Daly Report 3 - Communication meltdown

27/11/07

Up at the crack of dawn this morning and say farewell to Ming Town Youth Hostel and Shanghai! The plan today was to catch a bus to Tunxi where I hoped to reach the base camp of Huang Shan . However the lady at the bus station has no idea what I'm talking about......I'm at the wrong bus station (I'm at North - I want to be at West, Doh!) No problem, plan B kicks into Action and I catch a bus heading North West to Suzhou! Home of loads and loads of Gardens, Temples, Pavilions and Pagodas...just what I was looking for to give me a real taste of China. Arrive hour and half later, throw my bags into left luggage, squeeze through 1000's of pedicab drivers and make my way to the nearest bike hire. Rent a bike with shoddy breaks but a kick ass basket at the front to keep maps and lonely planets. Spend the morning visiting beautiful world heritage sites and taking loads of photos (which you can see on my Facebook group 'The Muredach Daly Report"). I head to the wharf to book an overnight ferry to Hangzhou but for the second time of the day I'm disappointed when I'm told by a rather irritable man, that the overnight ferry is no longer in action. So once again I jump on the bus and head to Hangzhou. The scenery of the bus route turns out to be amazing, with acres and acres of rice paddies glowing bright orange reflecting the amazing sun set which lasts for over an hour....bliss. Make it to my hostel which is bang smack on the West Lake in Hangzhou (one of the top ten tourist attractions in China). I plan to get up early again to snap some shots of the sunrise over the lake.
But for now it's off to the nearest eatery, cause I'm starvin!