Just finished packing up my suitcase in preparation for our trip to Hong Kong. I'm already tired and haven't gotten to the photos from yesterday, yet. Hopefully I'll be able to work on the during the flight tomorrow.
The New Shanghai Circus was a bit odd, but great to see. There were several different acts, the first was contortionist women, followed by men juggling hats, then women doing acrobatics while twirling 4-5 plates, on 3 foot sticks, in each hand. There was also a pair of strong men doing acrobatics using only themselves and each other for balance, a group of women spinning a rubber toy on a string and doing acrobatics, women doing tricks on bicycles, men jumping through hoops, women throwing the rubber thing to each other, making pyramids, etc... these girls dropped a few, it certainly wasn't as polished as it should have been, but having tried to use one of those things, I give them a pass--it's a toughie. There was also a magician, which was oddly placed, she pulled decks of cards out of the air, turned things into doves, and did the swords through the lady in the box trick, but ended up taking 5 women out of the box in the end, instead of just the one. There were also things that made Cathy close her eyes, or peak through a small space between her fingers covering her eyes: two women on roller skates who spun each other from a rope on the leg or with a lasso connecting them by their necks, and finally, a sphere with motorcycles, first one, then another, then another, until 5 were inside.
The strangest part of that last one, was that the 3rd guy fell on his way out. Looked like he was really hurt, and they pulled the curtain to end the show before the other 2 were out of the sphere. I saw his headlight shatter... I couldn't tell if it was choreographed into the show or not, because he did come out to take a bow at the end with the rest of the performers. The tour guide said she'd never seen anyone fall like that before and I'm sure she's taken hundreds of groups to see the show.
After the 'circus' which was actually a stage show of odd proportions, we got back in the van and headed to meet David Packard and one of his roommates, Mike, for dinner. We had family style Chinese food... David & Mike ordered for the table. The great fiasco of dinner was asking the wait staff, none of which spoke only about 30 words of English, collectively, if they had "gin". We had only been given the food menu, the specials, and a wine list. Eventually after discussing the types of beer for the women, the men tried to question whether or not the restaurant had gin for their martinis-- it's their drink of choice, Bombay Sapphire martini, no vermouth, 3 olives. They finally found on the wine list that the only gin was Beefeater. They pointed, in what I assumed the attempt to request it in martinis, and the waiter ran away to fetch the entire bottle of Beefeater gin, and some glasses. Luckily, David and Mike showed up speaking enough Chinese to stop them from opening the bottle, sending it back and ordering some additional beers for the men. High Comedy.
My apologies things are getting more boring without the photos to break up the text. I'll try to get them up tomorrow... the unfortunate part is, I'm not sure we'll have internet access in the hotel in Hong Kong. We shall see.
Until the next time...
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