Another Visitor.............. Another Tour...........
But no massage trip for this guest! No matter how many times I offered, he just didn’t seem interested. I think he had read Ed’s earlier posting about our last experience locally.
Dennis was in from our Atlanta office for the weekend. So it was off for another tour of Dongguan and all the sites of this big city. Much of the tour was the same as with Ed on his recent visit, but we did find many new spots too.
Our Saturday afternoon happened to coincide with another get together for Toby from the Royal Lagoon. An intern for the previous year there at my favorite haunt, Toby is moving on to brighter pastures in Hong Kong soon. For the last two weeks, there have been non-stop parties in his honor………. okay, maybe not his “honor”.... it’s more like “good excuses” to party. Saturday afternoon was no exception. This time the location was the new Wild Side Saloon. I had looked in on this western themed bar and restaurant on one other occasion, and even visited for a dinner recently (not the best western food in China), but this time we were there to party.
The main attraction at the Wild Side was a big bull! Okay the girls were pretty too. I was one of the few that didn’t venture a ride on the mechanical beast. Heck, I haven’t played golf in months, I wasn’t about to risk my bad back on a bull. No one got injured, but there were some sore legs and backs for the next few days by more than one rider! Bull riding in China…………. Who woulda thunk it!
We also toured the Dongguan City Central Square with all the fountains and museums. We even found some very old and interesting gardens, Kenyuan Gardens. A group of 13 of us gathered for Japaneses style tepanyaki dinner. And we took in the South China Mall, supposedly the world’s biggest mall……….. although it would be better billed as world’s biggest “ghost” mall. And I’m not referring to the mechanical ghosts in the Halloween tunnel. No this was more like a ghost town. Very few stores are open. The gondola ride is pretty neat going around the complex, but even it would be better billed as a speed boat ride rather than a gondola ride. Dennis seemed to enjoy the tour….. but maybe not as much as the girls at Wild Side.
