Beautiful pictures of Hangzhou

Some beautiful pictures from Hangzhou...

Third day in hz

Today was the last full day in Hangzhou so we spent it around the lake again, we did some more shopping, and ate some local food, some of which was tasty and some well... not so tasty! The local sweet fish thing was...an interesting taste! 

For dinner we went back to the food street again and grabbed some tasty snacks, as we left we decided to get a taxi and buy some fruit for a snack. We got into a small motorised three wheeled taxi and the guy started off in chinese about how handsome I was.... crazy! But he really would not shut up, talking to my friend about handsome I was, I made a few jokes about it, and asked him about his wife, (in chinese obviously) but still he carried on, eventually he dropped us outside and took our money with some more handsome comments.

We went inside and found that this supermarket had no damn fruit anyway! We went back outside and he was still there waiting for us! He shouted out and told us he would take us to an awesome place, we got back in and he drove us to another snack food street, much bigger than the last and much more interesting! We thanked him again and he wouldn't even take any more money, just wanted a picture with me before we left, so strange! 

We looked around this snack food street and bought a few things before heading back to the rooms again. I rediscovered today a fruit I had in thailand a lot and loved, apparently it is very common out here too! So cool! So I can eat that now, whenever I want, so cheaply! So cool! 

Second Day in Hangzhou

Woke up feel pretty disorientated and found that since I was underground the text I sent to Chris to say I was alive and found somewhere hadn't gotten through, and his text saying he had the got the train back home O.K, and forgot for a while I was in this strange massage place. As we came upstairs and out into the sunshine we had no idea where we were in some random part of Hangzhou, but it was morning and sunny, so we walked off into the city!

Walking around the corner we found that we were at West Lake, the most famous place in Hangzhou! And an amount of people you would not believe. It seems the whole 5mile side of the lake bordering the city was packed with people, a continuous stream maybe 5 wide, at least. It was crazy. More people than I even though existed, and it all fell into place why all the hotels were full. It was a national holiday and EVERYONE had decided to go to see Hangzhou in the autumn.

We took a few pictures around the lake and enjoyed the sunshine before heading towards the possibility of a hotel I had booked online the day before.

We got to this hotel, and it turned out to be a pretty expensive and damn nice hotel, I felt a bit guilty standing there in my shorts and t shirt, in this swanky lobby. 
I showed my phone with a screenshot from a computer saying that instead of paying at least £85 i only wanted to pay £35. For a long time they looked for my reservation but eventually found it, and I paid a healthy deposit, but I was promised it back when I checked out. 

I went up to the 11th floor and found a really nice room, a nice view (for china), and was very happy. Having a much needed shower we headed out into the city. We explored the famous traditional street and a couple of temples and shops around town.

In the evening we went back to the traditional street and the food court section, and pressing through a silly amount of people bought some tasty snack foods for dinner! 

Relaxing around Lingxi

Spent a few days around Lingxi, not really doing much, some shopping and bits and bobs really and just sleeping and catching up with my friend.

We were trying to decide between going south to Xiamen with its beaches and cleanliness but that we have both been to once and going north to Hangzhou, a city I have been to way too many times, but Okeeffe has never been to, with its lakes, temples, etc etc! 

In the end we decided on Hangzhou and managed to get two train tickets for tomorrow evening, unfortunately it seems our luck ended there as looking online we could find no hotels for less than around 600RMB a night, £60 I havn't got since I STILL havn't been paid! These 6 weeks are really starting to drag! 

In the end I booked a special rate hotel for only £33 a night, in quite a nice looking place, but didn't book anything for the first night, pretty sure we could find a place around the station or somewhere...

The next day we realised at 3pm that our train was at 4 and so ran around packing and getting a fast taxi to the station and made it into the train ok, after the journey we arrived at half 8 and found that Chris and his friend from chongqing were at the station too! We all met up and Chris said he had a lead on a room in the hotel next to where he and his friend were staying. I had met her before and she was nice so we all headed off in a taxi together to find the room. 

Upon arrival we found another guy had just taken the room, and was in fact still checking in! Damnit! 

