Zhaoxing

Sometimes, because of communication difficulties, you do arrive in a destination without a reservation, and it normally creates problems. If it is raining, cold and the streets are muddy then the problems are usually exacerbated. We reverted to our old backpacking strategy of one of us staying with the packs and the other heading off into hotel land, so off I went.

Apart from the weather and road conditions Zhaoxing looked everything we had hoped it would.

The Dong architecture is all wood, with great roof lines, drum towers, wind and rain bridges and cobbled, narrow lanes. The village cascaded gently down a walled in stream which divided it in two, it was quite beautiful.

Wandering the alleys I eventually found"Lulus Hostel", but that only had dorms, but the gorgeous young girl ( who was Lulu ) gathered us up and helped trundle our bags to a friends hotel, which was basic but clean. It was full, so we sort of had the attic room and anyone taller than me ( don't even think it!!!) would have had enormous difficulties in the bathroom.

It was also our first Asian toilet in a hotel room!

I don't want to get into toilet discussions but boy it is hard to get up from a squat when you are not used to it, and it certainly takes the pleasure out of reading the Sunday Mail sports section ( although Mandy did see a woman in a public toilet reading whilst squatting..... remember no doors on public bathrooms). After consideration though, the person who invented western toilets did us a disservice, as we would be a far more flexible race had he/she directed their talents in a different direction.....no more Yoga classes.

The last word on this toilet issue; public toilets (particularly at bus stations and en route) being what they are in China, I blessed every time I had a wee, that I was born a male. You certainly wouldn't consider using public toilets for anything but a wee!!!!

Our Hotel was full because a large group of Chinese photographers were there, other than them we saw two Swedes, one of whom lived in Beijing and a Dutch family from Kunming. Because Zhaoxing is difficult to get to, tourism is in its infancy but that will change as good roads and tunnels were being cut in preparation for the dreaded "group tours"....progress I guess!

We had two wonderful days of watching the locals, who were always active building something or other, (maybe in anticipation of the coming tourists), following donkeys and horses and oxen, walking in the beautiful surrounding countryside and having a few quiet beers in a great little bar we found.....in every town there is always one great little bar! The owner was an artist and had a wonderful studio above the bar and I could see Mandy getting a little dreamy about residing in Zhaoxing for awhile and painting in such a studio......she could always join me in the bar downstairs when her work was done!!!!!!

We loved Zhaoxing!

It was only on the morning of departure that I ventured into a conversation with the delightful Hotel owner ( well you couldn't call it a conversation as neither of us could speak each others language) about the state of the roads we were about to encounter. He indicated that today's journey would be OK but the next day would be a little winding and high, but not for long. This gave me hope and although I relayed the good news onto Mandy, she looked very dubious.