We woke to a relatively clear day with bluish skies. Today was a visit to the Silk Factory and then an optional, a cruise through the canals of old Suzhou. We all opted to do the tour.
The silk factory was a bit of a let down as it was basically just a huge multi level shop. We started the your listening to one of the guides talk about silk worms, making the silk and turning it into fabric (which was really interesting) but then it turned into a sales pitch. We did see some old silk making machinery but never actually saw them making silk. The next area was just a display room with all the bedding products and then we could walk around to the other floors selling different silk products. We had a bit of a look and then made for the toilets, got to make use of the western toilets when you can.
We left the silk factory and had a quick explore of the area before getting back on the bus and heading for the canal and our boat trip.
This was one of my most favourite tours we did, not sure why they make it an optional tour though it should just be a part of the trip. Anyway as we all did it Hans didn't need to make plans for the people who opted out. It was great travelling up the canal and seeing all the homes and businesses that were right on the edge of the canal. They had been there for centuries obviously updated but from the outside you couldn't tell but Hans said they were all pretty modern inside.
After our cruise we had a few hours to wander around Suzhou streets, this was known as the Venice of Suzhou area. It was great to see how the locals live and work as it wasn't a real touristy area until you got further up the street. Still busy with people and scooters, look out mum!
We had some yummy dumpling things for lunch before jumping back on the bus and making our way to the Lingering Gardens. We had about an hour here but to see all of it you would probably need at least half a day. They are huge.
Back on the bus and next stop was Hangzhou, about 2 hours plus a pitstop at a service centre. Another wonderful hotel with a large room and good views. Hans gave us a rough idea of where we could get dinner so after a freshen up off we went.
This was one of our most favourite meals of our trip, just the theatre of it made it awesome! We'd walked around a bit not having much luck finding something that took our fancy, at one stage we were taken through a restaurant out the back into the kitchen to have a look at the menu on the wall (it had pictures). It didn't appeal to us and was a bit weird being in the kitchen area. There were live eels flipping about in a container right where we walked in, that freaked me out!
We saw some restaurants upstairs so thought we'd try our luck up there. So glad we did! A lovely girl came over to help us, she could speak a little English plus she used her translate app on her phone. This restaurant did bbq and hot pot. We went with the bbq option. It was a self cook concept where you had your own little bbq on your table. With a lot of help from the waitress we placed our order. You picked items to cook on the bbq plus sides. She recommended getting lettuce leafs to fill with our bbq goodies. Great idea and so yummy! We had beef (very thinly cut), potatoes and a pickle type mix. I also went a made a spice mix to dip our beef into. The waitress had to help me with this as I had no idea what any of the spices where. It was yummy anyway. Another delicious meal and so cheap, is was 90 yuan which also included free drinks and fruit. Approx $12 for the two of us!
Tomorrow we're heading for Shanghai!
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