Putuoshan: The China You Imagined (heat and all)

Ahhh...Putuoshan, a land of contrasts and hilarity. We weren't sure where to go for our day trip out of Shanghai, but Lonely Planet told us Putuoshan was the China you always imagined and one of our friends from the train said we had to go. It's an island that is a buddhist mecca and it is gorgeous. And HOT. And humid. We heard China in August was a bad idea, but nothing compared to Putuoshan.

Putuoshan also happens to be the point in the trip when both mine and Bethany's bodies declared that they HATED Chinese food! So we didn't eat a lot there and this caused a number of lectures from Matt on the importance of eating! Shortly thereafter we discovered KFC and never turned back.

After a train/cab/bus/boat, we arrived at our hotel.

Matt went to drop our stuff off, so Bethany and I went to the adjacent restaurant alone. He told us to order something. Well, the entire menu was in Chinese, and when we tried communicating with our waiter here he just kept on saying "Sorry, Sorry." It was great, and Bethany and I realized it was a good thing Matt was there but man it would have been funny if we'd done it alone. Oh yes--this reminds me of the funniest part of our trip! For months Bethany's mom thought we were going alone. And she kept on asking Bethany "have you and Rachel planned out your trip yet? Do you know where you're going/where you're staying/etc?" and Bethany would say "no, we're just going to kind of figure it out as we go" and her mom was very concerned until Bethany told her we were going with someone who had been before and speaks Mandarin. whew.

During dinner I went up to our hotel room for a minute. When I got in, I was shocked to see the room, and equally surprised that Matt hadn't mentioned that we had a GLASS BATHROOM. There it is--the entire bathroom was glass, even the wall to where the beds were had lots and lots of glass that left nothing to the imagination. Mixed company sharing a glass bathroom is a BAD idea, especially when your body hates Chinese food. But it also was hilarious as Bethany and I lay facing the ground while Matt was in the shower.

We found a fruit stand and I was so happy to eat fruit I took a picture.

We love Chinese Characters!

We took this cable car thing and it was so hot it was disgusting.

There were a lot of temples there so Bethany opted out of seeing one of them and when Matt and I returned she had, again, made a friend. It was amazing--and of course he spoke no English!

Is this offensive? Our buddy John was looking at my pictures on my camera and was shocked when he saw I took a picture of a buddha. He even showed it to his grandma. He was equally shocked by the number of pictures I had of squatters!

We played China Pictionary on the beach and somehow no one could figure out I was making a Buddha!

I put our stuff in a circle of honor so no one would steal it.
(Thanks Karl Maeser).