The nights sleep in the TuLou was not bad and we woke in the morning with the couple already left, we had no hurry as the bus back to Xiamen was in the early afternoon and so we had an easy morning.
We met the restaurant owner and despite me having seen enough TuLou to never see one again, Chris still had designs on seeing a square goddamn Tulou. We asked the restaurant owner and he was very nice, he pointed us up the street and told us to just wander in, and if anyone asked for money to show his business card and tell them he said it was free!
We did exactly that and wandered around the town poking our heads into all the varied TuLou around the town in various states of usage and repair. From the immaculate refurbished tourist trap to the dilapidated run down one, to one converted into a restaurant to one mid regeneration! Square ones, round ones, half ones, crescent ones, we saw them all!
We also realised that half the town had broken off and become a walled in theme park style TuLou visitor attraction! We never entered it but saw the forests of tourists wandering around and the expensive entry costs! Much happier with our DIY cheap and cheerful approach!
We also walked along and found a tiny temple over a river and took some pictures, some of which I really like, came out beautifully!
In the town just before the bus arrived we went to a tea shop, had some tea and Chris bought a lovely little tea set, and some very expensive tea! along with some packs of tea to give to the teachers in the school as a gift!
We made our way back to the middle of town and the bus eventually turned up, we jumped on and settled in, 5 hours back to Xiamen we arrived at a random place in the outskirts and bus driver up and kicked us off, typical chinese bus driver! with no bus station in sight I managed to decifer the bus timetable enough to get us to the train station and from there on to our new hostel. On the bus however we realised that in our haste to get off, Chris had left his tea set and tea behind! Damnit! less than 6 hours we had that damn thing! At least it wasn't too expensive, and if there is one thing China sells, its tea sets!
The heat in Xiamen was really something and we were happy to dump our stuff in a new hostel. this became one of my favourite hostels in China as it was very friendly, very lovely staff and all very relaxed, in a beautiful colonial style building! When we arrived the guy asked without looking up if we had a reservation, in chinese, i replied in Chinese we did and he asked what name, when I replied Nathan he got very confused and looked up in surprise!
We spent the evening chilling in the bar and chatting with the staff as the hostel was pretty empty and in the evening headed to Xiamen port to the starbucks to drink an iced coffee and look out over the island and the bay from the rooftop terrace, very nice and very relaxing!
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