Asian backpacker

Since this was a semi unexpected stop, I had no idea what to expect from Wuxi. I was expecting some “small” city under development with no real sights worth visiting. But I obviously underestimated the power of Chinese people to set up tall high rise buildings like they were made out of lego.

I met up with Steven, a friend from back in Belgium, who’s going to be working here for 3 months. He’s been here before for a few months prior to this, but didn’t really get the chance to actually act like a tourist. He had a few days off before he had to start work so we spent the first couple of days together, biking around the huge city and discovering the hidden gems. One of the main attractions is the huge Taihu lake with many scenic spots. We biked and walked around several parts of the area and noticed a huge amount of people taking wedding pictures. I mean seriously… at one point, I’m sure I saw 6-7 brides walking around in their colorful gowns.

On one of the next days we took our bike and visited the Meiyuan garden (Plum garden). Personally I’m not that big of a fan of gardens and flowers and everything but for some reason my friend Steven seemed to be really into it from what you can see on the pictures. Nothing special to note, except a tourist place for some nice flower sightseeing and family picture ops.

One of the places I did like was Wuxi’s 1912 Bar Street. This street is filled with almost 20 different themed bars that run along the canal. Each of the bars have their own interior style, however most of the front of these bars in these streets have the same 1912 design. Even if you don’t fancy a drink in one of the bars, this places makes a good stroll at night with the illuminated street lanterns everywhere.

We did end up visiting a live music bar called Blue Marlin which serves decent dishes and live music starting at 8. The food was excellent, expat prices, but delicious. The main attraction however is the live band. The band itself is from the Philippines and can burp out English, Philippino, Chinese (mandarin), Cantonese, Korean and even Japanese songs! They take requests and me and Steven being fans of live music, put them to the test. Steven asked for Whitney Houston – I will always love you (GAY!) and I asked for Alicia Keys – Empire state of mind (with raps from the drummer). They nailed both songs perfectly and we went home with goosebumps afterwards….

I only stayed in Wuxi for a few days, taking my time to relax, hang out with my buddy and prepare the rest of my trip in South-East Asia, which was clearly needed since it’ll be quite hectic. After Wuxi, I went back to Shanghai for a few days and soon left for Bangkok, in time to celebrate Songkran!