Katie’s Cheap tour of HangZhou started out with a bus ride & short walk to West Lake. P & M weren’t crazy about the walking part in the light rain but that is the only way I know how to get there. Unfortunately when they decided to let a “Loawai” guide that only knows 3 bus lines out of Hangzhou’s hundreds and can’t read the bus stop signs they got what they paid for. We walked around the park and had tea in a little small lakeside restaurant. After our walk we caught a taxi to Lingyin Temple, which is know as one of the ten most famous Buddhist temples of China. The driver really wanted to take us to the Tea Museum but we were under a time constraint so after much pointing and gesturing we finally convinced him to take us to the Temple and not where he wanted us to go. There were lots of carvings of Buddha including the laughing Buddha in the side of a mountain. We walked thru more large temples with more Buddha, floor to ceiling carvings, and incense. Some of the carvings were really interesting but since it is a working temple you were not allowed to take pictures. We got another taxi ride to WuShan Square where they have a lot of souvenir shops and a great noodle restaurant. We enjoyed a great meal of beer and noodles and Paula managed to get most of the meal in her mouth with only a few noodles being flung across the floor.
Our real excitement for the day began after arriving at the train station. After we put our luggage thru the security checkpoint, we were stopped by a customs agent who asked to see our passports. I am not sure why 3 ladies (one with gray hair) with backpacks looked like a real security risk but we were stopped anyway. In Shanghai, I had confidently told Paula and Maria that they would not need their passports and they could leave them in the hotel safe. They did bring their passport Xerox copies and I had my little red working certificate book. (It looks like a passport but it isn’t – it has my passport number, work visa number, and Chinese name and work address). They didn’t hesitate when looking at Maria’s copy but they hesitated such a long time with Paula’s that a crowd of other customs agents started gathering. Paula’s passport is about 10 years old and a lot has happened to Paula in those ten years. In her photo she had long straight brown hair, big round glasses, and a dorky looking Christmas sweater. Now she has short curly blond hair, no glasses, no dorky clothes and is 10 years more mature. They eventually figured out that we were harmless and let us go on.
This train adventure we had soft seat tickets so we were allowed to go into the soft seat waiting lounge where they served us tea. It was an uneventful trip back to Shanghai, but it was hell finding a taxi back to the hotel. We ended up walking about 2 miles around the perimeter of the station to find a taxi stand which ended up being the exact same point from where we started. Back at the hotel we had a nice dinner in the Hotel’s Chinese Restaurant and an memorable drink in the famous Jazz Bar. The Jazz Bar is a beautiful English style bar with the 6 oldest band members I have ever seen. I know you are suppose to respect the old but they were really really bad. Most of them were in their 80’s and I think they had forgotten some of the correct notes, but they tried hard. Just like the dancers we were watching. We made it thru 3 or 4 songs and figured it wouldn’t get any better so we went up to bed.
