and Yangzhou's main attraction, the Slender West Lake, supposedly a take-off of Hangzhou's (non-slender?) West Lake. I can't even describe how beautiful Slender West Lake was. It's a whole park along the river, with all these pavilions and little gardens and bridges and pagodas, and it's honestly one of the most paradise-like places I've ever been too. So much better than Hangzhou! And the gardens were interesting, not just pretty but intelligently designed and breathtaking as a result. I had SUCH a good time, and it just put me in the best mood. Or at least, it did until at the train station I realized that I didn't have my phone.

You must understand - since that incident from the last post, I 've been crazily cautious. I keep three locks on my backpack's three compartments, keep the valuables that I must carry in my pockets (cell phone, wallet, sometimes iPod or camera when absolutely necessary) on one side so I can put one hand in that pocket at all times, split up my money, keys, passport etc between a waist money pouch, an around-the-neck money pouch, and my wallet, carry my backpack in front of me in crowded places...it sounds paranoid, I know, but if it gives me peace of mind I don't really care. So I was shocked to find my cell phone gone. I had checked the time barely half an hour ago, and since nothing else was gone it probably wasn't stolen (or the thief was inept...). I called it from the station and, wonder of wonders, somebody picked up! I had just lost it! Unfortunately, I couldn't understand what the person was saying, so once I got back to the hostel I had the nice girl at the desk do the talking for me. And now my phone's being sent to Beijing, and I'll pay for it when I pick it up :) So once again, I live a charmed life...predicated on, of course, everybody who helped me get here. Things have a way of working out. Plus, I don't even need the phone in the next few days, seeing as I'll be at Putuoshan or in transit!

I have a lot more insights into China, into my Chinese, into the changes I've seen in myself since traveling, but I'll wait until I have free internet in Beijing to inundate you all with all my introspection, which will probably bore you all to tears. I will not have internet until Tuesday, so...yeah. And I don't have my phone anymore, so even if you're in China I'm out of contact. Sorry. As a parting story, though, my lying. I have to admit: as soon as I realized that when people asked "what county are you from" they literally didn't know where I was from, I stopped saying "America." I always thought the question was perfunctory until a Chinese guy at the Suzhou hostel asked outright if I was from India. Fact is, not being white and not speaking in English I can swing the lie, so now I say "I'm an Indian," the Chinese way to say "I'm from India." I mean, I'm half Indian, so literally the words coming out of my mouth aren't a lie...but the meaning of the phrase is, and as the conversation progresses the lie just gets worse. I tell them that I live in India, and we talk Indian movies, economy (The woman asked me what the exchange rate is between India and China, and I said I didn't know...despite the fact I had told her I was going to the bank to change money. Oops.), my family...none of it's true. But I can't bring myself to say I'm American. (At least to taxi drivers who I'll never see again. I don't lie to the people at the hostel or anything.) Why? Well...to be honest, I'm not entirely sure myself. I think I just don't want the hassle of that conversation. Plus, how else would I been able to talk to the young male taxi driver, perhaps only five years older than me, about "we eastern countries," and what the West thinks of us?

Maybe that's why I do it - for an entirely fake sense of camaraderie? More futility, another naive, dishonest, and frankly very insulting attempt to pretend that I can actually encounter China on terms that aren't my own? Who knows. Perhaps I do it simply because I can. But more importantly...will I tell the truth the next time I get into a taxi? And what will happen if I don't?