'Cause I did, and it wasn't cool. Tiffany, Scott, Stuart, and I took the train to Nantong, a nearby city with a international chain store that's kind of a cross between Costco and Cash & Carry. Also, it has a US cuisine restaurant that is a wooonderful treat!
We got into town around 13:00, and immediately went to lunch. Then we tried to check into a hotel. It's the law in China that foreigners MUST use their passports to check into hotels. I had forgotten my passport at home---Stuart: "I thought about texting everyone to bring their passports, then I thought, 'we're all smart enough to remember them'''---and only had a photo copy, which the receptionists wouldn't accept. We tried everything: getting them to call managers; calling my boss to work some guanxi-magic; calling Scott and Tiffany's boss to do the same; trying to convince the recptionists to pretend they didn't know about me; looking pathetic. After twenty stressful minutes, we finally gave up and went to a different hotel, where I hung out on the street while the other three checked in. When I walked in with the group later that night, no one gave me a second glance. And, the bed Stuart and I shared was way bigger than the bed in the first hotel---this one could have fit all four of us, but in the first, Stuart and I pretty much would have been on top of each other, something which would have sucked majorly considering I discovered he is a wicked restless sleeper.
With the anticlimactic conclusion of that debacle, we went for groceries, got dinner, and had fun on a short channel tour in a little, plastic, rented boat.
My small point-and-shoot camera is absolutely fabulous in all things except night shots; in the dark, it sucks big time. Still, with persistence, I managed to get a couple nice photos:
The train attendants always seem to hock stuff during trips. I have no clue what these were, except that at one point he pulled out a lighter and put the flame against the non-flammable part. Later he pitched socks and belts.
Scott giving me the evil eye
Stuart
With the anticlimactic conclusion of that debacle, we went for groceries, got dinner, and had fun on a short channel tour in a little, plastic, rented boat.
Scott with a "margarita"
Tiffany
in the boat
My small point-and-shoot camera is absolutely fabulous in all things except night shots; in the dark, it sucks big time. Still, with persistence, I managed to get a couple nice photos:
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