KAROLINA KOPEK: Despite Shanghai being an absolutely mesmerizing city, staying there for a while can leave one feeling a bit locked in. After some emotional turmoil on a Friday night, I decided I needed to do something completely different when I wake up. Buying a plane ticket to Beijing for the next morning sounded exciting but too complicated and draining. So I decided to go to one of the surrounding water towns, Suzhou.
I have been wanting to visit the water towns since my arrival but my lack of Mandarin terrified me. I have already had enough experiences of being hopelessly lost without any English language nor people around me. Thankfully, I decided to stop thinking rationally and just let whatever happen to me.
I was still feeling a bit nervous, but a boy from Mexico miraculously moved into my hostel dorm and decided to join me five minutes after we met. It is better to be hopelessly lost with someone else, especially someone as irrational and fearless as Rafael. We watched little bats fly over us inside the canals, rode a tuk-tuk, almost crashed, and ran into the last train back exactly 50 seconds before the doors closed. The nighttime was so pretty that I secretly wished I missed the last train.
On a more interesting note, Suzhou was the home to the very first sex shop I have seen so far in China. None in Shanghai. What does that tell us?
Here are some photos:
Take me back!