A day in Suzhou, China...the Oriental Venice

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Suzhou by 'tuk tuk'

Also known as the 'Oriental Venice', Suzhou is an amazing place to chill out and escape from Shanghai for a day...world renowned gardens and amazing street life...what else..well, it is still China so nothing ever really goes accordingly to what you have planed...hahaha !

Went out to Bar Rouge the night before (for a change, some would say!! hahaha), party until late and we all waked up quite late on the Saturday, rush to the train station, managed to get ticket (one way...as usual too..which mean we would have to queue on arrival to get the return ticket...)
Suzhou is really next door but it is so different ... quiet in some way, more relax and full of surprises (ok this is THE rule in China but still...)

Marina had been in Shanghai a few times already and she wanted to experience something else....well, let's experience!

On arrival, we took the first 'tuk tuk' we could find, let's head south (exact opposite of where we were)...and that’s when we realized that although very small on the map, Suzhou is still a Chinese city...BIG... Took us a good half an hour to reach the first garden, nearly crash into other 'tuk tuk', fruit stands, pedestrian, chicken..ect about 30 times (once per minute...yes...), gave the driver a little extra (for saving our life or leaving us faster, let you guess..) and walk into a traditional alley where time seems to have stop for a while... locals enjoy their life, chat, play, sleep ... then you get to reach the entrance of one of the most amazing garden of Suzhou ... unique in its complexity, encompassing all the elements, a place where you wish you could spend more time, just to relax...
The following garden and the temple of Confucius were as surprising as this first garden, each time, we will find a very peaceful environment and each time we would take small alley to discover those small hidden places...

Spent most of the day walking from one place to the other and about 4PM, we decided to head back to the train station, the only train for which we had managed to get ticket departing at 5PM....well...
Have you ever try to take as many type of vehicle as possible between a point A and a point B? ... we did...(not on purpose...)

First tried our luck with Taxi ... well, as I said Suzhou is a much quieter city than Shanghai...but at 4PM, all the streets are jammed! Looks like people get off work earlier in Suzhou!

After a good 15mn waiting...we decided to go for the bus option...we were in the south heading north so any bus heading in that direction was fine...we didn’t have to wait long to get one...start chatting with the driver and soon realized that this bus was indeed going to the train station but not exactly the fastest way...20 mn to go before the departure of our train....The driver stopped us half way...

At this stage, we were ready to take any vehicle: taxi, 'tuk tuk', bike...really anything...but after few minutes it was clear that we would get nothing...time to be creative!

So, stopped a private van that was driving by, and asked the young couple if they could help us to reach the station...they hesitated a second and then invited us to come in...when we opened the door, we discovered the entire family !! Two more kids and the sister of the lady... took a seat next to them, clearly scared the kids (not sure if it was the color of my hair or the fact that I was speaking Chinese to them...) while starting to chat with the parents...we soon discovered that they were from the countryside and didn’t know much Suzhou ...

We were getting closer from the station until we reach a massive construction area...had to go all the way around, could still see the station but way too far to walk... our 'host' decided that he will drive us to the station no matter what (although by then we had already missed our train..) and started to take a short cut through a construction field.... we were heading toward the right direction but through a field where we were obviously not supposed to be and on a road that was getting more and more narrow until the road disappeared...no choice but to stop ....
and that's what I love in China, no matter what ... open your eyes and you will find the solution!

Our host looked at the field and suddenly smiled and explained us that it was fine, we just had to cross the 'bridge' (coming back to that one...), walk a little and we will get to the station... He seemed reassured but surprisingly waited for us to cross the bridge before driving back...
well...the bridge was actually made of a few woodcut and the water...well, just picture how a tiny river can look like after going through a construction field...then was the walk in the field where we pass by a few workers who were clearly clueless regarding our presence there...and squeeze in between two pieces of sheet iron...to realize, that we had arrived at the bus station !!!!!!! All the way, we were not heading toward the right building!!!

one more 'tuk tuk' and after a short ride we reached the train station...with three tickets for a train that had left already and no way to get new one as all the trains heading to Shanghai were fully booked...not much other solution than be creative (again...)...hide the train departure time on the ticket and went quickly through the first check, managed to find the departure gate of the next train heading to Shanghai and bargained with the guard in order to access to the train...finally reached it (which was a real relief...knowing that Marina was flying back to Paris the same night....) and even managed to get seats !!
Ah ah ah ...well, if you look around, and stay positive, you always find people to help you ...one of the beauty of China!

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