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Published: July 29th 2009
Water Taxi
View from the window on the Water taxiOur last few weeks in China
There are only a few more weeks left before we have to leave our life here in Hangzhou behind. There are a lot of mixed feelings about leaving because we have loved our time here. We will be glad to get back to our house, friends and our dog Charlie but we also wish we could come back here so that we can visit a lot more wonderful places and experience our time in Asia to the full.
Megan and Sophie have been on summer vacation since the middle of June and it has been great having then at home so much although there are moments when we are lucky that all of us are still living at the end of the day. When tempers are high it is certainly a disadvantage to be cooped up in a small apartment !!!!
The weather is heating up now so we will have to see how long our “outings” will last. We have been told that the heat/humidity will become so high that it will be uncomfortable to go outside. The girls don’t have friends here anymore because everyone has left for the summer so
Water Taxi
Cheryl wondering what the crewman was doing “play dates” are out of the question we will be doing our best to occupy them……….
Water Taxi
The girls and I finally experienced a ride on the water taxi. This was my 4th attempt to ride on this boat so I was ecstatic to finally get on it. 1st attempt was in the rain and they changed the schedule so we missed it and got very wet getting around! We thought we were in luck on our 2nd attempt. We stood in line behind a group of Chinese pensioners and we were all relieved when the taxi pulled up. Of course they only allowed 3 people to get on and told the rest of us to get on the next one…which was coming in 1 ½ hrs!!!! 3rd attempt failed because my driver decided to try a new route to Cheryl’s house and I ended up being ½ hr late to get to Cheryl’s so we missed it again!!!! Our 4th attempt was going to be our last so I was so excited that we managed to get on. The boat holds about 30 people and was very comfortable and very cheap. Our 25minute journey cost the
grand total of 3 yuan (just less than 50 cents) It was nice to see the city views from the river. We passed under many bridges that had been painted with Chinese symbols and pictures. It was very picturesque and a nice change from the traffic jams we see in the car!
4th July
We decided that even though we were thousands of miles away from the US we were still going to celebrate its biggest holiday…July 4th (Independence day). Its quite ironic that we are English and we celebrate a holiday that marks America’s independence from England. When our home has been in the US for 9yrs it comes to reason that we celebrate as they do.
Anyway, there are very few American’s that we know left here in Hangzhou as most have gone for the summer so our celebration was going to be an intimate affair with our friends John, Cheryl and Tom. We may be in China but we were definitely not having Chinese food, so between us, Cheryl and I had planned on hamburgers, chicken, potato, macaroni, and green salads and cake for dessert. Yum
It was a quiet afternoon but an enjoyable
4th July
The troops enjoying the food one. It was nice to relax with good friends, great food and a few glasses of “whatever wets your whistle!” in the early evening we had a blast trying to ride on Toms electric scooter. The girls loved riding with dad or Tom and I was quite impressed that I was able to ride by myself. Of course the Chinese must have wondered what was coming at them as they saw me “bunny hopping” along the street!!!! After a walk around the grounds of our complex we headed back to chill out some more with a very large piece of cake. The English and Americans celebrating a holiday together which actually celebrates the separation of the 2 countries…. What could be better??
Soccer
Anyone that knows us knows that Kevin cannot go more than a couple of months without putting on his soccer boots and kicking the ball around the field. He has been lucky during our time here that H3C has its own soccer team and so on many weekends he has been able to have a game. He’s been so happy!! A few weeks ago it was announced that there was to be a soccer tournament between
4th July
Cool Mama!!! various companies in Hangzhou and of course H3C would be playing. Kevin LOVES a challenge so for 2 weekends, 28 teams played, all hoping to win the grand prize!
Surprisingly H3C made it to the final so the girls and I decided we would go and show our support. For about the 3rd or 4th time since I met Kevin I went to watch him play!!! We sat in 100 degree heat in the stands with maybe 30 people (at most) and cheered them on to victory!!! It was funny watching them play because I don’t think the normal rules of play were enforced during the game. They pulled each other’s shorts, tripped or pushed opponents and all under the watchful eye of the referee!!! A referee that forgot his glasses and several brain cells according to Kevin.
The award ceremony was short but H3C walked away with a huge trophy and an envelope full of money….money that was spent on a considerable amount of beer at the celebratory party afterwards. The girls and I came straight home, but Kevin rolled home smelling and acting like he has been bathing in the local Tsing Tao beer for hours……he
4th July
All 3 of them went on the scooter (only a VERY short distance). the Chinese would ride scooters with the whole family on board including babies and young children. It is scary to watch. probably had!!!! It was great to see him being part of the Chinese team because he has been the only westerner to play in any of these matches so far and they included him as if he was one of their own.
Hefang Jie Pagoda
We have been to Hefang street so many times I have lost count. Above the street there is a pagoda that is supposed to look over the city with beautiful views and so we decided that today was going to be the day that we would see for ourselves! There were a few bits and bobs we needed in the quaint little stores on Hefang so we devised a plan……. Shop then have an energy lunch at MacDonalds (who am I kidding!!!!!) and then we would make the walk up to the pagoda. Simple right!!!
We started to walk in the direction on the Pagoda and realized we were on the wrong street. Typical for us!! Finally we get on the right track and head up into the trees following various signs for “points of interest” along the way. We are walking through jungle conditions at this point. The trees are thick,
Soccer Final
H3C..The conquering heroes! the humidity level is 100% and I am being eaten alive by bugs…literally! I couldn’t go on. I stopped, and sent Megan ahead to catch up to her dad and Sophie. I was being a wimp but my clothes were soaked with sweat and I had so many bites on my legs that they were burning. This adventure was not a pleasant one.
We headed back down the path and realized that we had actually walked straight past the pagoda we were looking for and had been heading across the hillside to another much smaller pagoda. How we missed it I can’t tell you but here it was right in front of us . We were exhausted as the heat really takes it out of you! Before going in we sat outside for a while so that we could catch our breath and try and stop my legs from burning.
Eventually we made it into the pagoda and the views from the top made the torture of getting here all worthwhile. It was beautiful! Each side showed you either the mountains, the lake or the city, all stretching for miles in front of us.
Silk
Soccer Final
The new David Beckham..no.18 Museum
Hangzhou is famous for it's silk and so it seemed only right that we visit the silk museum here to see how the silk was made and how the "Silk Road" first began. The Silk Road is a network of roads or routes across Asia that connected it to the the Mediterranean, Africa and Europe. These roads were used for trade, in particular the trade of silk which the chinese were masters in.
It didn't take long to walk around the museum but it was certainly interseting. I realised how little I knew about how silk was made and was impressed at how the process was shown in the museum to make it easy for children (and obviously some adults!) to understand.
The girls thought it was cool to see the different styles of silk dating back 100's of years to the present day. Its hard to believe that it was all made by hand on almost primitive but highly ingenious looms.
We did take a short walk through the gift shop but when we saw the prices we decided the need to wear silk was not that great. I told the girls I would take them
Soccer Final
Posing with the champions to the silk (fake) market another day!
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Dad
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Once again brilliant work Claire. You must make a small book of all this. I'm not biased, of course.