bulleting to Nanjing

---

As I said last time sometimes there has to be a "gap" so I can catch up with myself and have a rest. After breakfast yesterday (was it really?) in Suzhou I went for a quick walk to try and catch up with the canal type area. However the Lonely Planet rightly says most of them have been filled over and I'd likely got as much a view of them before. My train was at 11:44 AM so I wanted to leave from the hotel at 11 to give myself enough time. However with a slight delay on checkout and then having to rush over to Renmin Lu to try and hail a taxi on a busy Saturday morning things were a little delayed. Fortunately this taxi driver was doing all the shortchanges and shortcuts that they often do and got me to the station at 11:40 a.m. I then had to rush down the escalator to the right platform, with a local guy saying "hurry hurry", but it seems the train was actually a couple of minutes late on timetable arriving (fortunately). I did not really want to find out what happens if I missed the train and was/was not able to change the ticket. Although this train stopped I think four times before it finally got to Nanjing main railway station, it however did only really take just under 90 minutes to get there with the digital speedo in the LCD display showing it was travelling at 300/301 kmh at times.

Although Nanjing is yet another giant Chinese railway station, it was relatively fuss free to find and transfer downstairs to the metro. There are only two lines which cross each other just south of where I am staying, and there is a third line which is under construction -- fortunately that is happening on the OTHER side of the hotel from where my room is! (various comments on the hotel booking site had referred to the racket of 24-hour construction). So four stops to the main street that my hotel was on and a surprisingly long walk along to number 389 where the Eastern Pearl Hotel was. The walk was down a virtual computer alley of various shops selling techno stuff. When I got to the hotel the staff spoke enough English to understand that I had made a booking with Agoda but even with the reference number which I was able to show them on my iPod they had difficulty tracking it down. I have since booked a further final third night via Agoda and the staff this afternoon did not exactly understand what I meant. I was told that it was actually cheaper to book with Agoda (about 350 RMB) as the over the counter rate with the hotel was 410RMB - strange I know, but it must be the Internet world, even though the hotel has to pay a commission to Agoda.

Anyway room 501 was right at the front but facing sideways to the main street out the front but in this weather you would hardly keep the windows open (at the time I write it is about 11 PM and the temperature is -2!). The hotel one would have to say is also generally somewhat overheated and it is a bit of a shock to go outside. Locals tend to stay dressed up for outside almost even when they are inside. The temperature in my room on the air conditioning was set at 21° but this seemed to result in warm air blowing all night with the result I had to abandon the duvet from its cover and simply use the cover.

I finally got out of the hotel (I am getting more than sluggish -- it is like the end of a six-week tour or something but this is much shorter) and went for a walk. Fortunately the hotel is quite close to a large group of bars mostly, but also restaurants and chain places like coffee etc, called Nanjing 1912. I assume this must date from the original construction date of some of the old brick buildings. I identified a Thai place as being of potential interest to eat later. However after wandering around when I went back there and asked for a look at the menu I decided that this was completely outrageous -- they wanted around 250 RMB (about $40!) for something as basic as a pad thai - and I saw one of the fish dishes was 600 RMB!! It is interesting sometimes that such "foreign " cuisine restaurants (and this almost applies worldwide) can get away with charging an arm and a leg for "exotic" food.

On a more mundane level, but equally as comparatively expensive, I find Starbucks overpriced at home and here is the same relatively speaking - 28RMB ($4.50) for a coffee?! In China? The same applies at a chain called Costas (a lotta?). I have had two hazelnut flavoured coffees now from a chain called Cafe 85 which are quite reasonable and are much more sensibly priced at only 8RMB. There were some Japanese style places etc over there but I did not venture in to see what their menu prices were like -- the Lonely Planet refers to the area as being generally "upscale", in terms of prices I assume.

So I decided to try the restaurant back at the hotel. This proved to be much more reasonable, somewhat unusually, but also more than somewhat bizarre. The hotel guide refers to the Macau master chef and that it can accommodate 300 people at once. I really have no idea where as I was expecting a large room. Instead there seems to be only a relative warren of small party rooms and I was shown into a six place dining room all on my own! Not to mention the fact that the temperature inside was about 25°! And one would have to mention the décor -- I might have to go there again simply to take a picture as unusually I did not take my camera back downstairs. Two facing walls were of a purple and mirrored design. One other wall was of faux silver crocodile skin and that facing was of hanging glass pieces! And to top it all there was a pink glass chandelier and a purple ceiling. Fortunately the chairs were simply plain white! In this somewhat strange environment I ordered a bean curd soup -- a bowl big enough to feed three people arrived and it was very good. The main dish -- after the waitress had directed me to a Western sounding beefsteak or fried chicken dish - what I might be "used to"? - chosen by me was baked octopus with some kind of wood mushrooms I think. This came in an iron dish in a basket and it was very baby octopus bits and long squiggly chewy bits which I took to be the mushrooms, but could just as easily have been octopus legs (without the suckers of course). With a bottle of Tsingtao beer it all came to 94 RMB (about $15) which of course I was able to add to my room account so that was also convenient. And I only had to fall upstairs to my room.

---

Photos

Nanjing hotelvue
typical Chinese living

Nanjing 1912
the area, not the time

a university sign
virtually in the dark but eerie

Nanjing 1912 again
the old style of brick

Comments

[Huddo]

Steve McQueen "Bullet" train.
Hi Mike, Now that bullet train goes at some serious speed! Sounded like you needed the same speed! to get away from those "clip-joints" with their high prices, he he. Hotel decor most certainly sounded "unique" Maybe photo's next blog. Love Huddo and girls.

[seo training delhi]

seo training delhi
Thank you, Your blog is very informative. I'll keep updated with your blog. seo training noida