Woke up and decided to sort my train ticket for yangshou early so got into the train station on the same bus as i came in on, good old number 7! (seems a lot less scary now!) and queued up only to realise they shut for lunch at 12 and i was there at 20 to, was queueing up when a girl came over and was a wandering translator for the expo, they are all around china! she helped me to book a ticket for a few days time, hard sleeper, for around 30gbp, not bad for an overnight train! and i was in the last few before the half hour lunchbreak.
The problem is the train leaves from the next town over, an intersting problem but one best faced later in the week! but the woman did give me her card so I can call her anywhere if i get a problem, she is starting a translation business!
I then went back to the hostel and had a quick lunch of noodles from the shop!
I borrowed a bike from the hostel (for a small fee compared to free down the road but i want to repay all the favours they have done me and I'm not allowed to tip! and don't want to offend!)
I cycled halfway around west lake to a giant pagoda, most of which has been done recently, but the foundations which you can walk under and see are 1000 years old! it was very nice and again had my photo taken with random people!
It started to rain whilst i was in the pagoda but I shuned the overpriced tourist umbrellas and headed back to the hostel and just manned up!
When i got to the hostel it was shut and so i left the bike and wandered down to the shop and bought a local umbrella for a pound, bargain!
The rest of the evening I spent wandering around the sleepy tea village (the most famous tea area in china i hear!) in the rain and enjoying the warm rain, very relaxing!
I didnt manage to meet my random friend from yesterday but think I will drop him my email address tomorrow morning so we can stay in touch, and see if his crazy idea has any merits!
I really love this place, it is so beautiful and a world away from the big city just over the lake, I wish I could stay a few more days but think I will visit drew in Anji tomorrow (the american I met in Shanghai) and have a look around there, the bamboo scenes from crouching tiger hidden dragon were filmed there! So little time but I will hoep to come here again sometime!
I felt a little put out in the evening but on coming down to use the computer and without wanting to go too far for food I was forced by my lovely hosts to sample some home cooked chinese food, very delicious although how you pick the meat off the bones using only chipsticks I will never know, I waited until they wernt looking and just picked it off with my hands! haha, ah well, you take the yob out of england.....
Scary travelling tomorrow as it is all buses and they are the most difficult, no english and no route maps so lots of pointing but hey if i get really lost and confused I can stay anywhere, even affording a tourist hotel for a night if needs be! and call my translater friend to help with any real difficulty that pointing can't solve!
Update tomorrow from Anji....if i make it!
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