It's Day 2 of our 17-day trip. Our legs are aching like crazy. Yesterday at Shanghai, we walked nearly 15 hours, hopping from sight to sight, and found a hidden treasure while we were at it.
Today, at Hangzhou, was not a very good day though it has its perks too. For a start, we had a late start in the morning as the only bullet train to Hangzhou arrives at 9.05am. We did a mad rush to Wu Zhen, which was 2 hours away. Our cabbie had advised us against it as it was too late in the day to try to do it as a half-day trip. Kh's parents and sister had gone there before and they loved that place. I knew Kh wanted very much to see it for himself too, and i didn't want him to regret not having been there, so i said we should go anyway, even if it means missing a few sights in Hangzhou.
True enough, it was too late for a half-day trip. By the time we got back to Hangzhou, it was almost 6pm and most of the attractions are already closed. Thankfully, QingHeFang was opened, as informed by our illegal cabbie (kena scammed), who kindly dropped us off there at the pre-negotiated price though it was much further than our intended destination.
Later on, it got too cold for me to be walking around in a fleece jacket (probably around 0-5 degrees), so we decided to go back to our hotel for me to change into my down jacket and also pick up my tripod for some night-shooting at the West Lake.
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Several people asked us where we were from, and we when we say, "Singapore", they'll be like,"Zhe Men Yuan?!" At the back of my head, I'm thinking, "that's only 5 hours away.-_-" " They think we're from Hong Kong or Guangdong, from the way we speak.
It's funny how they can't even tell the difference between their own people and a Chinese foreigner. To them, even a local from another state is also considered a foreigner. That's how big their country is, that different states can have vastly difference cultures. I'm happy with this newfound "tiong" status though, as it means that they are not treating us differently from the locals.
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