Day two in Hangzhou

Spot Versace????

As we woke after a good sleep we could hear the rain, so we had to decide what to do. We had bought "breakfast" the night before at a little shop - coffee, buns, jellied fruit etc. We had little joy learning about the facilities at the hotel, but we learned on booking out that their breakfast was good. We watched others eating it - wishing we had known about it before hand.

We had decided to go to the Silk Museum which is one of the many attractions around the West Lake and not far from our hotel. It was still raining and while on our way to the museum in the taxi, and noting the absolute chaos of the traffic with huge tour buses, taxis etc in the pouring ran, we decided to go straight into the shopping area near the lake. We didn't want to lug our backpacks around the museum which would have been crowded, so opted for the alternative. We decided we would go back to Hangzhou, but plan our tourist activities during the week when it was quieter.

We had found a good shop on the Saturday, so did a little Xmas shopping there, before finding an Italian coffee shop. Oddly enough it had a great array of stunning cakes in its menu, but had none. (Must have been a busy day on Saturday) so we had to settle for coffee, which was served in wonderful tea cups - just as if we were at a tea party in Oz.

So back to the lake and we walked in the opposite direction this time. Past the designer label shops. You should be able to see them in the photograph.

Now "third world" this country is not! I've never seen so many of the top expensive label shops anywhere and there seem to be on every street corner here! Not far from here was the Ferrari sow room and the Rolls Royce Show room!

Just along from these shops was the Hangzhou Hilton! We had coffee there later, and we nearly fell over when we saw the bill!!!

We have decided to try and get to Hangzhou during the week - even if we have to wait until after the college exams in January. It really is a fabulous wonderful place. Cleaner than Shaoxing, and less chaotic traffic too. The tree lined streets could well be out of any place in the world! It is beautiful!

We left the Hilton in all its luxury and caught a taxi, hailed by the concierge, to go to the bus station, where we had to walk the last few hundred meters as the traffic is so chaotic that the taxis can't get close. We got our tickets and had a safe trip back to Shaoxing.