Joe's Birthday, Chairman Mao's Restaurant, Hangzhou and Dodgy Hargen Dars

On Friday it was Joe's birthday. He had to teach during the day, unfortunately, but in the afternoon the assistants presented him with a dark chocolate and cream birthday cake (yum!) and we had a really good evening, too. Starting at the HongKong restaurant, we then went back to the flat for a while and played drinking games (at points I was hysterical with laughter) as more people arrived. I have a few amusing photos of that night and I'll try and post them soon. Joe wanted to go to karaoke because it's so much fun when there's a big group of friends doing it. It was indeed much fun and, once again, we finished the night at the Overseas Students' Garden - there's really not a great choice here! (Above photo : Stuart, Jamie and Tony loving the drinking games; Below , Stuart, Rex and Ahmir at Karaoke)The next night, Joe's friend Tom, his girlfriend Izzy (who are teaching English and studying Chinese in Shanghai and who'd joined us for his birthday) , Joe and I all went out for a meal to Chairman Mao's restaurant. This is located on Restaurant street and inside there is a massive golden bust of the former Chinese dictator and red-coloured decoration everywhere. The menu explains (in English as well as Chinese!) that Mao had visited the restaurant once and every dish mentions him for some reason or another - i.e. Chairman Mao liked to eat this because it is particularly nutritious. The Chairman obviously had good taste because the food was delicious. Aside from the food, though, it was so nice to have a chat with Izzy, a female native-English speaker (so rare!!!) who was intelligent, well-travelled and really reminded me of Sara Priestly (fellow Goldney resident who studied Law at Bristol). That evening, I spoke to Mum for the first time since arriving in China. I was a bit concerned that it might generate feelings of homesickness but, thankfully, I was just delighted to hear from her and it made me feel closer to home than further away.

Temporarily fast-forwarding from Saturday's to Tuesday's events, I woke up this morning and immediately feared I might be unable to cope with the five-hour return journey from Hangzhou to Wuhu that lay ahead, after having been sick during the night and developing a most horrid head- and backache. Actually, I'm surprised it has taken a full month for me to pick up a tummy bug, considering the sorts of new foods I have consumed(amongst the most notable being cow's stomach, a mackerel lollipop and ducks' feet) and the sorts of establishments (including one or two of the many open stalls that line the streets of Wuhu) from which I have consumed them.

Falling ill was not my ideal way to end the trip, but then its beginning was hardly desirable either. I bought the coach tickets to Hangzho last week (a five hour return trip cost us less than twelve pounds each) and told my travelling companions, Merim, Joe and Ahmir, that we needed to leave the flat at 9.15am on Sunday morning, in order to get to the coach station in plenty of time to make our 9.50am coach. At 9.06 I double-checked that I had packed my ticket and noticed that, actually, departure time was half an hour earlier than I had thought. To cut a panicked, hurried story short(er), we all legged it down the twelve flights of stairs from our flat into a passing taxi and managed to board the coach with literally less than a minute to spare!

It took me a little while to collect myself after that, but as we left Wuhu I began to read Lolita. I had heard of this book before and was curious to check it out. To my delight it is quite engrossing and wonderfully written, but I have been pretty shocked by the content though! For this reason, I barely noticed the scenery outside the coach. Joe informed me afterwards that I missed out, because much of it was fantastic. I did notice the mountains we drove through and some of the rural homes and farms. The mountains were covered in the sorts of trees that, to me, are always in the background of images of quintessential rural China.

Upon arrival in Hangzhou, we got into a taxi and showed the driver the piece of paper that detailed the name and address of our hotel (the Chinese assistants at Aston had printed this out for us in order to make the process easier). The taxi driver, understandably, had a bit of a chuckle at this point and then pointed behind him; the hotel was about 300 metres away! I am getting used to this feeling of complete ignorance and helplessness here. We did manage to check-in and find our rooms, though. We did not know what to expect, but the hotel was pretty nice. Nicer than a Holiday Inn anyway, and much cheaper! The cheapest accommodation had been unavailable because, due to the October Vacation when the whole of China is on the move, these places get full up very quickly.

