Day 9

Today's mandra was a bit different........ "Hey you - Meester.....MEESTER!!!  Com here!!!  I have best!  Old.....OLD....no one else have what I have.  Everyone else have same 'cept fo me.....I have deeferent!  I garantee it!!!" "Hey laadee, com here! I have best!  Very old, one of a kind!  You trust me!  ONE OF A KIND!!!  How many yu want?" Dong Tai Liu is an antique row that makes Snohomish look like Nordstroms.  It is lined with vendors who all have antiques and collectables that you can not live without.  I have attached a couple of pics but since I am "remoting" this via e-mail I am not sure where they will end up on here.  They are of the street both ways from where we were standing. You can find a lot of stuff here you won't find elsewhere.  Lots of Terra Cotta Soilders, swords, statues......all "very old, you trust me!" Diane and Diane were looking at a bunch of hair "stuff" they absolutaly would need so I wandered.  I found a sword I thought interesting and pulled it out of it's sheath.  "Very old" I hear from behind me.  "You tell because blade is all rustee".  I'm like "yeah, no the blade is 'rustee' because it's tin and you left it out in the rain". When I was a lot younger my parents and grandparents had an antique/gift shop.  I learned a lot about antiques and one thing that is global, no matter if you speak the language or not, is the age of stuff.  Most of this stuff was somewhat new with a few exceptions.  One lady had a sword that was made of stone.  She said Jade but I'm not up enough on stone to tell you if that was true or not.  She wanted about 1,200 Qui for it - about $90.  I thought I'd screw with her and offered her 20 Qui.  It hought she was going to take the sword off of the wall and attack me with it! Another lady had a sword that she kept telling me was jade but when I would tap my finger against it it sounded suspiciousally like tin - I'm no expert but...... I did find a long shoehorn that I liked.  I have a small collection of them in the fitting room of my office and thought it might go well with them.  I'm told it is copper - uh huh - but it is pretty so I asked the guy "Dou shou qian" and was told 120 qui - not.  So I offered him 30 and we went back and forth for about 8 minutes.  We finally settled on 40.  $6 was probabally more than I should have paid but I like it and you never know, when I polish it up it just may be copper.  Either way, "one of a kind, very old, you trust me". After walking the street and having my backpack fillied with MUCH more than I bought (hmmmmm, those "silly spirits" as Diane called them must have been putting stuff in it while I wasn't looking!) we went to lunch at Simply Tai.  Had a nice lunch and then headed to the Fabric Market to pick up Diane's coat.  It is beautifull.  They did a wonderfull job and she looks awsome in it.  I ordered a - well, you wouldn't call it a suit jacket but not really a blazer either - and a shirt.  We will pick them up today and hopefully they will turn out as nice as Diane's.  And we found out I have a Chinese name!  It is "Su-ko-t".  Sound farmiliar?  The lady is going to embroider my name in Chinese on the cuff of the coat too!  We then came home and prepared to go to dinner.  Pete, Diane, Nick, Taylor, Diane and myself all went for a walk on the "Bund" before dinner..  It is like a boardwalk by the river but cement.  The view was amazing.  We had a wonderfull dinner outside in the open air with a view of the river and watched as the city came alive with lights and more people.  It was an incredible site. After dinner we came home, Pete and I had a cigar on the front porch and then we went to bed knowing that tomorrow would be another exciting day.