Exploding Pork and Joanne's Toes

When we got off the train at Hangzhou we had a very confusing couple of hours. According to the hostel instructions we should have been able to get a bus that went right past the hostel, which was very close to the zoo, however, at the bus stop next to the train station, there was no sign of the bus with the correct number. I tried asking the woman at the desk there, but the language barrier was too great. I wasn't sure if she just didn't understand my attempts at “zoo” in Chinese or if we were in the wrong place or something. Luckily someone with a bit of English appeared in the queue and translated that we wanted the zoo, but the answer was still no. He thought maybe there were no more today, but he didn't seem sure; something I suspect Chinese people don't understand each other! We had no idea why we were stranded but we were, so we flagged down a taxi and just as we were about to give up communicating with the driver, another helpful person appeared and told the driver we wanted to go to the zoo. He confirmed that we realised it was too late so it was closed and we explained our hostel was there.

In the taxi, the driver clearly did not believe that he had it right, or saw an opportunity to make some commission. He said what I am pretty sure was Chinese for “zoo”, looking rather confused, then he stopped briefly and put his hands next to his face in an imitation of sleep. Yes, I thought, he has grasped that our hostel is next to the zoo, but he soon pulled up outside quite an expensive looking hotel. I tried saying the word for zoo, but it didn't seem to work, so finally it occurred to me to say the name of the street that the zoo and our hostel are on. This did work and he set off again, retracing the entire route we had already taken, stopping only once to turn around and repeat the word for zoo, then going “grrrr” and making a claw, like a lion I guess. The zoo was about the same distance in the opposite direction from where he had first taken us, but at least we got there. It seems the further from Beijing you get, the harder China becomes. It was a bit annoying having to pay the double fare, but I was pleased the stress was over, saved by the lion gestures.

The hostel was really lovely and much cheaper than where we had stayed in Beijing and Shanghai. There was lots of barbecue food lying around, but it had been abandoned due to the rain which was now fairly persistent.

One of the sights you're supposed to enjoy at the lake

The next morning it was still raining and it wasn't really a day for walking around outside, however Hangzhou's main attraction is the West Lake, apparently the “best West Lake” in China and the one that all the other West Lakes in China are based on. We were only staying there one more night and leaving early the next day, so we had to see it that day. We started walking to the bank next to the lake because we also needed to draw money, but the rain just got worse and worse. Soon we had to take shelter along with all the other people out for a walk by the lake, and the wind blew stronger. By the time we reached the ATM it was proper storm weather and the idea of having a nice walk around the lake was ridiculous, so we had to admit defeat and take the bus home.

Lovely weather at West Lake

We arrived back at the hostel too early for food. The other places had been able to provide food all day, so we were a bit miffed. And hungry. We tried out on the street near the hostel but the first restaurant had no English menus and the useless phrase book let me down again. We left with no food and tried another. This time they did have an English menu which seemed to be only a small subset of the whole menu, featuring interesting sounding dishes like “Sauce Explodes the Pork” but, trying to save a bit of money, we settled for noodles for which we were overcharged, but that's what you get when you can't speak the language.

Lovely weather at West Lake

Back in the hostel I took a photo of Joanne's toes since so many people had been asking how they had been since the Nepal trek. Not too good!

Joanne's toes: no big toenails!

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The Happy Couple on July 30, 2009 from Hangzhou, China

from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon

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