A walk up a mountain

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It's Tuesday afternoon and I am lucky enough to be sitting on a comfy chair on my balcony enjoying the beautiful weather that we have here in Hangzhou today. The temperatures are in the low 70's F today and after spending the day with my friends shopping and stopping for lunch at a local tea house, I am now enjoying the peace and quiet of this tranquil afternoon. (Can you tell that the girls are still at school!!!)

I feel like the last week or so has been very busy here so I may need to write about our adventures on several blogs so bare with me....

Saturday 7th- We were invited with some friends to a day out with our driver Shen De. He is the head of his "tea" village and so he wanted us to go for lunch at his aunt’s tea house and then follow it with a hike up the mountain. It had been raining for days and this was a dry pleasant day so we took him up on his offer. Well lunch began with a treat for the girls. Shen De has learned from our many conversations that Megan and Sophie can be a little fussy when it comes to authentic Chinese food. I had told him they would eat rice but that wasn't good enough for him so he went out and bought them 2 buckets of KFC. Sophie also brought her French friend Marjolaine with us so it was very amusing to see 3 young faces light up with excitement at the offering before them. Of course they had only finished their breakfast an hour ago which consisted of pancakes and bagels and so weren’t particularly hungry. I was proud of them though because they still ate some of it, and left the rest for later. Their manners shone through without prompting (maybe there is a crack in that brick wall I talk to all the time, because something had penetrated!!)
Next it was our turn to eat and I am happy to report that all the food or should I say 99%of the food was delicious. No bones in sight which is such a bonus here! There was one item though that was just too much to bear…no kidding; they gave us “stinky tofu” which is a favorite here but its tofu that is marinated for months in fermented milk. Ok, do you think you would like it??? The smell was so bad I was ready to hurl just by having it near me and wouldn’t you know they were all watching me to see how I liked it. Never again will stinky tofu pass my lips!! I seriously can’t find the words that would describe to you how bad it was for me.
Anyway after lunch we headed for our hike up the mountain. A good walk would be good for us and we were all excited to see the view at the top. It started well with a beautiful pathway through a bamboo forest, along a little brook, stopping at a little temple to pray for wealth (the girls prayed a long time!!!). Then we were faced with it….steps! To be precise there were 1000 steps. Apparently this is what hiking in Hangzhou consists of! We started off Ok, I mean I have been trying to do my exercise walking tapes several times a week so sure I could handle some steps. It nearly killed me! I couldn’t breathe and I had stitch and basically looked like a 90 yr old women walking up these steps. Our friends John and Cheryl had a tough time too but eventually we made it to the end and were excited to see the view. Ha…no view!!! There was another shabby looking temple up there and a toilet from hell and plenty of trees but no damn view. We couldn’t believe it… and of course now we had to walk all the way down!! Someone needs to bring the Chinese to the western world to show them how to go hiking!!!!
Thankfully we all survived and actually felt fine by the time we got home and relaxed a little. That was until…… Sunday morning!! I couldn’t get out of bed because of the pain in my calf muscles. The 90yr old had returned and I got older as the day went on. By the evening I could hardly walk. I certainly was not going to forget this “hike” in a hurry.
Monday 9th- FOOT MASSAGE! Oh yes, what do the people here do after a long walk? They go for a foot massage. I couldn’t spoil any traditions so my friend Andrea and I decided to go for a foot massage as a means of lessening my pain. I took 3 ibuprofen in preparation of the pain and off we went to the “Dragonfly” spa. I loved it! It was not a torturous event as I had expected in fact the dragonfly’s philosophy is to relax you rather than fix all ailments by pushing on every pressure point. My boy and yes I could probably have been his mother, had the hands of an angel and he could have massaged me all day. First he massaged my back and neck briefly, then my arms and hands (all while sitting) and then my head before I moved to another chair that I could lie back in so that he could work on my feet and lower legs. It was sheer heaven and then wouldn’t you know, he bowed to me before leaving. Heck I should have been on my knees bowing to him! This was definitely a place I would return to...

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Photos

KFC
Megan, Sophie and Marjolaine (friend) tucking into KFC

3 Wise Monkeys
Megan, Sophie and Marjolaine praying for wealth

Steps
Just a few of the 1000 steps

Lunch
Lunch for the adults

Temple/Shrine
The temple/shrine that apparently walked up to see

Exhausted
4 deperately tired souls!!!!
(Kevin, Claire, Cheryl & John)

Trough Toilet
This is the worst toilet we have seen so far. There was no flushing system so you can imagine how it looked in the trough and how it smelt!

Our driver and friends
Shen De and friends