May 19 Well, we've been in Shaoxing for a full half hour and I'm already finding the place pretty "sketchy", as Arthur would say. We took a 5 hour ride in extistence's most uncomfortable train from Shanghai to Shaoxing. From the train station, we hopped into a taxi and drove about 50 feet before the taxi broke an axle and the wheel nearly fell off! So we switched taxi and got charged 10 RMB for a 5 RMB trip. Arthur was also saying that the guy taking our temeratures as we left the train station kept hitting the thermometer as if it was broken! Comforting... The hotel looked nice enough at first. The lobby is pretty. But as we walked further into the hotel we noticed water stains and paint peeling off the walls. And in our room, the toilet doesn't work. It overflows every time we flush! A plumber supposedly came and fixed it, but it still overflows and there's water all over the bathroom floor. Oh well, I guess Mia and I will have to use the boys' bathrooms for the next four days! At least the shower works. But the curtain is covered in moldy spots. And we're not allowed to use the elevator because of SARS.
On the train ride to Shaoxing, we assigned each other Chinese names:
Luc: C'est une bonne source de mauve! (In reference to the frozen purple "foam" we ate on the train.) 
|
