I was still feeling pretty rubbish when I woke up, but was determined to get on with things. I looked out my hotel room window and saw a huge sign that screamed 'Metro'. I had visions of a big bustling shopping centre to explore and all very conveniently close.
Downstairs, I managed to Google Translate my way to having a taxi ordered for me and I was off...
I had to do a bit of google translate again with the taxi driver but he said yes... Metro. And laughed at me.
About 90 seconds later, we pulled up in the parking lot of ...a supermarket! Go me!!! I at least looked embarrassed when I handed over the base 8RMB taxi fare.
Anyway, this could be a good thing!!! I had discovered that the China electricity plug holes look suspiciously similar to our Aussie ones, they are just fractionally more narrow so none of my devices were getting charged any time soon.
A wander around this Walmart-like wonderland and although they didn't have an Aussie to China plug (go figure), they did have a multi-USB to China plug which was good enough for me!
And they had bread! And chocolate! And Peanut Butter!!! OMG!
They also had some other peculiar treats but we will never mention them again, ok?
A small shopping spree then surely ensued, although not too much of one, as I did indeed walk back to the hotel with no trouble. You see, I thought the shopping centre was much further away, and seperated by a large body of water. Haha it was Suzhou all over again!!!!
See the water? And the sign looks like it's attached to the big high rise behind it in the distance? Or... maybe I hadn't put my glasses on yet?
The walk back to hotel was quite pleasant, except for the many people who had to slow down and stare...
Happened everywhere in Jiaxing but in these few days I did not see another foreigner, it was particularly disconcerting.
Anyway, I spent a rather enjoyable day watching terrible English-language movies with Chinese subtitles (Adam Sandler really has gone downhill, hey!).
I got to speak with my Mum, Meleah, Pheonix, Sequoia, Robyn and Pete by proxy and started formulating a plan for my remaining time in China.
I was happy to spend the day chilling, ready for whatever comes next.
Day 16 - Sunday 31st May
A decision was made and that I would catch a train up to Beijing on Monday. In view of my unlikely return to China in the future, I figured that would be the place for me to head - I have always wanted to see the Great Wall and Tianamen Square.
Now, I had a Sunday to see anything else I wanted to see in Jiaxing. There is an area where there are lots of ancient buildings and canals call Yuehe Street or I believe colloquially Moon River that looked like a good place to check out.
I went downstairs and tried to converse with reception with the help of Google Translate. Is there a bus that goes there? No. Of course not. Taxi only. No taxi available just now. So, even though I had never ending problems with the wifi at the hotel and it appeared my internet in my Chinese SIM card had come to its end, the map for the App TripAdvisor seemed to work offline and even loosely tracked my location.
So off I set on foot.
Wending my way through the Chinese streets, I was quite confident that I was headed in the right direction, and was quite enjoying the walk.
There were markets
And a few characters along the way:
After my considerable walking, I found myself both thirsty and of need of a bathroom. I couldn't see anywhere that seemed to be likely to have a disability toilet. I knew I was in trouble.
I stumbled across a bar/restaurant where there was a Chinese young man who spoke English...well, enough for me to have a beer sitting in front of me before too long. But first things first, where is the toilet? I knew he didn't understand me when he started going on about lots of tourists. Not tourist, toilet...bathroom? WC? Yes, WC. He had me escorted upstairs - awkward！so of course my accompanying server got see the look on my face...
I don't care that it has a cool little green man ...it is a squat! I guess it really was inevitable, and judging by the stairs we traipsed to get to it, chances of a disabled toilet weren't looking good.
Anyway, that beer soon went down beautifully.
After this recharge, I was ready for some more exploration. I stumbled upon a canal boat taking tourists through the canals and was quite happy with the 10RMB ticket.
This was a great little trip. I was sharing the boat with the most delightful little Chinese boy and his family and I could have cried when he decided I was part of the group and started including me, even practicing his counting with me as one of the group.
Our Canal boat:
Our little friend was completely enchanting and enchanted...
(The boat driver is standing just out of this shot)
Some of the vistas we encountered:
I loved this little trip and was one of the highlight of my time in Jiaxing.
I eventually made my way back to the hotel, where I engaged a rather friendly receptionist (using google translate) about catching the train to Beijing. She looked up all the times and prices and recommended that I head straight to the train station now as there weren't many sleeper berths left and I really wouldn't want a 3rd class seat for 15 hr night trip I was aiming to take.
So I set out again, in direction of train station, flagging down a taxi down the road due to the urgency I was feeling. I hopped in and presented the prepared google translate for 'Please take me to the train station.' The taxi driver started fervently shaking his head. I even made 'toot toot' noises and mimed with my arms 'chugga chugga'. Nope.
He started shouting at me this point and hopped out. He couldn't speed away fast enough. I have a suspicion that Google Translate sometimes likes to play games. By the way the taxi driver was carrying on, I'm thinking maybe it read something like 'Take me to your firstborn son so I can ritually sacrifice him...'
Anyhow, I decided it wasn't so far to walk, and after about 45 minutes, I found myself where my map was telling me the Railway Station should be.
All I could see was a big bus depot and parking lot. Not a sign in English nor a picture of a train to be found!
Yep. This is in fact the train station.
I wasted quite a bit of time working out where I should line up and had my request written out in Google translate ready to go. By the time I got to the window however, the sleepers were all booked out. I decided to go for a seat anyway. For 180RMB, I'd save money on a night's accommodation as well as find myself at the other end of the country.
Fortunately the man in line behind me spoke some English and was able to confirm I had bought a ticket for the train I thought I had and all was ok.
I returned to my hotel in foot thinking to myself I better look like Miranda Kerr by the time I get back to Australia with all the walking I have been doing!
No comments:
Post a Comment