For the second half of the day we plan a visit to the downtown area. We have heard both that it is beautiful and dangerous and we are not sure which one is true. Probably both of them are true depending on where you are I guess. We first decide to park on the north side of downtown near the Lan Su garden which are supposed to close in 30 mins when we arrive but still we want to try. Even while driving to the parking garage and from the garage we can see lots of homeless people and tents on the streets, it is not an area we would feel safe in the evening really. Otherwise it looks quite nice with the fall colors and the steel bridges over the river as we walk towards the gardens.
The garden is relatively close but the problem is avoiding all the homeless tents on the sidewalks, it feels weird to walk close to tents with someone sleeping in them, maybe.
The garden is unexpectedly open and we find out that the close time is one hour later than advertised on the website, which is great as we can actually visit them. Entering them feels like entering a fortress as the garden has a wall around it and the gate is opened by a security officer you cannot simply enter it. This does not make us feel safer walking the downtown area really.
inside it is peaceful oasis, it feels like you are transported to a different country and era. We really enjoy Oriental Gardens and this one is quite beautiful and we try to explore it as much as possible even as it seems that the rain is approaching this area.
The decor is quite beautiful with trees arranged carefully and colorfully and of course when we look in the water we glimpse the usual colorful fish that always take residence in these gardens.
Some of the details that we find interesting are the many bonsai trees spread throughout the garden and especially the tiger made out of crysanthemums, it is quite fun and the highlight with every visitor trying to take photos with it.
We do not escape the rain unfortunately as it starts while we are still looping around the lake. We quicken our pace eyeing the buildings that can be visited to hide from the rain until hopefully it passes.
There are a few buildings that can be entered and they are quite interesting also with each trying to represent a trade in China like scribe, painter and so on.
We explore them for some time escaping the worst of the rain but still in the end we have to exit them as it is getting late and close to the garden closing time.
We take one more look from a protected gazebo over the lake to the modern buildings that break our immersion into the medieval vibe of the gardens. Still we are happy that we were able to visit this oasis especially during the crysathemum festival which means they are everywhere in the garden.
Back outside the rain has stopped but again we have to pick our way carefully to avoid the many tents on the sidewalks. It is a bit annoying that they were allowed basically everywhere as that makes walking here feel both unsafe and uncomfortable.
After our exploration of the north side of downtown it is time to move towards the Central area as we relocate our car to another cheap, for Portland, parking garage. Here the rain is stopping and starting almost randomly so we explore a few stores outside and then decide to find the mall to escape the bad weather.
This area of the downtown is devoid of tents and feels much safer with more shoppers walking around. Likely this is due to the relatively upscale mall and stores anchoring the larger area and that is where we enter.
We explore the mall for a while looking at the strong rain outside from the glass walkway, buying souvenirs and even some dinner before exiting for one more walk across the neighborhood during a lull in the rain.
While the area feels safer and it is nicely illuminated and has some nice statues it is still a bit stressful especially as homeless person appears and starts to scream incessantly while walking, it is quite weird and a bit scary. As we try to avoid him and also to take photos of the statues we manage to hit ourselves on one of the deer in the middle of the sidewalk. Bad, bad deer!
Returning to our accomodations for our last night spent on the east side we eat the dinner we bought in the mall and are happy we were able to buy some souvenirs as we are not sure if we will find souvenirs in any of the other places we are planning to visit.
