Shaoxing
In the end we travelled to Shaoxing, an historic water city, famous for its canals used to transport goods around. The trip from Putuoshan was a long one… in the morning we caught the fast boat back to Ningbo and then travelled the five+ (almost six) hours to Shaoxing by bus. I spent the majority of this time desperate for the toilet, but I also took the opportunity to watch an episode and a half of Dexter.
Upon arriving I was overjoyed to discover that I could get some “real food” (if you can call it that) thanks to the wonders of the Western world… Pizza Hut! This made a nice change from the past three meals, which consisted of pork, pepper and, if you were lucky, some chillis to spice things up a bit.
Finding our hotel was an absolute disaster… the first place we came across was on the fourth floor and cost just 80RMB (less than a fiver) for a double bed. The big problem was the lack of lift and the fact that, while the sheets and room was reasonably clean… you just couldn’t afford to risk leaving any valuables in the room. We kept going and went through a whole pile more crappy places, some really nice expensive places until we came across Shaoxing Fandian (Shaoxing Hotel)... without doubt this was the nicest hotel I’ve visited. The place was spread over a fairly large area and had a number of impressive single-floor buildings. There was a really nice pond in the middle, with some of the rooms clustered around. I can’t properly describe it… but when we finally found the front desk (we arrived somewhere from around the back) we discovered it was a five star hotel and that the only rooms they had free were double suites. Had we been able to get a double room for 530RMB (40-45 quid) I’d have definitely gone for it… but a suite at 1030RMB was a bit more than we could realistically justify.
The next hotel we found was ideal: a little more than we were used to, but not by much. Just as we were ready to sign in, we were refused, thanks to Xiaoxiao having forgotten her ID card. They didn’t take kindly to my suggestion that Xiaoxiao wait outside and I book a double room for myself!
The next hotel we found was what we wanted… it’s a very Ibis-style place: simple with no-frills. But it is very clean, comes with Internet in the room (woo! but I still can’t get my blog post page to load) and has a decent shower.
We visited the East Lake today… but that’ll have to be another blog entry. Tomorrow morning we’re catching the 9:30 bus to Shanghai where I’ll spend the last few days of the year (and my holiday) in China.
Tags: Travel