Chris and his friend went off to get some dinner and we walked off to find somewhere to stay. As we walked up through Hangzhou we tried a few places we saw but had no luck, eventually we found an all night McDonalds and grabbed a coffee and a donut whilst making a plan. 

We decided to try a few more places before finding an all night Internet cafe if that didn't pan out and sleeping on the table! We walked along for a while looking at quite a few hotels and the ones with spaces wouldn't take foreigners! Apparently in Hangzhou only special hotels can take foreigners, crazy! 

Eventually we sat down to take a look at the map and eventually one of the numerous peddle taxis pulled over and okeeffe and him got talking. Soon for 10rmb he promised to drive us around Hangzhou until we found somewhere to stay.

The first few places had no spaces and just as it started to rain he started to let us stay in the cab whilst he ran out into the hotel, and considering it was after 1 a few times he had to wake the people up which he did, shouting in the doors and knocking on windows.

We found one place but after asking it was 500rmb for one room! and 1000 for two was way too expensive! The driver kept on and eventually drove us 30minutes across town to a place he knew, which, had no space either! Just as he turned around and started to leave he saw another place and he and okeeffe headed off to take a look.

I waited with the stuff and whilst I was watching the door realised that a girl standing outside was possibly....for hire... as it were, she was dressed a tad provocatively and as soon as a group of guys walked by perked up, and when they passed let it drop an went back to her phone. I got the all clear, they had space, would accept foreigners, and wern't too bad, i gave the taxi driver £5 in the end, a massive tip, but he was a really nice guy, and stayed out just to help us, so i wanted to repay the favour.

Going in there was a normal checking desk, they took the money and we followed another scantily dressed girl in a pencil skirt past a couple more young women and down some stairs into.....the weirdest place I had ever been to!

All the walls were mirrors, and the lights very low, lots of small rooms with a double bed, a shower, and no toilet, except for the one in the hall. The place was empty as by this time it was 2am but they showed us to a couple of small rooms. 

We chose whichever ones we wanted and on going in, found that they had no main light, only mood lighting, one wall glowed blue, and there was a small dim lamp. The facilities didn't include a duvet, only some blankets from a secret cupboard, and the babyoil was also on the nightstand. This place was definitely a massage parlour but it turns out my friend had done some kind of deal to let us stay, we had to leave by 12 the next morning but we managed to get a good   

bit of sleep ready for the first day in Hangzhou the next morning!

Attached a photo of the outside of the building and a slightly blurry photo of my room! 

Holiday time!

This week was the Chinese national festival and so the kids had no school and both Chris and I decided to go travelling.  We both have friends we know around china and so both decided to go our separate ways, Chris to hangzhou first whilst my friend experienced the amazing sights of our town before my friend and I later went on to xiamen or hangzhou.
I had to pick my friend up from wenzhou train station and so on Saturday morning i got an early start and got the bus to wenzhou and then a taxi to the train station. An hour later my friend arrived! We then had to negotiate getting back to lingxi on the first day of the national holiday! It was crazy!
We managed a taxi to the bus station but then we needed to get the bus, we got a ticket no problems but there was a queue of around 250 people for the bus to lingxi, with seperate huge queues for all the other towns around! I guess several thousand people at this one small bus station and a continual line of buses loading up and then heading out, the queue went pretty quickly, around a 20minute half hour wait i guess but as we left the queues were longer if anything, and this continued all day! Just the sheer number of people is just amazing.
Got back to linxi and got back to my place ok, grabbed some noodles and chilled out around the flat, O'Keeffe taking a quick sleep to catch up after his long trip!

They let him near children???

One of the students came to our house and another foreign teacher, who shall remain nameless, decided to help them download some movies for the holidays.
They really wanted Romeo and Juliet but unfortunately we didn't have it so he (not being good with computers) tried to download it for them whilst I was asleep.
The internet offered ten titles for download, 9 are different Romeo and Juliet films, one was an adult film of the same name, guess which one was downloaded..... Thank god it didn't finished in time for him to give it to them!