Hangzhou

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The bus to Hangzhou wasn’t nearly as bad as the one to Tunxi in fact it was quite pleasant, the driver even got up to tell me when we got there, “there” wasn’t exactly a bus station, it was a petrol station where a few of us were abandoned. It didn’t take long to find a bus station; my only problem was that none of the busses in the station had the designation I needed to make it to my hostel. I found the drivers’ office and tried explaining the place I needed to go and the bus numbers that would take me there. I wrote them all down in large numbers on a notepad I carry and that didn’t get me very far but after gesturing for 5 minutes to help clarify I needed to grotto the e west lake area which was near a zoo they figured it out, it was like a combination of Pictionary and Charades. One woman had me follow her onto a bus, and she drove me around for 10 minutes, pulled up at one stop and waved me off. She wouldn’t take any money either; I thanked her profusely and got off to join the others waiting on the bus. After a few stops I got a seat on the bus but I wasn’t relaxed at all, I was sat bolt upright like a Meercat looking for pinyin signs to let me know when we were getting near my stop. Its sods law but every time I have a 50/50 decision to make I end up screwing myself, case in point, I knew the hostel was a few hundred meters from the zoo but not the direction guess what I did next? After walking 500m I turned around and made my way back to where I started from, on the way there was a bus station with toilets so I decided to use the facilities. I nearly pissed myself, literally, not because of a bladder weakness; it was more to do with the 2 German shepherd dogs that came bounding towards me with teeth bared as I approached what I thought was the toilet block. I thought to myself stay calm and that was dwarfed by me this is all i bloody need, I’m not only going to get mauled im going to get rabies and die frothing at the mouth. I stopped dead, slowly took off my sunglasses so they could see my eyes, turned and walked slowly but purposefully in the opposite direction. They followed barking the whole time; they would fall back then run at me before repeating this. It would have been bad enough with one of them but 2, is scary! After covering 100m or so their owner realised they weren’t where they should have been and were making noise so he yelled them back, with this I got the hell out of there as fast as possible. I still had to pee! Shortly after this fun encounter I found the hostel, christened the facilities and made my way to the lake. When I got there I started to relax and enjoy the atmosphere, the lake was calm, the flowers were blooming, and several couples were having wedding photos taken along the riverbank. I’d been on the go for 8 hours so I decided to sit on the grass and enjoy the feast id made the night before, a piece and crisps with peanut M&Ms as a second course. After I finished this fine cuisine something happened, it was like a flick of the switch and I realised for the 1st time since id left home I was truly relaxed, it was a moment of serenity like id only experience a few times in my life. I didn’t know how long it would last but it was wonderful!
As it turned out it didn’t last much longer, two girls saw me and made their way towards the area I was sitting shouting hello as they approached. Their friend took their picture near me but the second picture they were clearly trying to fit me in the shot so I stood up and waved them over, I think I made their day, they were so happy. I started walking again and within 10 minutes had a couple ask permission for a photo so I said yes, why not? This led to several other pictures; one guy came over holding his infant child and thrust him into my arms. ‘I’m a celeb here and I didn’t know it. I spent about 5-6 hours walking round the 10km lake just soaking it up, the flowers are such vivid colours and the weather combined with natural beauty made it well worth the trip, I finished with a visit to the Six Harmonies Pagoda where you can look out across the lake from the top floor.

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