Chan Weng Kit's Blogspot: DAY 700

Aug 2

1) So that's about it - my final day here in Suzhou, China. I attended my last morning seminar, at which Chris gave a brilliant presentation in English. Immediately afterwards, he gave me a brilliant tie tack bearing the "Soochow University" logo. When I asked him if he really wanted me to have this, he said he would get another one after completing his PhD. I felt quite touched that he would give something as precious as that to me. Half anticipating this, I had the night before prepared a sketched portrait of the two of us, taken from the time we saw the sunset at Dushu Lake. I'm not an artist by a long shot, but I suppose that's the best I can come up with.

2) As part of my own "farewell dinner", I had planned to go for a seafood buffet at "Duolunduo" (多伦多). After inviting Niamh, we got on more people from our labs to come. At 4.30pm, we booked a taxi to Suzhou Center (苏州中心), where the buffet is located. We had to wait till 5.30pm for the buffet to begin, but boy oh boy was it worth the wait. I have never seen such a vast array of dishes from all corners of the world. Particularly fascinating was the seafood spread, which truly lived up to its name of a "seafood buffet"!

3) In between all the food and drinks, servers would wheel out extra dishes such as durian pizza (!), and offer us coffee and extra drinks. All in all, it was well worth the 130 yuan price. After our dinner, we walked outside the shopping mall and across to the promenade, chatting away for what seemed like an eternity. Then Chris suggested that we take the subway to the next stop, which would be right across the lake - affording us an even better view of Suzhou Centre. Sadly, by the time we reached, the lights had been switched off!

4) That did nothing to dim the conversation though, as we walked along the now dimly lit promenade, stopping finally to rest on some steps just beside the lake. As it was approaching 11pm (and my transport to the Pudong International Airport was at 3am!), we had no choice but to call it a night. Our friends helped call a taxi for the both of us back to our apartment, where I spent a sleepless night awaiting the ride back to the airport. That would be the conclusion of my stay here in Suzhou, I honestly do not regret one moment of it. As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. And this was one of the very best...

5) And that concludes today's edition of my blog. Thank you very much as always for visiting my blog, and have a great week ahead. Cheers! :)