Suzhou short trip

I’m procrastinating too much these days. I guess it’s much easier to succumb to one hour of mindless navigating through FB, biting werewolves, racing online pets and creating new groups then to put my thoughts into words in my often neglected blog. Anyway, I’ll interrupt my Ozzie holiday series to update on my latest trip to Suzhou.

So there I was again in Shanghai, almost 8 months after my first trip there. This time, there was no Shanghai stay as the meetings were in Suzhou. As I had made a late booking, I could not get on the same flight as my colleagues. Thus I had roughly 2 ½ hours to wait for the rest to arrive as we were sharing the same transport to Suzhou.

This gave me the chance to try out the Maglev or bullet train from Pudong Airport to the train station in Luoyang Rd. After paying 80RMB or S$16 for a round trip, I dragged my luggage into a sleek-looking MRT-type train. Once the train pushed off, it was accelerating from 0 to 430kmh, where it maintained the speed for a while before it started decelerating. The 30Km journey took just 8 min. At Luoyang Rd Station I got off and started looking for a place to have lunch. I ended up with two dishes that were drenched in chilli oil and a hot cup of tea to washed it away. Well I told myself that the food could only get better.

Back at the airport, my travel weary colleagues finally stepped out of the arrival hall around 6:30pm after suffering a two over hour flight delay. We arrived at our hotel, Youngor Central, in Suzhou around 9pm. We were terribly famished by then.

The next two nights we got the opportunity to explore the Shopping belt along Guanqian St where we stayed and Shiquan St which was another popular tourist spot. We got to visit countless DVD shops (my colleagues were hoping that newer movies could be found in different shops but no luck), pastries and sweet shops (Suzhou is famed of Sasame Seed biscuits), boutiques and handicraft shops. I prefer this kind of shopping compared to those mega complexes, and some shops even allow bargaining. I ended up with some simple titbits for the office, souvenirs and half a kilo of ‘long jing’ tea.

As for food, we treated ourselves to buffet dinners, Szechuan fare, local noodles and rice, and even Satay. I had to get use to the food there which uses more oil and salt. We also avoided fish as we were warned of the many bones and ‘fresh-water fish’ smell.

Well if had a chance to come back, I’ll certainly try to find time to visit the many famous temples and parks around the city. And not to forget the boat ride along the canals of Suzhou that I was hoping to squeeze in this time. Not to fret, I’ll be back again to this city of UNESCO heritage parks and mammoth industrial parks.