Published by Swiss James on 20 Aug 2007 at 12:46 pm
RachelLynn
If you ever read the blog I wrote when I was in Korea, you’ll have seen the sentence
“Then me and RachelLynn stayed out until 6am and got hammered on soju”
written somewhere between 15 and 1,000 times.
Well RachelLynn is calling in on me this week, on her trip over land and sea from Seoul, South Korea to Vancouver, Canadialand.
So far she’s gone from Incheon to Qingdao and then taken a 19 hour, hard-seat train ride from Qingdao to Shanghai. Presumably it was on the crowded train that she caught the fever / flu that she’s still recovering from, which makes the journey pretty good value for money at 160 RMB.
In an effort to speed her recovery on Saturday night I got a blender at the weekend (thanks Craig!) and have been making fruit drinks packed with nutrition / Rum. Like Grandma always says, if a glass of Watermelon juice, crushed ice and enough Vodka to topple a Cow doesn’t fix what ails yer, you need a Priest not a Doctor.
She was well enough on Saturday to take a trip down to the Bund, the waterfront haven for tourists, pickpockets, hustlers and scallywags. If you like looking at tall buildings and being asked whether you want to buy a fake Rolex, you’ll LOVE the Bund.
This season’s collection
The weather was fantastic, clear blue skies, little fluffy clouds- everyone along the front was smiling in the sunshine. We took the ferry across to Pudong, sat on the terrace of Element Fresh and watched the last rays of dusk sink behind the old banks and insurance buildings of Puxi.
Sunshine brings out the umbrellas, downtown.
To get out of toytown and back to Puxi, we took the Tourist Tunnel; the world’s most pointless and brilliant tourist attraction. It’s basically a very slow subway ride of one stop, with an unexplained and inexplicable sound and light show along the way.
“Liquid Mag-ma” goes the voice, as red LEDs flash around your transparent monorail bubble
“Fossil Variants” it booms again, as green laser beams ping off my shiny scalp and take out a child’s eye. It’s disorienting, baffling and brilliant, if you can’t go in person, some kind soul has videoed it for you..
WHOOOAAAA JAMES!!! Jamesie, Jimmers. I’ve got to have a tie like that chappie with the loudspeaker.
Just mark the package “Champagne c/o Korea” It will get to me. I’ll email you a picture of
10,000 won or a cheque for five English quids (you can get three ties for that sort of money here).
I’d quite like that megaphone as well as the shiny red tie so the next time someone has a 30 minute shouting match with a mate on his cell phone (after letting the phone ring for about 20 minutes at full volume as he stared at the screen) in the local snooker club I have a chance of matching him in the decibel department and shout “blah, blah, blah, blah ….”.
I liken that Tourist Tunnel ride to the Oompa-loompa powered steamboat in Willy Wonka (the orginal, not the blasphemous Depp version). I wonder if anyone has popped a sweetie and gone over/under it. I imagine it to be a hallucinogenic haven. Maybe that’s just me though.
That’s a great photo of your buddy Rachel. A shame she’s no longer blogging or at least allowing those who aren’t real-life acquaintances access to her new environs. She was a good read.
Champers- if I ever find where they sell those beauties, I’ll get one for you too. They look terribly expensive though- satin and embroidered gold thread I shouldn’t wonder
WoAi- now see, I’ve got a chinese phone, so I know they’re set at a reasonable speaker / microphone volume. It drives me mad when they shout into it as though it’s a paper cup on the end of a bit of string. It’s always the guys too, women seem able to keep it to a reasonable volume.
Scarletti- ah yes, a fine simile. Do you remember the bit in that scene where you see a chicken’s head being cut off? It must be the strangest children’s film ever made
bgp- well she says she gets some weirdos leaving weird comments that freak her out, so she likes to keep it on the QT. If you email me I can ask her for the secret key if you like!
I’d quite like to join the secret club as well, especially since I have met her in the flesh and found her to be very agreeable. I promise not to leave too many weird comments which only happen when I forget to take the meds!
Mark my words, she’s trouble that girl, TROUBLE!!!