Wuhan - 14th and 15th February

Chill out day - Andy and I decided over a beer last night to travel for a few days together and decided we would head south down to Hangzhou as the lonely planet guide said it was good and a little touristy for the chinese and quite cosmopolitan with a huge lake!

Well no trains in that direction, so went to book a coach. No chance for today and earliest one was an overnighter tommorrow. Well starts at 4pm and gets in at 7am so like 15 hours! Its the last weeknd of the Chinese new year and so the whole country is on the move this weekend. Reluctantly book it having the feeling something isnt quite right!

Spent the rest of the day doing a self guided tour of Wuhan..a total relaxing time with w***ing in and out of the alleyways seeing people cook food on the back of their bikes, kids playing that kind of stuff. Funniest thing was in the central square where there were loads of grown men flying kites.

All seems normal until we saw one old bloke with a huge round wheel with miles of cord on it.....he was looking in the air...so we looked up for the kite but couldnt see it.....then we look again...well F**K me! this kite was like 3 miles in the air....honestly....we were by 16 story office buildings and this kite was like 5 time their height! Truly amazing...we watched him for 30 mins laughing at the scene. Sounds stupid writing this blog but it was funny.

Got back to the hostel and more misery for Erin and Travis...they need a visa extension and had been to the offices in Wuhan only to be told that it would take 7 days to process...so they were stuck!

Went out for a KFC , as still fueling up on simple food, and then we got a case of beer which we drunk back at the hostel.

15th February - before going on the bus, me, Andy, Erinand Travis went out for another walk to the eating area close to the hostel and managed to go in a cheapie looking chinese restaurant. No English. Erin took the gauntley and started making chinken noises and flapping her wings/arms!! funny but didnt work....it was only by chnace the table next to us got served some beef n peppers and chicken bits that we poin ted and say THAT STUFF PLEASE!

It came, it was good, we ate it all, including some rice and tea and the bill was under a quid each!

The it was back to pack, taxi to bus station (there are 4 in Wuhan so had to get the right one!) and then onto the bus. WELL....

Initially our bus was one of those micro buses that only sit like 20 and also too many seats had been put in (for us foreigners anyhow) absolutely no legroom at all...... then it stopped whilst the driver and someone from the street tried to convince 3 people to get off and get on another bus. Not sure why but it went on for an hour, with shouting a bit of pushing, interrupted only by people to get off to spit!

Finally set off again. around 10pm we stopped "somewhere" to change coaches...but no coach..had to wait outside in minus whatever whilst the driver argued on his mobile for the coach to come. It finally came and was also a rough one, but at least it was a normal size and had legroom. only seats left for us were 2 on the back row....so a bumpy 10 hour ride.

It kept stopping for toilets and snacks and was a really erratic drive down the motorway. 2 drivers interchanging each stop. One was like a granny and was real slow, the other one thought he was Aryton Senna - similarity was they both liked overtaking on the inside...the way he drove I thought they were going to have something else in common which was to be dead!

Drive from hell was helped by seeing on the motorway a coach that had severally rear ended a truck and all the front was smashed. Driver if alive would now have no legs!

Got to Hangzhou at 6.45am where it was really cold, with all taxis having frozen windscreens.

Taxi to hostel whihc to be honest was a really nice one. Were allowed to check in early at 7am and we both went straight to bed as absolutely knackered....

China is a beautiful place. I recommend the Trains, BUT NOT the coaches or river cruise!!

Steve