wonderful hangzhou

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Well the train journey to Hanzhou was fantastic. Everything went well the train pulled out of the station ontime, we got what we wanted two lower bunks, soft sleeper, clean bedding supplied clean toilets (of the squat variety of course) and the scenery moved. It was brilliant. At first we we followed the river which looked very dirty the towns looked dismal with a lot of hydro electric scemes along it. The motion of the train soon had us dozing off, watching and then eating as the food trolley whizzed by with delicious food - cabbage, chicken, tofu and rice it was all yummy and only 10 yuan which is about R10.00 what a deal. So the day passed by really quickly and after a good nights sleep -there is nothing like sleeping on the train, we woke up to an entirely different scene. Pretty fields small more like subsistance farming but every space filled we could see cabbages, onions, rape(in flower) marrows and many things we did not know. The villages looked cleaner and nicer. In fact quite lovely tiled houses or small blocks of flats.

WE arrived on time 25 hours later and had breakfast/lunch at the station - lots of dishes all put out and you just choose what you want served with fresh noodles. The guy was making them in front of us. Just like on the cooking channel, swinging them about and before your very eyes long strands of spaghetti. The hostel we booked turned out to be very nice and on a slight hill with a lovely garden. The youth hostels here are good value. The only complaint is that the drain in the shower does not run out as fast as i would like it!!! Typical of Asia but. Well we have wandered around this wonderful city the WEst Lake is truely spectacular and we could not have chosen a better time as its spring and the gardens which surround the whole lake are filled with blossom trees and spring flowers. The Lake and gardens are well used by all. Every place there are people pic-nicing singing (thats fun ) in high pitched tunes accompanied by musicians on old style instuments. You can go boating on the lake drink copious amounts of tea if you wish and wander in and out of the sights.

In the evening we stumbled on this night market which is a replica of an old town with the shops selling the wares of the traders. Hand chiselling tea pots into various shapes like the steaming baskets, painting on bottles, silk, cut out pictures and oh the list goes on and on. There is also a great food lane and you can choose many different things. I had my first taste of frogs legs and they wernt half bad. (dont tell the kosher kids) also some things like prawns but they were different and kebabs of deer. You just dont know what you are going to get but as Leon said its all good. Last night we made friends with a Japanese girl who had some locals in tow and it was a bit of a drinking session with them but we did not last all that long as we are the last of the big time drinkers. But it was fun especially to try and converse with the locals. The Japanese girl could not speak the language but they can converse by writing as the characters are the same or similar.

We made it to the top of the hill to the Pagoda which gave us great view of the area but the smog did not do our pics any good. There were once again many places to eat and drink all around -the locals bring their own as well and play cards and majong in every little gathering area. Its all quite festive. We pointed and had chicken and tofu for lumch - i just love the tofu and all the various varieties of it. What a splendid way to spend the day. We did deserve a good lunch though as the walk up the hill and around the mountain was quite and effort. All the kids look and point at us (we dont see many foreigners even here in this well visited spot mostly local visitors) and we many smiles and of course lots of pictures. I love the split pants the kids wear.

I am sure I have left lots out but I can assure you this is a great place and now one will be dissapointed with a visit to Hangzhou. I am sad we are leaving tomorrow but the journey continues on the fast train about 2 hours and Shanghai here we come for a few days.

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Comments

[Anita]

Have a rave
Wow you really are having a wonderful and very different time. It is lovely reading your blog so keep it up. Et and I are going to Thailand in 2 weeks so hope things have settled down politically!! I am sure you will have many more great experiences and look forward to hearing about them. So glad everything is going according to plan. Love from us all in Qatar.