Just as we thought we were finally enjoying some nice weather, rain once again descended upon us. We were planning to take the boat to "Three Pools Mirroring The Moon", but because of the rain, it really was not worth it. So after a very relaxing breakfast, we had a little rest back at the room and then checked out. After that we found a little tea place just outside "Lotus In the Breeze at Crooked Courtyard", and sat there for 2 hours sipping 1st grade Longjiang tea and munching various little snacks (sunflower seeds, raisons, fruits, etc) which came with the tea.
Miss Gong from CITS came to pick us up just before 1.45pm and we got to the train station just after 2pm. We went into the posh Soft Seat Waiting Room---- wow, now that's pretty classy! Soft sofa to sit on and actually the place did not live up to all the horror stories I've heard--- either this was newly refurbished or I just had not seen the hard seat part! We boarded our train T706 (final destination Nanjingxi) on platform 2 just after 2.30pm. The train was a double-decker air-con "express" (it's not that fast but it didn't stop at every station).
We got to our assigned seats in compartment 8. It's a bit of a pain to have to carry the luggage up and down the stairs on the train but I guess we asked for it ourselves!
It was a fun journey, with music and live broadcast from the on-board radio booth and DJ! Each compartment has its set of crews selling drinks, food (sandwiches, bread, snacks, fruit platters etc) and souvenirs (eg stamps).
The train made one stop at Shanghai before continuing its journey to Suzhou. When we arrived at Suzhou, we didn't realise that we were supposed to meet our CITS rep on the platform and so we made our own way to the exit. Bad mistake as many "taxi drivers" approached us and tried to offer a taxi ride for RMB5. A but scary but eventually we found our rep.
20 minutes taxi ride and we got to our hotel, Bamboo Grove Hotel, which was on the other side of the town. A bit older than the other hotels we have stayed in so far, and the room was a bit smaller, but nevertheless it's still go.d That's the problem of spoiling ourselves on this trip---- we moaned as soon as the hotel didn't live up to the standard of Palace Hotel Beijing!
Had dinner at the Chinese restaurant (Emerald Place) in the hotel---- average standard dishes but we really couldn't be botehred to go out. Our "banquet" for this evening included Guzu duck, marinated pig trotters, Bamboo Grove spare rids, stir-fried pea shoots and fried minced quail.
Probably started to have a bit of travelling fatigue and so ended up in hotel room watching Channel V!
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