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Showing posts from March 13, 2008

Day 8: What?! How can it be Day 8 already?

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Cruising Suzhou"s Grand Canal Inside the Master of the Net's Garden And just like that, it was our last day in China. It's amazing how quickly the time went, like a "travel week" is an alternate unit of time playing out at a noticeably higher rpm than real time. On this, our final day, we heeded a lesson learned at the start of this trip...that not all "optional tours" are to be mocked, avoided and summarily dismissed. We already knew we had a great guide and an easy-going, enjoyable group, so we saw no reason to follow through on the original plan of venturing out on our own. Instead we signed up for the last tour and joined Michael, Mr. Bell/ Bill and all the rest on an excursion to Suzhou , a 2,500 year old city, saddled with the predictable moniker "the Venice of the East". The nickname comes from the city's abundance of canals and bridges, but truthfully, I was reminded more of Bangkok's klong district than Venic