Old town *Day 6*

Day 5 Thursday 21st May

All refreshed, it was time to get back out there and explore what will be my new home for the next month.

So J and I set off to Xitang, a thousand year old nearby water town, only about half an hours drive from where we are in Jaixing. However, as our mode of transport was the bus, this half hour became an hour and a half excursion through semi-rural Southwestern Chinese countryside, armed with our Chinese instructions (remember that my translator and companion is a 10 year old!):

(This innocuously little photo almost became a life-saver when this said paper disappeared soon after we had jumped on the first bus.)

I was quite amazed at how much construction I am seeing throughout the few parts of China I have seen. Everywhere are so many cranes trucks hauling materials and building sites. This is pretty much my view for much of the way once we got out of the city:

When we finally arrived at Xitang we got basically mauled as we left the bus. I understand that these people are trying to make a living but I found it terribly frightening to have perhaps 30 men all

trying to get our attention to have them ferry us to the entrance of Xitang Town.  

Out of sheer self-preservation, we ended up waking the block or so to the entrance.

The entrance fee was 100 RMB ($20), which is quite expensive, but that gave us entry into 11 different little museums and gardens as well as admission to the town.

We headed in and I must admit it was quite pretty inside. I was feeling a bit humgry, so I suggested that we find something to eat. We went also to enquire about tickets for the boats (advertised for a rather steep 150RMB per boat) on the canal only to be told to go elsewhere??? Next to the boat ticket window, there was a big room with lots of tables and I went to drag J inside in search of food. She shrieked in horror at me and and with surprising strength for a 10yo, managed to cart me away from the entrance rather promptly. 'That is somebody's house!' Oh.

We started heading off down a path that may have led us to the actual water town, where we were accosted by an elderly gentleman. I wanted to keep walking but J entered into a lovely conversation and kept saying to me, only 40RMB. He pulled out some sort of ID card and before I knew it, we were following him somewhere.

We ended up at one of the pedi-cabs, which J jumped on to and I soon followed. A rather interesting journey of perhaps 20 minutes ensued.

I had no idea where he was taking us, but I enjoyed the ride nonetheless.

Finally, we came to a halt. I'm not sure if it was because we could no longer move through the narrow streets with the throngs of tourists and ?? all sorts of motorised and non-motorised vehicles. He relieved us of our 40RMB each and pointed through the throngs. 

I thought we were getting a 40RMB boat ride but ok. He worked hard with all that peddling over the uneven cobbled streets. 

We made our way to another entrance point where we had our tickets stamped and suddenly found ourselves in a gorgeous 1000 yo water town.

First order of the day was lunch.

These are little spinach and ?ricotta parcels:

A most delicious meat dish - the sauce was divine:

A little beer to get me through the day:

Once our appetites had been satiated, it was time to wander...

Glad to see safety coming first, although the bright orange life vests scream 'tourist'

Washing in the river:

Deceptively peaceful considering how many tourists and shops there are.

We stumbled upon a fish spa that caught J's attention and decided to pamper a feet a little after al our walking...

There was some sort of Chinese soapie playing on a screen at the back of the stall, which I could not follow, but took everything I am to drag J away from. I swear she would have been happy to stay there all day!

J decided it was time for ice-cream and I'll give it to the Chinese, they know how to do this well:

For some reason, it is a very touristy thing to buy a crown of flowers to wear around and of course this is what we did too.

We made our way to a few of the museums included in our entry price:

Yep, somewhere specially created to imbibe:

This cat refused to have its photo taken - it kept turning its back whenever I went to take a snap!

We also found a store where you could dress up in traditional Chinese costume and have pictures taken. I guess I needed a companion pic to my Angie on a zebra-striped painted donkey with sombrero pic from Mexico...

Oh yes she did! Hahaha

Costume shop:

Costumes everywhere...

We wandered some more and ended up at a little coffee shop with free wifi so I could chat to Robyn and my kiddos.

After a most enjoyable day, we decided to get a pedi-can back to to bus station:

Of course, this is where things went rather pear-shaped. We got to where the bus dropped us off to find out from the pedi-can drivers that we had just missed the last bus back to Jiaxing.

Ever wary, I went into the bus station to confirm this, and alas it was true. Options??? A bus into Shanghai and then back to Jaixing. A trip that would see us arriving back home before midnight if we were lucky. One of the guys from out with the pedi-cabs had followed us into the bus station. I just wanted him to go away. 

However, through J, he explained that there were 2 other ladies stranded and wanting to head back to Jiaxing and he, being the kind soul he was, would be happy to take us back there in his 'taxi'.

I looked at the other ladies who looked like young professionals and reading J's reaction to him, I conceded to this for the price of 40RMB each. I knew we could get the price down, as was paying for both of us, but my language skills are non-existent and J wasn't comfortable with haggling. Well, it sure beats the bus option!

We followe him around to a car park and soon found ourselves in an unmarked late-model sedan and making our way home. He was actually quite a good driver compared to the taxi drivers I've ridden with.

We arrived back at Jiaxing South Bis terminal, a short bus ride home. Of course we'd missed that bus too! And the night buses hadn't started yet.

It was all too much for me! I spied a KFC at the bus station. Ok. Let's give it a go...

I actually couldn't eat it. It was way too greasy and tasted not like KFC from home.

As a final sledgehammer to my budgets or the day, we caught a taxi home. But I was mighty happy to arrive.