Thursday and all is well, well apart from the sunburn or windburn that I received yesterday. I went for a walk around the lake yesterday which is around 14km. I walked anti-clockwise, heading east and so the sun was on my back until I reached the end of the lake. It’s still a cool day but with the sun on my back I soon warmed up and it felt marvellous.
When I crossed the “Ren Bridge 人桥” or “People’s Bridge” I came across one of the new stations of the new metro line and because of this I was unable to continue along the path around the lake and the detour was quite far, so I jumped on one of the free Suzhou Green bikes. I haven’t been on one of these bikes for ages and it was great to get back on me bike, so to speak. I found one of the older bikes; they are slightly larger than the new ones. The saddles just don’t go high enough on the new bikes and so when you peddle you end up putting too much pressure on your knees.
I soon turned a corner and headed west back towards home and then I was running parallel to the lake once more. I took off me beanie because of the heat and I wasn’t wearing a mask either but instead enjoying the fresh air as I cycled home. I was cycling into the sun and into a bit of a head wind but I made good time and got home for a well deserved coffee on the balcony.
When I got up home my face felt like I was on fire and when I went into the bathroom I could see the reason why, my face was Scarlet O’Hara and I felt that I was running a temperature which is not the kind of thing you want to do in China at the moment, especially when I hope to leave the country in two days time. I also felt knackered and quite rightly so because I had walked over 20,000 steps, cycled 10km and I had also gone to the park in the morning. By 9pm I was tucked up in bed.
This morning I got up after 7am and after breakfast went back to bed. My face still felt warm but it wasn’t quite the beacon it seemed to be last night. I had a shower and then applied some cream to try and take the colour away. I can’t believe I managed to get sun burn at this time of the year, I mean the UV is not that high so I rarely use sun cream. So hopefully by Saturday it will have gone back to normal or maybe I might start to look a bit “flaky” by then.
After lunch I went to the Suzhou Bus Station to enquire about the airport bus, but alas it ain’t running yet. I have a train ticket for Saturday to get me part of the way but I really don’t fancy fighting my way to the airport with two cases and a backpack so I have decided to go by taxi which is costing 400 rmb which is about $90 which is quite a lot but at this time with the virus an all I thought that I would be safer in a car by myself and it means that I don’t have to fight with my luggage trying to get to the airport. This is the normal price for one car, usually I pay 100 when I share the car so on this occasion which may be my last trip out of China for a while, well Shanghai, I thought what the hell. This would still be way cheaper than getting a taxi in Brisbane back to my house and it would only take around 40 mins instead of the 2 hours that it will take on Saturday to get from home to the airport, so it is comparatively cheap.
I have packed my big case and it is a fraction under 23kg. My smaller case and my pack back are not ready yet. I have too many things and although getting to Sydney with everything is no problem, it’s when I get on the second regional flight that they might be picky if I am overweight so I am trying to keep the weight of my back pack and second case to around 8kg each which should keep me about right but you never know what the reaction will be when you go to the check in counter. Sometimes they surprise you and hardly give you a glance and just process your booking but this being Australia I don’t feel that I will have that kind of luck.
So I will leave one case here with some odds and sods and if I don’t see again it will be no great loss. As I said before I really don’t think that I will be back here in a hurry. I feel that my two years in Suzhou have been quite amazing and I have done so many things I would have never dreamed of experiencing and so now this chapter of my life has come to an end. So many stories to tell and I’m glad that I have kept this blog going for that time because I will be able to look back over the good times and the not so good. I’ll miss a few of the really good friends that I have met here and they have made my life here enjoyable, interesting and privileged. I have been a VIP guest at more occasions than I could ever have dreamed of, given speeches and presentations and even learned a bit about Chinese life and culture along the way. Had more free meals than I can remember, I’ve been the guest of honour, I’ve been to a state banquet and made videos, had interviews with TV stations and other local media. I have been very lucky but at this point I want to get off this merry go round and go back to the west for a bit but maybe in a month or more I will be wanting to run away again, who can tell………..only time will tell.
But of course being in China during this Covid 19 outbreak has been boring and yet interesting and confronting. Interesting to see how the Chinese people deal with such a situation, how they just follow the rules with no complaints and how their faith in the government is astounding, Xi Jing Ping can do no wrong on the surface but there has been a bit of a surprising backlash from many on social media but the internet censorship pulls down such messages as quick as they are put up. Your phone keeps track of you everywhere here. Every movement logged and collated. At the supermarket, on the bus, the metro, the train and just by moving through the city you are constantly bombarded with government propaganda about keeping the community safe and you are encouraged to shop anyone that is not doing the right thing.
And so I will leave this all behind for a while and yet I will miss the convenience of using my phone for almost everything, not having to use physical money is great. I’ll miss the food most I think; I love the local Muslim restaurant food and now I will have to make my own food once which I’m not looking forward to. However there are some things that I will not miss and that is the noises made while eating and some of the other terrible habits that many Chinese possess.
Going back to a less populated place is also a good thing. Suzhou has a population of 11 million and so when I go back to Australia I will be going to Armidale which I think has a population of around 35.000 so it will be a wee bit different and of course there are no skyscrapers as we have here. It will be good to look out the window and not look into someone else’s house and of course it will be good not to be looked at by someone else all the time. So as you may have gathered I am ready for a wee change but I will be back at some time to visit some places in the North West of China at a later time. But until then it’s time for a change.
