Ni Hao

Last Night we had a lovely social evening and sat down for our hotpot meal with the hostel staff and some other travellers,the meal was amazing and really tasty and we were still nibbling away at the food 2 1/2 hours later!!!!!

All the food cooks really quickly in the broth at the table and it is the only meal I have eaten in China where you don't get rice!!!!

Today we decided to have a day off from sightseeing and thought that we might try and blend in with the locals a bit.

We took 3 subway trains and then a 25 minute walk to reach Houhai Lake which has been totally frozen over for about a week now.We took a walk around the lake and saw some nutty guys jumping into the icy lake in their swimming trunks where it had not frozen over!!!

The further we got down the lake it became more crowded with people at the bridge we turned away from the lake and headed into the Hutongs (small side streets) to look around the maze of shops and try to grab a bargain. Without much bartering we ended up with some really nice chopsticks that were priced at 22 quid but after threatening to walk out we ended up paying 3 quid which was a steal.

The Hutongs are a real maze and if you don't keep a check on where you are it is easy to get lost in the narrow streets,we made it out in one piece and went back to the lake which by now had well over 300 people on it.We decided to join in the fun and hired what can only be described as a go kart with blades instead of wheels and went out on the ice.You got a pair of makeshift poles to push yourself around with, which were in fact a screwdriver welded to a metal rod but they did the job.

Out on the ice it was manic a bit like the roads, and you had to have eyes in the back of your head to make sure you didn't crash into anyone else,especially the speedskaters!!!!

It was really good fun and the first time ever Mel or I have seen a frozen lake let alone go out and skate on it.By now it was early evening and all the activity meant we were hungry,we stumbled across a street market that was selling absoloutley everything you might not want to eat.

They had starfish,scorpions,snake,silkworms,octopus and what we thought was rat but we were not 100% sure.Needless to say we played it safe and had vegetarian noodles!!!!

Lots of Love

M & M

xx