Hangzhou - Xi'an - Chengdu

Hey All,

I’m writing this from Litang, we’ve been unable to get a bus to our next destination Xiangcheng and there is not one tomorrow. If we are unsuccessful tomorrow then hitching might be our best option….

I don’t want to write too much about what we did in Hangzhou-Chengdu, instead I’ll give a brief summary and mention a funny story that happened to us.

We spent two days in Hangzhou mostly on and around the large lake in the centre of the city. The hostel was situated in a nice part of town with lots of nice restaurants nearby. We leftHangzhou and got a 22 hour train to Xi’an. The following day we saw the Terracotta Warriors. They were interesting enough, but not what I expected. There were hundreds of Chinese tourists which are always amusing to watch as they scurry from one vantage point to another, knocking and trampling anything in their path. We got an 18 hr train to Chengdu, which was fine for me, but Jen got sick during it. She wasn’t well for a couple of days but bravely managed to visit a Chinese opera and the Pandas in Chengdu. Our current excursion is the ‘Backdoor toYunnan’ which I’ll save for my next entry.

My amusing story is about photography. I’ve mentioned before that people like taking photos of Jen but the most amusing incident to date was in Hangzhou. Jen and I were just completing the marathon walk around the lake and were in this little scenic park next to it. This chap had been walking behind us for a while and then went for a swift overtake. After 50m or so he gets to this bridge (Bottleneck in the path.) he turns around and thrusts out a camera towards me and makes some weird noises. I assumed he wanted me to take his photo on the bridge overlooking the nice park. I point the camera but he starts gesturing desperately at Jen. I catch on before Jen and push her into the photo with the nice Chinese chap. Jen looked really confused not sure whether to touch him or not. The chap on the other hand went for a sombre blue steal attempt and he nearly pulled it off…After reviewing the photo he happily skipped off in the direction we’d come. Jen wanted to make a fast exit in case he told his friends, I saw a potential money making opportunity - Jen did not.

Lots of Love to All

Alex

Coggy

Coggy on the move

Where's Jen?