Today was mostly uneventful, although the mostly will be qualified in a minute. In the morning, I woke, ate, and then broiled in the sun as I tried to find a bus that would take me to “West Station.” After about an hour on foot, I found one and journeyed across Hangzhou to a big bus station where I bought a ticket to Qiandao Hu (One Thousand Island Lake). The bus was comfortable, air conditioned, and about two hours long, so I slept and completed a Pimsleur lesson. Although there was a war movie airing on the TV, it was in Chinese so I wouldn’t have understood even if I could hear it.
At Qiandao City, I struggled to find my hotel which Xiao claimed was nearby the station. Turns out that the company booked was correct, but the hotel was incorrect, and was about a 15 minute taxi ride out of town. I was ripped off by my first driver who conveniently failed to switch on the meter.
I dropped off my bag and decided to try walking back to the city (underestimating the distance) as no bus was coming. I passed by four bus stops before a bus finally passed me. I must have gone two miles by the time I decided to take a taxi.
I had the option to leave Qiandao Hu by bus, if I had hurried back to the hotel and checked out early, but decided to wander instead. Qiandao Hu city has a busy center where the most prevalent shops seem to be fish and fruit markets. At every restaurant, we could see that night’s dinner swimming around. At one, I saw a chicken and a chick, wandering out front (a mother and child, I imagine).
Because it was late and I could not do any of what I wanted at Qiandao Hu. English is scarce here, especially on signs and maps. My Chinese is enough to get back to my hotel and to realize I’d be hopeless getting anywhere else (esp. to the Stone Forest, my ultimate goal). Qiandao Hu isn’t in Lonely Planet at all, as it turns out. I caught the correct bus back to the hotel on my own (I got complimented on this by the other passengers) and did my best to chat a bit, learning a few new words in the process.
I decided to eat at the somewhat (rather) dingy hotel restaurant, and there learned to never doubt my karma (to quote Julie Andres, “Somewhere in my youth, or childhood, I must have done something good). As I tried and failed to order, and because I was the only guest there, all six waitresses came to help me. All, it turns out, are 20, and all were beautiful/extremely cute (and were rather surprised that I was the same age, although I’m used to this from Japan). At dinner, I got to use my Kanji to communicate with the staff, with sometimes confusing consequences (Japanese is not simplified like mainland Chinese is).
The waitresses helped me pick dinner (one, named Shan, spoke English) and I chose a small fish. I apologized to his “friends” as I watched him pulled out of the tank. And the waitresses took care of me really well. I spend much of the evening chatting with Shan, and getting shy looks from the others. All of them just finished high school in the fall, and Shan was off to Hangzhou University in the fall.
The crew (men too) also help me plot a course to the Stone Forest, but I decided that the mission was probably too complicated for me to do on my own. On the bright side, it means I can wake up later than 6:30 tomorrow, and I get to see Shan again, who alas has no email.
Goodnight.
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