The Balcony and West Lake

By the time we got back from breakfast on Sunday, our door to the balcony was open.  My clothes that had been hanging . . . 

 . . . were all nicely folded on the couch.  I guess the maintenance men are multi talented here at this hotel.

 It seemed as if all the staff heard of the laundry predicament as we had numerous comments from the staff as I made my way to breakfast in my new slippers.  They all thought it was quite funny.

We still had the matter of our train tickets to clear up, so I put on my shoes and we went downstairs.  The hotel staff felt bad about the door so, not only did they provide the hotel van to take us to the train station, but one of the valets came with us to talk to the person at the ticket station so that we would get tickets for the correct train, on the correct day, at the correct station.  Now that's service!

When we returned, we found this in our room.  Every night when the staff comes in to turn down the bed, they leave one small glass statue.  It is always left on my bed, which in my mind means that it's mine.  Eryl disagrees and as a result, we have been having to share the gifts.  We had mentioned this, as a joke, to one of the managers (the foreign staff are always in the lobby and seem to really want to talk to other foreigners, so you get to know them all), and she had sent these up for us as a gift due to the inconvenience of the balcony.  There was an entire set for Eryl and one that I was missing from my set for me along with a lovely note.  How thoughtful! 

 After a bit of a rest in order to allow for the temperature to drop (Robin reports that, according to the Weather Network, it was 45 degrees here on Sunday), we ventured out to a different part of West Lake that we had not been to before.  It first involved a boat ride across the lake which gave Eryl the perfect opportunity to use her new fancy umbrella to block the sun.

 It was interesting to see vistas that the middle of the lake provided.

 We hoped off at the causeway that runs on the other side of the lake and our captain immediately had business to go back.  Sundays are really busy on the lake and with the wind blowing nothing but hot air, everyone seemed to be looking for a quicker way across the lake, other than walking.

 This end of the lake was much less crowded.

 And we were actually in a forest.

 There was a beautiful garden.

 I can't believe we found another area of clam and peacefulness in this busy city.

 It began to get dark as we meandered across the causeway, desperately searching for a resemblance of cool breeze.

 As night fell, we grabbed a taxi to our home away from home.

We leave Hangzhou tomorrow for Shanghai and I'm excited to see what I've heard is a vibrant city.

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. 

LinYin Temple and the Tea Museum

After my adventure at the school, Eryl and I went to the LinYin Temple situated in the tea hills.  The first thing that struck us when we got out of the taxi was the change in temperature.  It was at least three or four degrees cooler away from the concrete and in the shade of the many trees.

We first began by exploring the caves, and really wanted to stay there all day.  It was refreshingly cool(er, relatively speaking) and there was the odd breeze where we would linger just a little longer, feigning interest in some colouration in the rock.

Monks made carvings in the caves 2000 years ago and I think we've stumbled on the real reason they were here.  It was just too hot in Hangzhou.  

The surroundings were cool and calm.  Eryl pretended to do a lot or reading, but if you could really see, that sign is in the shade and  only in Mandarin.

The paths were very inviting and we began to wander.

We got just a little lost, but found signs of civilization, like this pagoda, which gave us hope that we would eventually make our way out. 

Once we eventually emerged from the paths, we made our way to the Temple, passing more relics on the way.

The air at the Temple was thick with incense as many people bought handfuls of sticks to burn.

This was one of the many burner thingys (for lack of a better word) where people would place their incense.

Once we had seen inside the Temple (we were not allowed to take pictures as it was a working Temple), we left as we were just too hot.

We found our taxi that had been waiting for us, and headed into what we thought was the Tea Museum.  Unfortunately, he took us to the tea village where little old ladies were sitting, waiting for some unsuspecting tourists, to entice them to have tea at their house.  Realising this was not what we wanted, we got the driver to phone the wonderful Jose at the hotel to have him tell the driver where we wanted to go.

The Tea Museum was the first place where we felt a sense of calm in China.  It was so peaceful and green.

