July 31st-The almost broekn arm

Well...Its kind of fun to know I am writing this on the 31st while all of you are sleeping during August 1st. Its like I am some ghost from your past! Ohhh spoooookkkkkyyyyy noises!!
Ok, enough of that. I wish I could post pics on here. This must be kind of boring to read without something to see with my wonderful words. But I will post a ton of photos and some fun descriptions on them when I get back. I will probably include a section titled: "What Matt and KC would have said to each other upon seeing this". Hopefully Matt P. is reading this. So Matt....and NH folks you have had to suffer/gotten to enjoy a running dialogue between Matt and KC (and Kenny too) about skit ideas for a comedy show....let me tell you Matt and Kenny, we could have a whole season of shows just based on things in Shanghai. We could probably do at least three shows on the gross mistranslations of english that are everywhere. There are some t-shirts I have seen that I just had to do a double take on. Inspirational shirts about going out and seizing the dog....again, hopefully just bad translations. (that being said, I did see a place today that I am pretty sure sold dog meat. It had a few pics of dogs on its menu...and was next to a pet store shack-you do the math)
Today's adventure in Shanghai was "Places you can't take pictures of". I probably could, but I chose not to. Today, in my effort to find the temple of books and its big book market (i found it-didnt want to pay admission to go in and every book was in chinese of course) I found myself down some back streets of Shanghai. INcredibly poor streets. The kind the government is not going to put on a flyer any time soon. I am talking about just open tiolets, over flowing sewers, community bathrooms (it looked that way-I could be wrong) and of course the restaurant that I think sells dog meat. It was an amazing place to walk through. I got a lot of laughs and stares, but I didnt mind today. Today I was pretty sure I was one of few westerns to make my way down that part of the road. I just thought that taking pics of it (and from an artistic standpoint there were some AMAZING shots) would have felt wrong. I know I probably would not like it if someone came into my neighborhood and starting taking pictures of how I live, because its bad or that different then their style. I paused a few times and started to reach into my bag, but I just couldnt do it. The experience was enough for me. Unfortunately for you, words will probably not be able to describe it. Also, at certain points, one could see the skyscarpers of Pudong looming in the distance. Kind of an interesting contrasting pictures. When the government decides they want the land (and they will-today i was on a street that on one side was what we would describe as shanties, and on the other side was construction on luxury condos) these people will probably just be cast off into the abyss. You can say its a violation of their human rights. ANd you could probably say that sometimes you have to look at the big pictures. I dont know. I have an opinion of course, but I am sure the woman at the business center is watching me type, and is probably reporting me to the government censors as you read this.
Tomorrow I am off on my flight to Chongqing, the so called furnace of china. Ug. This sadly might be my last blog until next Tuesday or Wednesday. I know my hotel Wednesday night has a business center, but I am note sure about the one in Chongqing and the one on tuesday night in Shanghai. I am positive when I am on the boat I will not be able to post on the blog. So to keep you on the edge of your seat, here is the agenda for the next few days:
Aug 1st-Fly to Chongqing, find me a hot pot! (and watch the line dancing at night in the People's Square)
Aug. 2nd- more Chongqing
Aug. 3rd- Board the boat, go down the Ynagzi river
August 4th-Yangzi
August 5th-Yangzi/Yichang/fly to Shanghai-that night is time for the night market! ( I had some street food today-some kind of pork on a stick, it rocked! I can not wait for the night market! Fried dumplings and questionable meat here I come!)
August 6th-Pudong exploration-then checking into both the most expensive hotel I have ever stayed at, and the talled hotel in the world. Today when I was DRIPPING sweat I was dreaming about the pool in this hotel, the highest pool in the world...
August 7th-8th: Fly to Vancouver, Seattle, red eye to Richmond, then sleep for about 25 hours.

Well, hopefully I will get to post again. At the very least, I have a 4 hour layover in Vancouver and a 5 hour layover in Seattle. I will try to post then at the latest. Then once I get back to Richmond I will post some nice pics on here. Namaste

Kevin