distinguish where the day begins and ends.
We had a reasonably good sleep last night, I slept into 5am (which is 10am
NZ time) so the body clock is still adjusting and despite jetlag tables I
still feel a bit Jetlagged especially when I am sitting still for periods of
time. Hopefully another good night's sleep and that will change.
Once again thank you for the emails! So nice :-)
We left the apartments just after 9am and caught the B1 bus into Hangzhou
City, this is a 40min journey and cost approx 60cents NZD. It was a new
experience to say the least! Figuring out where to pay and how much to pay
was just the start. They have one dollar notes and coins over here.. it's
really weird trying to figure out which ones to use and when. The bus was
filled and there was only standing room.. a great way to be introduced to
the locals. This coupled with the random breaking to avoid other vehicles
and presidents was intense. Oh and did I mention no air con?
We got off the Bus and had a brief look at the upper class shops, the likes
of Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Tiffany and Co. Even in China these
shops are not cheap so it was window viewing! We then walked to what is
known as the Silk Market. As far as I know it is where Marco Polo used to
bring the silk into China. It was an older looking street with lots of
shops holding silk scarves, dresses and nightwear. I had my first experience
at bartering, I had found a cool scarf with different shades of brown in
it. She wanted 80 Yuan for it.. which is about $16 NZD, we agreed on 55 so
I am okay with that. It's kind of weird, not something we are used to as
Kiwi's. They use the calculator to talk about prices which is kind of cool.
Following a break and an orange drink we finished the silk market and
crossed the road to a mall that isn't really known to 'westerners'. It was
in here I found a pair of brown boots.. nothing flash but a standard
wardrobe item ( I can hear the girls agreeing with me!). We used the
calculator to figure out my size which is in USA sizes. I am a 40 which is
a size 8, which is large over here! The lady wanted 280 Yuan, I had 200,
she said 260 and I said no and got up to leave. She walked away - I thought
it was all over.. was really keen to buy them! Next thing I know she has
them in a bag and is handing them to me.. felt kind of stoked about that.
Many of you know that I am competitive so now I am thinking about how much
cheaper I could have got them for! Mind you that works out to be $40NZD so
not bad!
Antique street was where we heading to next, it is just that a very old
street dripping with heritage and culture. Lots of cute shops and old
sculptures. I brought a bling ring and Ash brought some sunnys. I then
needed to go to the bathroom.. which brings with it a sinking feeling. If
you think the public toilets or NMIT toilets are bad.. you have NO IDEA! We
found a Mc Donald's in this old street.. this speaks volumes in itself but
that's another story. We went to the second level and joined the line for
the female bathrooms. Well there were two.. it turns out one was a
traditional one and one was a hole in the ground. It wasn't until afterward
that Ashleigh and I compared notes that I realized I got the short end of
the stick! The hole in the ground made me feel like I was going to vomit
the smell was soooo yuck! Let's just say it wasn't the cleanest toilet and I
am pretty sure that I got Pee on my shoes through no fault of my own!!!
Yuck! John just laughs at us as we relive each toilet experience. Hand
sanitizer is our best friend!
After that delightful experience we caught a taxi back to where we started
by the bus stop. I was craving French fries so we found a KFC. Have you
ever tried to order a zinger burger in a language you don't understand?
There was a lot of pointing at the pictures and hand gestures... I got a
combo.. it wasn't a zinger burger (which Ash successfully ordered) but it
still had chicken in it and it tasted good! Yum! By this time we were so
stuffed as we had been walking for six hours. More than that it is very
tiring being in a different place with basic tasks like using the bathroom
and ordering fast food being a mission!
We wanted to make sure we caught the right bus home so we waited for four
buses to pass by before we got on. Yeah Nah it was the wrong bus we ended
up two blocks over from our apartments. This wasn't a problem in theory as
we could just hail down a taxi to zip us back. Well we couldn't, every taxi
that went past was full so we ended up walking half way back. We finally
caught one and ended up back at the apartment eight hours after we started.
Chris & Diane and Peter are tutors that are up here also, staying a floor
below us. So once we had got home we went and said hi and spent some time
socializing with them. By 7pm I was ready for some Kai so ventured out back
to Wu-Mart. We brought some noodles for dinner, some strange looking fruit
which I am told is a melon, a pot plant to try and make our apartment
somewhat more ours and a bunch of other stuff. The city is very pretty at
night so we walked back looking at the trees and high rise buildings.
It's now almost 10pm and we have opened the Cadbury chocolate and I might go
make a Milo before bed. We are heading to a World Heritage site tomorrow -
The wetlands. Some of the students from the college are going to show us
around as this has been organized especially for us. Should be fun!
I hope you are enjoying hearing the day to day events of my trip.
Although I am loving it here this makes me appreciate New Zealand in such a
greater way! There is NO place like HOME... especially when you're the
future Rugby World Cup Winners!
More tomorrow.
Much Love xxx
Luce
HIGHLIGHTS:
We are on the 9th floor and there is a high rise next to us that is 28
stories. We saw a man in his underwear washing his apartment and just
generally cleaning.. ha!
The people! We saw a man on a scooter today with four LPG bottles smoking..
ironic huh? We also saw a man that had an eye patch on one eye. As we
walked past he lifted up the eye patch to get a better look at us..
priceless! There was also a lady that is one of many employed to clean the
streets.. she stared as us for about 100m before we past each other and
didn't take her eyes off us the whole time. She was driving some sort of
cleaning vehicle. I turned around and saw she was still looking so waved
and said Ni Hao... she LOVED it! So cute.
LOWLIGHTS
... Public toilets... No further comment.
Still haven't got my phone working, I think it's the sim card? I took it
out and put it into Ashleigh's phone and it didn't work. Which is strange
because it worked in Hong Kong. Any further ideas people?
INTERESTING
People hang their washing outside the windows of their apartments. Kind of
looks like a modern slum on some levels.
Babies over here sometimes don't have pants that cover their bums. There is
a triangle missing so you see their bums.. when the wee ones need to go to
the bath room they just place them near a drain and let loose.
We are starting to learn some more of the language. Tonight I learnt how
'excuse me' is said (for the crowds), I also learnt that if you emphasis
different parts of the word and / or different tone it can mean SEX.. mhh
not sure If I want to risk walking through the city attempting this!
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