A nice sunny day, finally! Another swan-watching relaxing breakfast before the start of another day of sightseeing in Suzhou.
We walked to our first stop "Garden of the Masters of the Net"---- it's not so easy to find it but we did manage to find it hidden in the middle of one neighbourhood quarter. Bumped into a guy whom we saw twice the day before! Were we being stalked? An old lady was struggling with her faulty camera and she asked me to have a look at her camera and try to figure our what's wrong with it.... No idea... Although I had "pro-looking" camera with me, I had no idea on how automatic cameras work....
We then took a walk to Blue Wave Pavilion. Before we explored this garden, we headed to the tea place to enjoy some bilouchun tea. The lady at the shop told us that for this tea, we should pour the hotel water into the glass first, and then add the tea-leaves, Also the first cup was usually not of much taste, and the best was the 2nd or 3rd cup---- had to agree with her here! This garden was pretty tranquille and so was quite fun to just walk around and relax, though there was not that much to see.
After a short taxi trip we arrived at Ruiguang Pagoda and Pan Gate, aka the Three Sights at Pan Gate. The weather was really nice---- sunny, clear blue sky with no cloud in sight at all. We walked around and took loads of photos, including some really colourful carps in the lake. Again, virtually no tourists when we were there.... just really nice not to have to fight through the crowds and having people walking right in front of the camera.
Suzhou city council was probably trying to develop this area into top tourist attraction and so many buildings seemed to have been restored recently, with more construction work going on nearby.
It was about 2.30pm when we decided to leave. By this time we had more than enough of the Suzhou gardens--- no matter how famous they were, there's only so much I could stomach in two days. On top of that I wasn't feeling 100% and so we headed back to the hotel. After a little nap, I decided to just stay in the hotel room writing this diary, watching TV and sipping tea, while Russell ventured out to explore the neighbourhood.
Had dinner at the Japanese restaurant in the hotel---- we had to kneel as we were given one of these low Japanese tables. Sounded fun at first but I regretted it soon after as it nearly killed my legs. Lost all feelings in my legs at one stage! Food was again quite average---- we could do a better yakitori at home.
Visited the cake shop in the hotel before heading back to the room..... originally we wanted Haagen-dazs ice-cream, but at RMB 35 per minitub or lollystick, we were not that desperate and so settled for some sponge cakes.
Didn't go to bed too late as we had to get up early tomorrow to catch the train to Shanghai!
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