Randomness and Shanghai

The kitties at our hostel in Xi'an






Funny English translations (that are all too common, unfortunately)











Last night we arrived in a canal town just outside of Shanghai. It looked something like the lagoon or Pirates at Disney Land. Beautiful, and authentic though. We took a canoe around the canal and then went for a bite -- tonight we dined on snails and frog legs (which was actually the whole frog). I had had escargot in Paris before, but the frog seriously...tastes like chicken. I'm almost getting used to these Chinese banquet dinners, and browsing menus filled with the likes of whole fish, duck's feet, sea cucumbers, and chicken heads.

Then we went out to a bar on the water and played a Chinese dice drinking game that got everyone thoroughly "happy". They had Chinese karaoke and I partook. The book contained exactly one western song with lyrics in English -- Frank Sinatra's Fly Me To the Moon. Apparently I was a big hit with the locals and they invited our group over to come drink with them. So we had a lot of fun, with Emma translating most of the night.

Today we arrived in Shanghai and went to the legendary acrobatics show. I took some artsy pics of it:

The acrobatics show in Shanghai


A guy and girl doing a silk rope act


Same.


5 motorcycles in 'The Ball of Death.'


The finale.

Various.

In the Xi'an streets.


The two Chilean bros., Raoul and Daniel, and me.


The canal town






A craw-fish holding a cigarette.


The bar in the canal town that we got drunk in.