Wednesday, February 20, 2013

June 26; Rained out in Hangzhou

Day 142

We started off the day with another hearty breakfast. Today is the start of the dragon boat festival so there are special treats at breakfast: tsong - sticky rice wrapped in a banana leaf.
Day 4 of the tour begins like the others. We spend the whole morning "shopping" at the Pearl Market. The only exciting thing about this is an actual demonstration of extracting the pearls -- and getting to keep one. We ended up doing magic tricks and playing card games for the rest of the time there.
We are then taken to the pottery place, where we sampled tea and watched salespeople sell their products. I rather go to pottery barn. The lady wouldn't even let me try out the teapot.
We then went back to the Pearl store area to eat lunch - I don't understand the logistics of the trip and going back and forth.
The food is going progressively....downhill.
When we arrive to Hangzhou, the skies are gray and rain starts to fall. We were taken to a really nice park but then it started to pour. Unfortunately our visit was cut short and we went straight to dinner.
We decided not to go to the "special" performance and instead dragged our soaking wet feet to the glorious shopping mall. I realized that I was a bit of an impulsive shopper... but thinking about the shrinking wallet and oversized backpack, I refrained. And treated myself to ice cream:
sundae = 7 RMB
Taste of success. --yummm