Advertisement
Published: October 6th 2012
So, after the hunt for the hotel we awoke in Suzhou with the knowledge we only really have 2 days here.
After a chinese breakfast of noodles, steamed buns, and even the little lady in the kitchen cooking me a fried egg as i am a foreigner!bless her, she was so chuffed with herself, we set off for a day at Tongli watertown.
A taxi tgo the train/coach station then a 1 hour "bus" journey to Tongli was undertaken.
The "bus driver" had obviously gained his licence from the "Speed" movies, now we have been on buses in Thailand, in Vietnam, on mountain roads in Malaysia but never ever have i actually gripped the seat, closed my eyes and promised god anything he wants if he got me off this vehicle alive.It seems the horn here is used for telling people "get out the way because my brakes dont work and i cant go under 120 km an hour".
You know its bad when the chinese alongside you look worried.....
Anyway, we made it, had lunch of half a duck with rice and vegetables, sent the ducks head back when it arrived though, cant stand anything
looking at me when im eating it!
Through the gates into the lovely waterside town of Tongli.
yes it ias a little touristy, no more so than La Cité back home i suppose.
We wandered the canalside streets for a couple of hours then took a gondola style boat ride down a section of the town where the canals are lined by small(but expensive) tea houses.
Lovely memories of a charming place.
That night we again sat out our favourite food stall and paid out a huge 6 euros for a 3 course meal and a few beers while watching the street entertainment go by.
Next morning we had to change some money so set off into Suzhou town, came back 2 hours later with shopping including a suitcase to put the "new" shopping" in!
Still, the children will be happy when we get back!
We are now in Shanghai again and flying out to Guilin this afternoon.
Cant wait to get to the countryside, the smog,stares and traffic are getting a bit much now!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.181s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 48; dbt: 0.1232s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
A. Jen
non-member comment
hurrah
Glad to see things improved in Suzhou. Guess you didn't get to Master of the Net garden etc at night but apparently lots of bargains to be had. Tongli looks good. Did you see the fishermen using the guilliemots ?(Not sure about that spelling. )Can't believe the people on The Bund in your photos. Much quieter when we were there - in fact more brides having their photo taken than anything else! Also luckily we didn't get the smog anywhere. You do leave China with a real impression of the millions of people though and I think the Chinese use cars etc including the electric motorbikes which creep up on you silently as weapons! The advice we were given for crossing the road - find a group of Chinese who look as if they know what they are doing and cross when they do !Used to take them a few attempts. The bus we were on was stuck in traffic trying to get out of the hotel and the Chinese and English tour guides got out and directed the traffic so we could get out !Glad to hear the children are OK. They will be like little limpets when you get home. Photos of Guilin we hope as we didn't go there. Enjoy the peace and quiet. x