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!
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