Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Well we had great intentions to get caught up with our daily postings but we soon realized that the tsunami in Taiwan hasn’t been kind to the telephones or the Internet. I tried just about everything I knew to get the info posted but after 2 pictures I ran out of luck. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Today we woke up at 5:30 am, I think we are still feeling the effects of all the travel, but it’s amazing how much you can get done when you are awake at that hour. Of course Jia-Li wanted to explore the hotel hallways and elevator so we were wandering the halls before 6 am!!

Katie woke up with a sore throat and a horrible headache so after breakfast we decided that Lesa and Katie would spend the day at the hotel and Anna and I and Jia-Li would take the tour of the Yellow Crane Tower. I wasn’t sure how the 3 of us were going to do but much to my surprise it was a lot of fun. For all of you in Canada don’t laugh at the next sentence and for those in the sunny south you should be glad you are not here. The guide informed us as we walked out the doors of the hotel that this was the coldest day of the year so far. It was 39 degrees!! On top of that there was a wind of about 20 mph so it felt a lot colder. After the initial shock we realized that we would be OK. So we sped off into traffic dodging, bicycle riders, scooters, men, women buses and I am sure more but I tried not to watch too closely. I will be the first to admit that my driving can be a little crazy at times but the streets here are total chaos. More about this later.

We arrived at the Yellow Crane Tower and spent the next 1 ½ hours walking and climbing stairs with our guide Ira who explained the history of this magnificent site. The Chinese have such a rich history and are a very proud and really want to explain all the stories and folklore that accompanies each site. We started on the 5th floor and worked our way down to the 1st and of course we had to stop on the 3rd floor at the souvenir shop. Ira explained to us that the previous tower only had 4 floors in it but when that burned down they decided to add an extra floor to house the souvenir shop. I think they got that idea from us. One of the most amazing things we saw was a huge group of soldiers all in uniform scrubbing the towers 3rd and 4th floor. It was very cold and they were hanging off the sides, on ladders and on their knees scrubbing every spot of the tower. I asked Ira if this was done on a regular basis and he said no, they were cleaning the tower because a “big potato” was going to visit. I assume that is the same as a “bigwig” to us!! You realize that some of the phrases we use do not translate too well. So after buying a few gifts we headed back down to the entrance and to our waiting driver and his WARM car. I think Anna and I were the only cold ones; Jia-Li had on her favorite orange snowsuit and didn’t seem to mind the cold.

We headed back home but we were told that the trip home would take an extra 20 minutes because the road to the Yellow Crane Tower was a 1 way street and so we would have to go across a very large bridge and then turn around and come back. We were just so glad to be in a warm car that we didn’t mind the extra few minutes. However our driver had something different in mind. Out of the blue and traveling at about 40 mph her decided that he was going to do a U turn. In the middle of a 4 lane highway!! He didn’t even wait until there was a break in traffic; he just slowed down and turned right in front of about 30 cars traveling in the opposite direction. I just laughed and wondered how that would work back home on I-595!!! We made it back in one piece and with any luck tomorrows trip to the museum won’t be quite as crazy.