24th March - Shanghai to Hangzhou

We saw Mike from Xi'an at breakfast and briefly caught up with him before spending a little time chatting to Krishan and some American friends he'd made. One of them told a story about how he'd woken up in the dorm to see the guy opposite watching hard-core porn so we were extra-pleased to have had a room to ourselves. We haven't spoken to people much while we've been here because there's an odd atmosphere and because most people don't seem to be particularly friendly so it was nice to have a chat before we left.

We checked out again and took a couple of metros to the biggest train station we'd ever seen. It was set up more like an airport and was really busy but calm. It wasn't possible to see or hear any trains because we were on a different level.  You hung around in the waiting room until your gate opened and then took an escalator down to where the train was waiting.

The train itself was a 'Z' train and more like a plane than a train. There was lots of legroom and 'inflight' type magazines in the back of the seats and enough room for luggage for the first time this trip. It moved pretty niftily and and was really smooth, without the rocking and heavy braking we've become used to.

We looked out of the window at the interestingly spired residential buildings on the way, and were really impressed on our arrival when 2 people got on each carriage to clean and swivel each row of seats around so they were facing the other way. After this it all went a bit wrong.

Matt couldn't access the information on how to reach the hostel on his phone but remembered needing the No.7 bus, which we saw waiting outside the station. The bus was boiling hot and absolutely rammed full of people. After the bus got stuck in traffic and I started feeling faint, I tried to ask two young women about whether they know which the stop for the zoo was, but they didn't know and could not see it on the sign of the bus route either.

We got off a few stops (but quite a long while) down the road. We called the hostel but although the man was friendly, he couldn't do much but tell us the get a bus or a taxi. All the buses that went past were so full we would never have been able to fit on them, even if we had the ability to get ourselves to the front of the crush and didn't have our bags.  We tried hailing taxis but the rare one that did stop, just blankly refused when we showed them where we wanted to go on the the map. It turned out that we'd got off the bus exactly at the opposite side to where we wanted to be.

We decided to give it a while to see if it got any less busy and found a place to sit by the lake and watch the sun go down. There was a very pretty sunset behind the mountains but the crowds did not abate at all. It was now several hours since we had got of the train and we were tired and very hungry and I was feeling really ill.

We went back to the bus-stop and a long wait and a big paddy later, we were really relieved when we finally caught a bus and did not have to wrestle to get on it. Several minutes later, it stopped in middle of nowhere and turfed everybody off. We had no idea where we were and thankfully the bus driver was patient enough to speak to the man from the Hostel and explain that it was the end of the line.

John, the hostel owner, tried to explain to a still patient Matt which bus to get next and where we needed to change to a different bus but there wasn't another bus in sight and we had no idea how we were going to explain where we needed to get off.

Cold, hungry, tired and very, very fed-up, we were starting to despair. Luckily, John called us back soon after and said that his wife had come back with the car and so could come to fetch us. I don't think I've been more relieved about anything so far this trip.

Finally at Emerald hostel, 6 hours after we'd got off the train, John gave us tea and food and then told us that our room had been double booked. He was really apologetic and explained that the hotel wasn't very far away and that he would give us a lift there and also pay the difference between our hostel dorm and the private hotel room. Given how crappy I was feeling I was actually quite grateful.

The hotel was a bit grubby in general but the room was ok. The double bed was really hard but was clean and had lovely, comfy pillows. There was also a sprung mattressed single bed too but I think we're just used to sleeping on solid beds now.

Interestingly, the 'wall' between the bedroom and private bathroom was just made of glass so, should anyone desire, they could lay in bed and watch whoever was using the shower or the loo. Or maybe it was designed so you could use the facilities whilst still watching the TV, I'm really not sure. We played about rolling the blind up and down for a while but it didn't work properly so we soon got bored.

We were also quite entertained by the sign attached to the wall behind the loo which warned occupants to 'beware of landslides'. I wasnt sure what kind of landslides they were referring too but I vowed to take care to be vigilant!