Day 4 Tuesday 19th May
Well, I woke up feeling as though I had been sleeping on the floor. I was already expecting the beds to be much harder than what I was used to, but not like I was sleeping straight on a plank of wood. I didn't want to be rude to my hosts but I did mention how different the bed was to home. They had a great laugh at me when we realised that I had been sleeping under the mattress. I thought it was the doona!!!!
To start the day, Julienne and I decided to go across the road to a small dumpling shop for a traditional Chinese breakfast.
This is the little shop:
This is my little translator, Julienne, who has a wonderful and most helpful companion, outside our breakfast shop.
Baby was very cute and I really appreciated that they welcomed me with playing probably the only English-language songs they had. I felt very much at home eating dumplings to 'Deck the Halls' and 'Jingle Bells'.
At home we have straw dispensers. In China, we have chop stick dispensers:
Very delicious dumplings were enjoyed:
The brown dumplings are fried and quite crispy - and better when they have been soaked for a while in the soft dumpling soup or the vinegar??? provided. The red sauce is excruciatingly hot - which I discovered much to Julienne's mirth.
After our morning sustenance, it was time to head a bit further afield and make our way down to historical South Lake, the birthplace of Communism.
Riding the bus in China can be very confusing for westerners. Not least because I cannot yet make rhyme nor reason of the language and written characters to work out which stop to get off. There doesn't seem to be any matching of symbols to work out which stop is right, and the bus timetables/routes/directions seem to change at whim. However, for a mere 2 yuan (2 x 1RMB coins) dropped into the slot as you enter the bus, you can ride each bus for as long as you want - probably a good thing when you do not know when to get off!
After a successful bus change, we arrived at Nanhu (South Lake) and spying some little boats, we headed over that way to work out how to get over the island that I had read about. Apparently in 1921, on a tourist boat on the Lake near the island, it was signed into existence the Communist Party of China.
We asked about the little boats but decided to give them a miss in favour of the big boat that went out to the big island. We were given instructions to go back over the bridge from whence we came and go right around the lake to the other side.
We set off again as directed and after about 15 mins walk we saw one of the big boats we were chasing pulling up at the little island that was attached to near where the little boats were located. That's where we need to be!!! The little boat people have given us dodgy instructions - probably because we refused to rent their little boats!
So off we went back across the bridge again saying 'boo-yow' (emphatic no) to the fruit sellers we kept having to pass (one of the 3 Chinese words I do know thus far). We made our way over to where the big boat had docked to find a manned sentry point where Julienne asked about getting a ticket to get on to the boat. All the lady said was we needed to go around to the other side at the entrance, pointing off to where we had just been walking around to.
So we set off yet again across the bridge. Julienne was trooper. Our feet were quite sore and it seemed as though we walked for the good part of an hour after navigating gardens, locked fences the busiest roadway I had seen so far when we finally arrived at the entrance.
After parting with a few more RMB than I would have liked, we were on our way.
All aboard!!!
We disembarked at the island to find a delightful enclave that included a replica of the boat where the Chinese Communist Manifesto came into being.
Lots of sweet little vistas:
After a little explore, it was time to head back...
Right back to where we had tried to get onto the boat in the first instance, where they had told us to walk all the way around to the entrance!?#%*
We found ourselves back on the little island. By this time our little old legs had had enough and it was time for some much needed sustenance.
Right on the little island we found a sweet little tea shop where we treated ourselves to a delicious meal.
Now, don't get me wrong. The meal was awesome! However, I must admit I was a little disconcerted that during the preparation, all we could hear was 'meow, meow' coming from behind the counter where they were cooking. This went on for quite a while and I started to get quite worried.
'Julienne, why don't you go and check out the cute little pussy cat!' She went off behind the counter where I could hear a rapid conversation taking place between J and the workers. And the cat had stopped.
I held my breath as she came back to the table where I delicately asked her about the cat. I was most relieved when she told me that it was a vey cute cat who was now enjoying his own meal.
After chowing down, we headed back home. As I have mentioned, the buses are confusing, to say the least and somehow J had missed our stop (I had no real idea what the stop should look like - they were all still looking quite similar to me at this stage). Somehow we had missed it by 18 stops... I'm pretty certain the 87 bus, which we had take from the main terminal where we had changed buses again, had suddenly gone a different way in the opposite direction even though we had caught the right bus on the opposite side of the road from where we had originally got off.
When we finally got back it was time to to observe my first English lesson to get a feel for what I would soon be doing. The kids were adorable and Beian certainly knows his stuff and brings a lot of experience to the classroom.
After class, we sat down to another amazing home cooked meal and then it was lights out for me...
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