O.K. my friends would tell you this could only happen to me. I am packing to leave the hotel in Shanghai I pick up one of my bags and it begins to make noise, sort of like a frog. So I kind of kick it and it stops. I pick it up and it starts agian, I toss it in the bathroom and shut the door.

Amy arrives about 5 minutes later and now we are both freaked out, we are sure that there is a frog in the bag. Amy calls the maid, who calls another maid, who calls the supervisor and now 5 of us are between the room and hall with this noisy bag that no one will touch. I suggest, since none of the 5 girls are going to open the bag, that we call a man. Yes I know I hate to admit it but sometimes you just have to have a man.

The 2 male front desk managers, who are equally convinced that there is a frog in my bag, discover through tremendous effort that in fact there is no frog but rather my new headphones making some weird noise. We all stand there laughing hysterically, at me and my frog.

After the frog mystery is solved we are off to the Shanghai train station which is an experience all unto itself! A sea of people as far as the eye can see, all trying to get to the same place at the same time.

We rode the bullet train so it took only 30 minutes to arrive in Suzhou, not long enough. The weather is cold and wet in Suzhou today so we hustled out of the station into the cab line. China never ceases to amaze me, I look over and there is a brand new sleek Rolls Royce pulled up to the curb, clearly out of place.

We check into the hotel, the Suzhou Sofitel, and then go out for a bite to eat. The hotel by the way is definately a winner, not always the case here. We enjoyed a very relaxed Guangzhou or Canton style lunch and then headed back to the hotel, it is just to cold and wet to do anything else.

Tomorrow morning we will meet up with Pauline and head over to West Mountain for Bi Lo Chun.

Until next time, Beth