The tea fields were right outside the door of the Museum.

The museum was great, but the fields were amazing to see as well. All this just 15 minutes from downtown Hangzhou.

We were so wiped from the heat after our little adventure that when we got back to the hotel we showered, read for awhile, and then made our way down to the buffet.  Whew!

Where Kids go to School

I went to see the International School here in Hangzhou.  It is the white buildings with the blue roof in the picture.  There are four hundred students in the school from all over the world.

 I had a tour with the principal   We went past the outdoor play structure, which had a massive awning covering it - have I mentioned it's hot?  The soccer field has brand new artificial turf and is just waiting to be played on.

The gym looked great.  The phys ed teacher was getting organised as school starts here next week.

 The other half of the gym.

 There was a dance studio.

The buildings are all separate, so I went past the play structure again as we were getting to another building.

 The library was very nice with lots of new books in boxes.

 Another shot of the library.

The grade two classroom was being set up.  Each class has about fifteen students in it and there are two or three classes of each grade.

It was a very interesting morning.

Where People Live

Part of my mission here in Hangzhou is to see where people live.  I connected with a real estate agent who agreed to take us to a couple of apartments so we could get an idea of where international people, or expats, live.

The first one he took us to was a very nice apartment complex that is frequented by foreigners.  Our introduction to the place was an outdoor bar area on a black deck.  Oddly enough, no one was there!  Could it be the heat?!?  

There were six buildings surrounding the beautiful outdoor areas.

The indoor pool, heated, but probably not to the temperature we are accustomed to.

This was the view from the ninth floor apartment overlooking the river and the area where the international school is.  There were only two apartments on the floor and each one had a private antechamber with a water fountain.

The living room.  There was a big screen TV and surround sound on the wall not visible.

The dining room is part of the living room.  Notice the chairs?  We have the same ones at home.

The big, beautiful, western style kitchen with big, beautiful, western style appliances.

The Ayi's quarters.  She would have her own very small room and very small bathroom.

This was the balcony off the kitchen.  The washer/dryer combo machine is outside.  The Ayi's room is on the balcony too.  The realtor assured me it was heated and air-conditioned too.

The guest bedroom/office.  You can't see the desk, but it's there.

The guest bedroom/office's bathroom.

A child's room.

Another bedroom.

The master bedroom is huge and has floor to ceiling windows on three sides.

 The master tub in the master bath.  Kind of reminds me of home . . . if we had a master bathroom with a master tub.

Off the master bedroom is a master balcony with a master BBQ!

On our way out, we walked past the outdoor pool, which was gorgeous, but empty.  Too hot maybe?

The second apartment was in a complex with eight buildings surrounding the common area.  A lovely little stream meandered through with lots of trees and even some grass, complete with "Do Not Walk on the Grass" signs.

This area was skyscraperville.  There were many complexes in this area.  It was also right across the street from the international school.

This was the living and dining room.  The furniture in these apartments varied as each one was furnished by the owner.  The first apartment was furnished by the building manager, and so would similar from apartment to apartment.  In this second building, the quality of the furniture would really vary.

A child's room.

The view across the river to the area where the first apartment was.  You can see the massive Chinese school below which is beside the international school, not pictured.  You can also see the beginning of the hills of Hangzhou on the left.  If this apartment faced a different direction, you would have a view of the West Lake and the hills.

The master bedroom.

Another view of the master bedroom.

The guest bedroom/office, although there was no actual bed in there.

A view out the other side of the apartment.

A child's room.

The kitchen was a little small.  Definitely a one person area.  There was no oven in this apartment, but there was a microwave and a dish sanitiser.

The view from the kitchen balcony where the washer/dryer was housed.  The international school is the collection of white buildings with blue roofs below.

This was the other end of the kitchen.  That's not an oven below the stove, but rather the dish sanitiser.  No dishwasher!

And that was the end of our house snooping adventure.