• China day 10

    Starting yesterday, we’ve been having problems with our Blackberries. Our SIMs keep getting rejected. Don’t know what’s up with that. I did not sleep well last night, the sore throat that started in Hangzhou developed into a full-fledged cold. I’ve spent most of today under a lot of blankets sweating my ass off. This is…

  • China day 9

    Breakfast buffet in the hotel again. Hot, humid and raining today. Fortunately, we just need to taxi to the train station, nowhere else to go. At the train station, waiting room for the train was packed, we could only stand. Considering the hour wait, Sabrina went to look for a better option. She found a…

  • China day 8

    Checked out of the hotel this morning. We left our bags in the care of the concierge, so we could do a little more sight-seeing. Took a series of trips on motorized boats to visit some quaint little islands in West Lake. The first island was a very small one featuring a pagoda. The second…

  • China day 7

    Awoke in pleasant bed in hotel room. Down to one of the hotel restaurants, the Chinese one, which is on two floors of the hotel. We get a private room here. Cool. Another huge menu, full of stuff I wouldn’t eat. But there’s so much in the menu, that Sabrina never seems to have a…

  • China day 6

    Today we are going to Hangzhou, a two hour train ride south of Shanghai. Sabrina booked us rooms at the Marco Polo hotel, which coincidentally my China guide book says is one of the nicer hotels. The train station in Shanghai was very much under construction, and really looked like a war zone. Crowded, definitely…