asia - day 14 - train to beijing

the below photos are proof that vince let himself go before i did... hehe... yes, my husband occasionally looks like this in the morning!





i did a double take when i saw what, or rather who, was on tv. i suppose some hotels are excluded from censorship.



before checking out, we checked out the mini museum in our hotel. i'm not sure what this is but i was immediately drawn to it. i'm fascinated by ledgers and records.



we headed out and were sooo hungry but didn't feel like eating any chinese food after our experience at the restaurant the previous day. sooo... we went to... mcdonald's. i try to avoid the golden arches when i'm on vacation but i like to peek to see what sorts of different foods are available internationally. there was a yummy sounding chicken curry sandwich with egg so we both tried that and it was great! it came in a combo with chocolate pie but the chocolate was more like pudding so not to my liking.



we headed to the yuyuan garden bazaar - like-old buildings (they're actually replicas) with lots of shopping and a big teahouse in the centre. we only picked up a couple of things but one was a small handmade clay sculpture of the two of us. :)












this is the huxinting teahouse. apparently the winding pink bridges that lead up to the teahouse are to ward off evil spirits, which cannot turn corners. i wanted to have tea inside but there was a reason why we didn't - i think because it was too busy.




when we were done exploring the market (i wanted dumplings too but the lines were long and the place stank like garbage and vomit), we headed to nanjing road to the haagen dazs restaurant. we shared a big ice cream sculpture.



we had nothing to do after ice cream so we headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags. i was paranoid that we'd miss our train so we took a cab to the train station to catch our overnight express to beijing.



at the train station, we waited and waited. we ate blueberry flavoured potato chips and waited some more. eventually, the train arrived and we were on our way to beijing!






alright... here is a little extra... do you think the clay sculpture looks like us? i think vince's resembles him pretty well but i don't see how the other one resembles me at all. maybe the mole?