27th March - Hangzhou

We spent all morning sorting out our couch-surfing profile so we can hopefully save some money in some places. I don't enjoy writing about myself in that way though and the internet keeps stopping so it was an infuriatingly slow process.

We took a walk around lake on the Su Causeway and enjoyed stretching our legs and taking in all of the beautiful viewpoints. There were lots of pretty pagodas, bridges, flowers and attractive scenes. I'm too peaky to describe it properly so hopefully Matt will stick up a picture or two. They did all have mega cool but slightly abstract names too but don't remember any.

 

There were also many more couples dressed up and doing photoshoots. It looks like Matt might be right though because a lot of couples were dressed up in other outfits too and they weren't the kind of thing I could see boys back home agreeing to. At West Lake we saw lots of red carp and a really impressively huge peacock, which fanned its tail and prompted the first round of applause that we've heard in China.  We took an electric buggy down a very long causeway and then hired a tandem bike - something we've been planning to do for ages. The brakes weren't great though and with the weight of us both, it wouldn't stop when we went down slight hills and so we took it back and and exchanged it for individual . They were quite rickety and battered and the seats weren't adjustable so my knees were by my ears but they did feel safer and we really enjoyed exploring more parks and more of the lake.

In the evening, we went to find a duck restaurant that we'd heard about on the city side. The lady there told me I had a 'beautiful nose'. As well as 'double eyelids' it seems the Chinese also covet long, thin beaky noses! The food was really nice and I was glad we'd not left China without eating the one meat that I'm quite partial to. They carve the duck for you and then fry up all the carcass with chilli, ginger, garlic and coriander and bring it to your table so you can pick at the bits. It's a bit grim but at least they left the gross bits out. They call the heart, tongue, gizzard (what is a gizzard anyway?) and liver, 'the four treasures' and you have to pay extra for those so guess we lucked out!

Because we'd spent up, we had to go to the ATM. This always fills us with dread in China because they don't all accept our cards. We tried 3 ATMs and none of them would work. We walked around trying to find the 'Agricultural Bank of China' because that one has saved us before but the ABC refused to give us cash too. If it wasn't for Matt's calm insistence that it would be ok I think I would have freaked out.

We got a taxi back to email them and look online but stupid Barclays had locked my online banking too because 'of a problem with the debit card'. I tried to call but the internet was so crappy that Skype wouldn't work for more than 10 mins so I never got past the holding music. Matt emailed Smile and HSBC so hopefully they'll be better but it is weird that none of them would work.

We shared a beer and a 'chat' with the Chinese people sharing our dorm but I think they regretted asking us when we all struggled to communicate.  They did kindly offer us some of their snacks though. I asked if it was fruit and they agreed but when I saw them pick it out of a shell and caught the moonlit glint of the tiny little organs hanging out, I gave it to Matt to try. He said it was okay but declined the later offer of a baby lobster, chewed whole.