Arrived in Hangzhou at 7:00 this morning and headed straight for the hostel we had been recommended. We weren't able to check in until 12:00 and so I went off to explore the town, to look for a book and to post some stuff back to England. By the time I got back it was 12:00 so we had some lunch and checked in. This evening we met up with Tanya and Jonathon (the mother and son whom we had been with in Shangri-la) who live in Hangzhou where Tanya teaches and Jon...

Had a meeting with Joe (manager from the hostel) about the Tibet trip and to get our money back. There was nothing he couold do but it was a bit frustrating to find that we actually ended up losing money because the train tickets had already been booked prior to the permits being withdrawn and they weren't able to get a full refund. I suggested that maybe they should get some insurance to cover them against these loses but it was too late for this occassion. H...

Up again early and the weather had got worse and so I expected the Wall trip to be cancelled again, but to my surprise they decided to go ahead with it. Maybe the extra number of people they had persuaded them to take a risk!! We drove in a minibus out to a village all of us wondering if it was a good idea as the snow looked like it was set it for the day and given that we were driving at 10 miles and hour it looked likely we would be stranded! Arrived at the vil...

Got up and ready for 7:15 this morning as we were due to do the trip to the Secret Wall - an area of the great wall which is free of souvenier sellers and touts. Got to reception only to find out that it had snowed in the night and was going to continue to snow all day therefore they were having to cancel the trip as it was too dangerous to go. Ended up hanging around the hostel chatting with other guests as no one had much inclination to go out and brave the wea...

The particuarly cold spell continued and so we decided not to go too far today. Went to Wangfujing shopping street to look at the books on Tibet, but just read what we wanted to once we saw how expensive it was! Came back to the hostel this afternoon and took over the TV to watch Slumdog Millionaire which was absolutely brilliant and a good taste of what I will see in India!