Suzhu - April 22

Breakfast was less delicious than in Shanghai but we ate a lot nontheless (we are a bit fed up with Chinese food by now, and it's easy to find western food in the breakfast buffets). We started the Suzhu exploration at the Garden of the Humble Administrator. Turns out the Administrator was not humble at all, in fact he was a very powerful and rich man, but his humbleness manifested itself when he designed and worked the garden. In any case, it is a very large3 and beautifully laid out graden and residence, with lots of gems such as beautiful plants, pavillions and corridors with interesting
windows allowing tantalizing views into the garden.

We asked Alvin to add a side trip to the Silk Museum which got good reviews in the book and was really very nice. This caused a small blowup with the driver who tried to bill us exoiberantly for his time, which was ridiculous as he was engaged to drive us around
for the whole day anyway. But all is well that ends well....

We continued to the Silk Factory where Alvin passed the baton to his
girlfriend Anita - a 23 year old student who might become a guide too. (He had a medical examination.) This friendship is apparently unusual as he is 9 years older. Alvin has a constant sad expression on his face, even when he attempts jokes, but Anita was very lively and bubbly. We continued to a restaurant and ate some of the local specialities - most notable was the lotus root stuffed with rice and some beef with bitter green unidentified stalks.

Next we went on the canal in a motor powered glass enclosed boat. Suzhu waterways are very pretty, and we spent the time thinking of Hebrew songs to teach Anita (we did not get very far but she sang a Russian song iwth a very familiar tune).

We continued to the Garden of the Master of Nets - this is to commemorate the fisherman who saved the owner's son who fell into the canal. A much smaller residence and garden but also very beautiful with the bonus of a nice courtyard and a decent cappucino machine in the bar! The guards had to throw us out of the place forcefully at 5:30 when they closed.

We went to see the streetlife on the aptly named Street in Front of the Temple (the temple was a Tao temple but it was closed already), and then to the hotel to put down our stuff.

Anita had told us that it was the opening of the Silk Festival and there will be festivities on the river which we decided to attend. This was a slight misunderstanding as Alvin had invited us to meet his family and we misunderstood him, but were forgiven.

We took a cab to the Center and then stood on the bridge for an hour looking at the floats on the river and the fireworks. These were rather tame, but seeing the multitudes of people on bikes, motorcycles and on foot moving across the bridge, and the different soldiers and policemen guarding the place was extremely entertaining. It's really impressive to see thousands of people crowded together, all in a good and cooperative mood, joking with the soldiers and having a very good time....

We had a short night as we had to catch the 7:24 train to Hang-zhou. I am writing this on the train - another people-full place - everybody eating, or sleeping and/or talking - and a general sense of satisfaction. We'll arrive in about 2 hours.