The Human Hamster . . .

or How Alex Single Handedly Jump Started a Local Man's Business.

Nanchang is not a tourist destination. You won't find many people who speak English outside of our hotel, and even the hotel staff's English has it's problems. So if you are a lazy soul like me and don't take the time to learn the language, you'll find yourself experiencing unplanned adventures.

Case in point. There is a huge ferris wheel on the other side of the river from our hotel that we wanted to go to. We thought we'd take advantage of our free day to get a cab over there, take a picnic lunch and let the kids run amuk. We asked at the front desk what the park was called and how to get there. They gave us a card to show the taxi driver to get us there. Great! We leave the hotel going the complete opposite direction from the river and the wheel. Not good. We end up in the center of the city, at Ba Yi park which is a communist memorial. Very popular tourist site. If you are a Chinese tourist. Oh well. We had our picnic in the concrete park. Had an older lady park her little wooden stool two feet from us and just sit and stare. Again, payback for the photos taken at the geriatric playground in BJ. We went to the 3 story WalMart across the street from the park (reminds me of an earlier posting about juxtipositions) and let Kate pick out a few books and a toy. Looked at the interesting "food" items. Then grabbed a cab back "home".

Nanchang is also a great place to eat on a budget. We've had the most amazing dinners with more food than we could ever hope to finish for $20 including a couple of local beers, a pitcher of watermelon juice and endless cups of green tea. Fabulously spicy and often of unknown ingredients, and last night accompanied by a show! Several catfish managed to escape and flopped right past our table.

Breakfast at the hotel is also an adventure. Partly because of all the incredible choices (again some unknowns) and partly upon the realization that in being focused on getting Kate through the buffet finding things she wants, Alex has managed to carbo load his plate with donuts and french pastries, with a slice or two of watermelon. Some of the things that I've had for breakfast while in China are fried noodle, rice, sauteed bean curd, Dim Sum (dumpling), a very spicy celery dish, croissant and coffee. Our last hotel had an omelet station while this hotel has the fried noodle station.

Last night after yet another fabulous meal, our group loaded up in a van to go check out the Nanchang Fountain Show (it's in the park with the Ferris Wheel; the park we didn't get to earlier today). Similar to the show in front of the Bellagio in Vegas, but far more elaborate and stretching for a mile along the river. It was choreographed to music with changing lights and lasers, and right in the center of the mile stretch (where we were standing) an old faithful style geyser that shot up about 80 feet.

The whole riverfront park area had a carnival feel to it (this happens nightly) with vendors selling T-shirts, snacks and various small attractions. One such attraction that we noticed while watching the fountain show was an inflatable pool about 25 feet in diameter, about 2 feet deep, that had 3 clear inflated rubber balls that were about 6 feet in diameter. Floating human hamster balls. We kept watching to see if anyone got in, but no one ever did. After the fountain show we headed over to the pool because we all wanted to get a closer look and Alex said he wanted to give it a try.

Twenty yuan later, less than $3, Alex was inside the rubber ball and being put into the pool. I may have mentioned that this is not a tourist destination, so while we may have drawn some stares and gotten attention in Beijing, we are a downright freak show here in Nanchang. So put a yellow-haired westerner in a big plastic bubble and you've got a show way more entertaining than that silly fountain show. Within seconds I couldn't get through the crowd that was surrounding the pool. Alex flipped and flopped, tried to walk, succeeding for a few seconds, then on his back. And a huge smile never left his face. Soon others were lined up with their 20 yuan in hand. When we left with an elated Alex all three bubbles were in use and looking at the line, they'd be busy for a while!