We made our way into the city centre in the late afternoon. We hadn't eaten since leaving Wuhu so hunting down food was a priority. Like most visitors, were gravitated towards West Lake or 'Xi Hu', which is the main tourist attraction of the city. In fact, this lake is amongst the most famous in China, according to the Lonely Planet Guide. During our stay we came to understand why this was, but our mission for food took us first into a nearby Tea House. It transpired that we had wandered into an All-you-can-eat establishment; you buy your (rather expensive) tea and then can gorge yourself at the buffet. This concept suited our empty stomachs well, but as people who pride themselves on our polite English tradition of queueing, the dog-eat-dog reality of this system was not so wonderful. We soon learned that Chinese can be lethal with their chopsticks, especially when choice dishes such as chickens' claws and spring rolls are there for the taking. I must say, I thought it was just us Westerners who were greedy with our food, but from witnessing the all-you-can eat madness of that Hangzhou TeaHouse, I am now not so sure.

We wondered around the lake after dinner and watched a great fountain display from the water's edge, but it is about 3km in diameter so we only walked around a little bit that evening (and hid behind trees, as demonstrated in the above photo with Joe and Ahmir) It was pretty busy but not as hectic as we had feared. I had thought that there might be more foreigners in this tourist hot spot, but it seemed that we attracted just as much attention in Hangzhou. I'd say about five or six separate groups of people asked to have their photos taken with us during our stay (they all do that V sign with their fingers - what an amusing cliche!) and many more called out 'Hello' and giggled as if they were being really original.

We decided to go to a Jazz Cafe for a drink afterwards. Everything is more expensive during this vacation week and our drinks' prices reflected this. Still, I enjoyed the live jazz, even if the boys took an instant dislike to the arty-looking westerners that had also found this bar and sat nearby. It did indeed seem like a place that people go to be seen, unfortunately, and no-one was dancing or even moving to the music, as you would expect when live music is playing.

The next morning (Monday), Joe and I got up early and made our way back to West Lake, in the hope of beating the crowds. Ahmir and Merim are not early birds so the plan was that they'd meet us later. I am so glad we did walk around the lake earlier because it wasn't too busy at 8.30am (comparatively speaking) and so we could really enjoy the scenery in relative peace. The landscaping is well done, with all sorts of trees and plants and places to sit, and the backdrop of mountains and temples was stunning. It took us nearly three hours to get all the way around and, once we had, I was in real need of my first coffee of the day! The only main irritation on the walk was the presence of little golf-style buggies that drive around the lake carrying tourists and constantly beep in a tuneless way as they push past the pedestrians - arghh!

The afternoon was less fun than the morning in Hangzhou. We had a very cheap lunch from the street stalls, which most people seemed to be doing and consisted of tofu on a stick with chilly and corn on the cob (the Chinese love food on a stick) - far more healthy than the offerings you would expect at tourist attractions in England! Everything, from pedal boats to entry into temples, was expensive and we couldn't understand the bus system so we couldn't get to the botanic garden either. We actually ended up walking round the whole Lake again, which was ridiculous and far less fun with so many people doing the same thing. It was packed with tourists and golf-buggies so, by 6pm, we were all delighted to find a curry house in which to have dinner and rest our aching feet. I had a vegetarian Thai curry (ironically, I thought I would try to lower my chances of eating anything dodgy by avoiding meat), which was delicious. It was in a mad restaurant with vines on the ceiling, brightly-coloured, eclectic decoration and a group of quite talented singers/guitar player/tambourine player - this made us all perk up!

After dinner we sat for ages at an outside cafe that was sandwiched between Armini, Hermes and other designer shops on one side and the Lake on the other. It was really relaxing and the people-watching wasn't bad either. The only irritation, but also a source of amusement, was the serious way that the Chinese policeman berated people who were walking on the grass nearby. He stood there for ages, taking himself far too seriously, and we couldn't help but take the piss a little bit.

Obviously I have no way of telling what we ate that made both Merim and me throw up last night (or make me run to the toilet twice the night before, thinking I was going to be sick), but we both indulged in some Hargen Dars ice cream while we sat at the cafe and, seeing as this is the only thing that we both ate that the others did not, there must be a slim possibility that it was that which poisoned us - how funny it would be, if that were true and western food was the culprit!

The evening for Joe and myself ended with a difficult taxi drive home. The driver clearly did not understand which qi che zhan (coach station) we meant - there are numerous ones in hangzhou. Eventually we got back, but it was quite frustrating being unable to communicate and feeling, yet again, pretty vulnerable in a strange city. Merim and Ahmir stayed in the centre, ended up in a club and got back to the hotel at 3ish in the morning. Unsurprisingly, none of us apart from joe perhaps, felt that happy about the trip home, but we got back and all felt great fondness towards 'our' city and flat. I have drunk loads of water this afternoon and feel much better. I just hope my appetite returns properly soon so I can return to Chairman Mao's restaurant asap. x