Walkabouts 1 & 2: Men, their bikes and a Monkey
Ni hao. I’m on my second day solo now. SW is comfortably back at work. I had my first walk about yesterday…wasn’t very long….but I got out there….went and bought some groceries, and came home…hat was the extent of my adventures. It was freezing….Im pretty much travelling with my scarf, gloves, new A & F jumper and the beanie that wingman gave me for my Army expedition….i feel so toasty and warm.
SW had to stay a bit later last night, so I cooked her some dinner for when she got back. Yesterday was quite relaxed. Last night though, I walked out into the balcony in the freezing cold…but was somehow nice….i looked down, and there was a gentleman…by the uniform he was wearing, he was a cleaner of some sort….he had a bucket and soap, and a basket full of clothes…he was washing his clothes in the public gardens. Then, he would neatly, and gently hand them on the nearby tree…..it was amazing.
Today, I felt I would go on a longer walk about. But first I wanted another A & F jumper. Packed my camerea and off I went. Left our building and meandered around the many stray cats running about in our complex. Navigated around the bikes and got to the main streets.
The main streets are an experience. There are so many people here. It is just continuously busy. And every couple of hundred metres, you will hear a horn. Either a bike horn, motor bike horn, car horn or bus horn…..even a bell…..or a speaker on a bike advertising something or other. It’s really quite cool. Crossing the street is entertaining…..but not as bad as Vietnam I’ve been told.
So I got my jumper and for the same price. So happy with that. Then I decided to walk around the block……a bloody big block. I felt quite weird.
a) Im white and western
b) I’ve got an expensive camera hand around my neck
The looks and stares were continuous.
I decided to turn left into a street that was a lot less western and a lot more shanghainese than where we live. There, I was a little spooked – more so cause I’m carrying expesive gear, and the people don’t really have much…you can’t help but thing….”When am I going to get mugged…..be on the look out…” but I tried to keep calm, and I just took photo’s….with many staring at me with that look….”What the hell are shooting or doing?” It turns out that that left turn I did, followed by the second left, led me straight back to my living complex……but I wasn’t done….so I continued on the other main street…..
It is amazing….there are bikes everywhere……and cars…..Buiks everywhere….they seem to be almost regal here….as I walked, I saw massive villas, outside….the poor….men on there bikes carrying rubbish….or sweeping or balloons….others, on there taxi bikes….every now and then, some one will stop and ask me in Chinese if I would like a lift….the only communication….nodding yes or no….I kept on walking and arrive at an intersection….BUSY….cars and bikes everywhere….little shops every….
It’s amazing…1KM backwards….Im in a more western spot, and not as busy…..here….Shanghai….
About 20 metres to my left, some fella and a baby on his back had crossed the road….but not using the crossing bit…..and then he got to a point where he couldn’t cross no more. So he just stood still…with the baby….and cars just flashed passed him….eventually he got across…..it was crazy….I decided it was time to head back and eat…about 2k away….walking back through the many chinese this time didn’t seem as spooky…..
Yesterday I noticed, that clothes are hanged outside the window….but I didn’t get how they physically hung them…today I realised how…..there is a horse shoe type thingy….big one….more square like….attached to each window of each apartment complex…..and a couple of big long rods are fed through a couple of hoops….these rods can be brought into the home through the window……the pole is fed through the holes and then through the hoops and lie gently on the horse shoe thingy….your very own chinese Hills Hoist…..almost
Walked passed a driving range under construction….the mixture of poor and rich is amazing…….you are surrounded by both……that it almost seems to be 1 class only….not poor nor rich…..just Shanhainese…..
As I walked passed the grocery store….called City Store…where all the westerners go…prices are crazy….”luxury” items like strawberry jams or crisp chips cost 2 or 3 times as much as they do back home….and as you would expect…outside that store….beggers….as I walked passed….1 begger approached a group of Chinese….and begged…but followed one of them to his car…..the beggar dragged with tied to a metal chain…..a monkey……on the lift of his right hand…the monkey would a somer sault. On the lowering of the right hand, the left hand would raise up with a hat, where he expected to see some $$ in there…..the poor bugger didn’t get anything…..one guys, shooed him off and pointed in the other direction…telling him where to go…almost in disgust…..it was a scene…something we are just not used to in Australia. I feel lucky that I have been around this in Mexico….but it doesn’t change how you feel about it….how lucky you feel to have what you have….I wished I had the right lens on my camera to take a photo….but I felt, though, that at that point, it wasn’t the right thing to do.
I continued on home. I walk down Hong Mei Lu….our street….it is full of complexes…each one with it’s own security…..in each about 5 or 6 different apartment blocks…about 13 stories high…..as I walked passed 1, I heard some yelling, and a westerner walked passed me with a smile…..two security guards, one female and one male….were having a tiff…..shop workers round the corner were giggling at their antics…..I kept on going.
Back to the apartment where I finished of the best Doritos I have tasted, as I sat in front of the Idiot box watching cable TV…..and typing this….while outside, the beggers beg, the poor sweep and the only slightly less poor, ride a taxi bike asking you if you need a lift. The difference is just sad. Astonishing and disgusting. Disgusting in a way that the world is like this.
I will be walking in the opposite direction tomorrow. Photos can be found here:
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- Published:
- January 6, 2009 / 06:32
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- Shanghai
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