Don in Tha House

Jenny’s dad was in town for the weekend. He arrived about two hours after we got in from Singapore, so we just waited at the airport for him. His visit gave us a good excuse to visit Gulangyu island, for which we were woefully unprepared. We had no idea where to go or what to do, other than a vague knowledge that there was some kind of aquarium on the island. Which there was. We visited the aquarium and...I know I shouldn’t compare aquaria in the first and second worlds, but until I saw the Xiamen aquarium I had always rated aquaria as among My Favorite Places. But then, the Shed Aquarium and Monterey Bay Aquarium have pretty much spoiled all other aquaria for me.

Actually, if they had dispensed with the sea lion and dolphin show, and exceedingly sad penguins, it would have been pretty nice. It had a walkthrough aquarium with an acrylic tunnel, which was downright capacious. but some of the fish literally had no room to turn around.

We did find a slightly fantastic junk/antique shop on the island. It felt a little bit like a set from a theoretical David Lynch/Kar Wai Wong movie. When I rustle up a few hundred 元 I think I might buy me some Chinese antiques.