Shopping and Laudry

We began the day on Saturday by getting up early and going for a walk on West Lake.  All throughout Hangzhou there are statues depicting moments in history.  I'm not sure what this one is, but I like to think it's called "Please Don't Strangle Her".

After Skyping with my kiddos and going for breakfast, we headed off on a shopping expedition to the Silk Market.  It was a beautiful street lined with shade trees that made it about 5 degrees cooler than the rest of the area and created very pleasant conditions for spending money.

 Of course with Eryl's skills, we really didn't spend that much!

After four hours, we returned, hot and sweaty.  We thought we were leaving for Shanghai the next day, so we were proactive and went down to the business centre in the hotel where they helped us purchase tickets on the bullet train.

Back in the room, I did some laundry and put it our on the balcony to dry.  I actually hung it on the railing of the balcony, even though it states everywhere not to do so, but I rationalised that it was dark and so hot out that after a few hours hanging, they would be dry and no one would be the wiser.  I only did this with shorts and t-shirts and put my underwear on the floor of the balcony, so as not to be horribly uncivilised.

After showering and eating, Eryl checked through our documents, only to realize that we were not leaving on Sunday, but on Monday instead.  Given Eryl was already in her pyjamas and in bed, we decided that I would go down and talk to the people at the front desk about changing our tickets.  When I went to get my shoes from the balcony, kept there because they were so smelly, I found I could not open the door.  I grabbed the hotel slippers instead and went down to the lobby where I was told changing the tickets would require a trip to the train station and that a woman from housekeeping would be up to open the door to the balcony.

Within minutes of returning to the room, the housekeeper arrived at the door and tried, unsuccessfully for about ten minutes to open the door.  Soon we had two maintenance men and two managers, all banging on the door and attacking it with various tools.  Given it was 11:30 pm, we suggested they leave it for the night and try again in the morning.

Besides, it was getting hard not to laugh at the ridiculous situation.  The entire time they were working on the door, all I could think about was not only my laundry hanging on the railing, but bras and panties and far as the eye could see!  How embarrassing.