This morning we woke early for the Olympics Torch passing through Hangzhou's Xi Hu (West Lake)... The tons of spectators however, didn't allow us any space to see the torch bearer but fortuntately with some teamwork, we managed to carry Weipeng up above the crowd for him to capture some photos... Followin' that, we had breakfast at Yong He, some you char kway, fried sunny side ups and soya bean drinks and went up Wu Shan (A short hill).
Interestingly, midway up the hill, there were many old historical wooden temples with tiled roofs where many many old folks were playing mahjong, chinese chess, wei qi, poker cards in them. These temples double up as a open air gambling area for the locals and anyone can join in for a game. Eventually, Jackie persuaded the reluctant me to sit down for 1 round of mahjong.. 3 yuan each was the charge, and we could play for more than 6 hours.. we started around 11am and were told that we could play till 4pm. And there was unlimited freshly brewed chrysanthamum tea too! The locals play mahjong without any of the "Huas -flowers". There were no animals and flowers. We finished 1 round.. Got quite bored and ordered some noodles and fried rice there.. nothing great about the food but it was the whole ambience of open mass gambling in the hills, surrounded by trees, plants and the occassional breeze that was refreshing!
At this moment, we're sitted at the living area of our backpacker's hostel, Wu Shan Yi, in Hangzhou. Jackie, weipeng and benny juz went for a bath and it will be my turn after this. Our train tonight will depart at 749pm from here to Shanghai. We should be there in 2 hours, est. 10pm tonite. Our next lodging place is the Blue Mountain dormitory in Shanghai. Highly recommnended by Sim's Cozy hostel and Tour An Backpackers' hostel. So we hope that the ambience will be highly interactive juz like Sim's Cozy in Chengdu. We really miss the cacophany and synergy of the various nationalities and cultures and exchanging stories with fellow travellers frm Japan, Australia, France, Austria and the ever friendly reception that we receive whenever we return to the hostel. It is by far, the only lodging place that has left an indelible mark in my mind. Friendly staff, lots of interaction opportunities with other travellers facilitated by their inhouse table tennis, darts, gym, billard table, chill out areas on the roof terrace, musical instruments), delicious and well priced food and drinks, free portable water, cheap international phone calls, 2 cute little daughters (of the Singaporean owner and his Japanese wife) who kept bringing their toys to play with us make this place a seldom achievable "home away from home". You just feel sooo comfortable even if just staying in the entire day. If you do visit Chengdu, you owe it to yourself to experience this wonderful abode, a place that doesn't seem to take, making money as the reason for it's business. AMAZING in a word.
Stuart
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