5th day in China:
5. 蘇州 兩間旅館 大娘水餃 留園 食路 老媽火鍋 (廣場酒店 冠雲) (17th)
THE FIRST HOTEL
We left to Su-Zhou early in the morning, to a hotel my father booked online that’s supposedly 3 1/2 stars, which shouldn’t be too bad. We arrived Su-Zhou and found out that our hotel’s smack in the middle of the city, which is really good for shopping and everything. The place looked quite nice when entered, and as always, filled with smoke. We went upstairs, got into our room, and the first thing we noticed was that it looked old. The floor’s wooden and squeaks when walked on, the bed’s alright, a little small. I urgently used the toilet, and we all sat down on the beds, trying to get online to get in touch with our mother. As father started using the internet, we sat and looked around: the carpet’s stained pretty badly, you can see obvious rubbish on the floor even without my glasses, the walls are peeling off and the wood’s cracked, the wardrobe can’t be opened properly as it gets stuck and we also found out that the toilet’s light’s cover is hanging there like it’s gonna come off anytime soon - it was disgusting. After much thought, we decided to find another hotel online while we were at it, and get out of there ASAP. Less than an hour after we checked in, father went downstairs to tell them we want to check out coz the room’s not up to our standard, while brother and I sat on the beds waiting. 5 min later, a maid, without consent, just unlocked the door with her card and walked in, then started talking on the walky-talky, sounding very bitter/bitchy, saying things like ”the toilet’s a mess (it’s not, just the toilet itself and the sink’s been used), and they’re sitting on the beds.” We finally settled on the fact that coz we’ve already ”sat” on the bed, they have to ”remake the beds”, so we gave them $20 for cleaning and we were out of there.
THE LUNCH
While waiting for confirmation from the 2nd hotel, we dragged our trollies and backpacks in town, looking for this dumpling chainstore restaurant we saw on the way to the hotel. It was a little further than we thought, but we got there. It was completely packed, so we could only sit on the benches facing the street, and brother and I went to look at what’s on the menu at the counter. After having decided what we wanted from above the counter, we discovered that not everything’s available. The only flavours available are listed on the side of the counter, and the one we wanted the most isn’t on the list. We ordered, paid, and were given a long receipt with the names of our orders printed on twice and the grand total. We happily sat down with our receipt, and waited for our dumplings to arrive. After waiting for 15 min, having noticed that the ppl who ordered before us already started eating, we never got our food. We decided to ask a server to see what’s happening, and she just grabbed our receipt, drew some stuff on it, tore it in half, and gave us half of it and walked away. That was when we realised that we actually had to give the receipt to the server so they can put the order through and to find out where we’ll be sitting - that was a waste of 15 min, but we’ve learnt. We received our dumplings some 7 min later, and it was pretty good, except we ordered 5 different flavours and we can’t tell the difference between any of them - they all look the same and taste pretty similar - but anywho, we finished them, and wanted to have the meat buns being sold outside as we saw a bunch of ppl queuing for them - if there’s a queue, it must be good, right? So brother went to buy one each for us, and it was pretty good, was just burning hot, and it was cheap too, only $0.80 each, no wonder ppl buy them in dozens.
THE SECOND HOTEL
After lunch, we took the taxi (btw this is mainly our transport in all towns) to our second, hopefully better, hotel. We arrived there, looking more like a hospital from the outside, and arrived at the front door a little better. The place immeidately looked much better than the first one, and it’s actually $20 less or something, so in the end it’s all worth it. The downside of it, as we found out, was that when we booked this hotel online, it stated that ”some” rooms come with free broadband - that’s not ours. We had to pay something like $15 for 15 min and that’s the minimum you have to use it for. Feeling rather annoyed, but we couldn’t do anything about it unless we change a room, in that case, the room that comes with internet costs some $120 more, which is stupid just for internet, so we lived a day without internet and couldn’t contact mother.
THE GARDEN (LIU-YUAN)
Knowing that our hotel’s near both Liu Yuan (Liu Garden) and Hu Cho (tiger hill), we decided to visit both places, as these places are musts for tourists. Since it was around 2:30pm, it would be a little too late to climb a hill, so we spent the day in Liu Garden. This used to be a house (well, it’s more like a palace) of a rich family, and has since been ownerless and was taken in by the government as a touring spot. Well, it says it’s a AAAA touring spot anyway.
This was the first old house that we’ve seen, I mean, the other one was just temple, this one’s a house that had a family that once lived there. Hm, a little freaky I suppose, seeing most of the furnitured were used by ppl who’s been dead for 2 centuries - probably longer as Qing dynasty (the last one before real government took over) spanned from 1500’s to 1900’s, and this just says it’s from Qing dynasty.
It really is a paradise. It consists of I don’t know how many rooms, too many anyway, with lots of alley ways and a couple of ponds and rivers and lakes and lots of trees and like dozens of gardens, fake rock and mountain gardens (fake rock and mountain gardens are common in rich families) and a bonsai garden - apparently it’s their past collections. I took lots of photos, of course, the only disappointing thing was that none of the bedrooms were open, we then found out that it’s coz that’s where the guards stay at night.
XI LU (Food Road)
After the garden, it was almost 5pm, a little late to walk back to the hotel and come out again for dinner, but too early for dinner immediately, plus, brother’s already feeling tired. It was after all a 10 - 15 min walk from our hotel to Liu Yuan, but since he’s too tired, we had to retrieve to the hotel for an hour before we leave for dinner again.
We flagged down a taxi, got on, and and asked him where we can find somewhere to eat, it was then when he informed us of a very busy area called Xi Lu, which basically means the road of food, just another 10 min walk from Liu Yuan and it’s busy-as. Having found out about this, we decided that’s where we’ll be having dinner. We went back to the hotel, took our rest, and father received a phone call. It was from our so-called Uncle, but it’s actually my mother’s mother’s brother’s son, who’s also in China for a 2-month tour, intending to expand his business. He wanted to meet up with us, as he’s also in the area, so we waited longer for his call so we could have dinner together. We waited and waited, 1 1/2 hours went passed, and he never called, so we decided to call him back, and found out that he was already having dinner with his friends. A little annoyed we were, we just left to find dinner, and that was when we realised how busy Xi Lu really was. It was -1 degrees out there, the street was full of ppl, the fountain’s iced and the breeze was freezing. Our uncle called again, asking us where we were, so we told him that we’d be waiting for him in KFC. That was when father realised that his cellphone’s running out of credit, so as brother and I sat in KFC waiting for uncle, father went looking for a place where it sells his recharge card. Half an hour went past, father’s been back to check with us twice, no sign of uncle, and no sign of recharge card, it seems that this special ”recharge card” is only on sale somewhere exotic, well, not in Su-Zhou anyway. With not much credit left, we can only wait for calls. Another 15 min went past, his phone rang, and uncle on the other side asked where we were, as he’s been waiting in KFC for ages. Father went to the counter of KFC, and that was when we found out, that within this short distance, there are somewhere around 2 - 3 KFC’s. We luckily found a 2nd KFC close by (I don’t know what for, but they still make money!) and found our uncle. We all then went to have steam boat/hot pot together, where it’s yet again filled with smoke, but it wasn’t too bad, and apparently it’s one of those popular restaurants - we were sent to their restaurant next door and then were sent to the 4th floor coz it’s so packed! At 8pm!
OUR THIRD HOTEL
On the way home, we walked passed this hotel called ”New Century”, sounds familiar? That’s the chain-hotel we stayed in in Tong-Xian, the best one we’ve stayed in, so we just had to walk in to find out what it’s like. It was grand, and looked very posh, and although there’s no 65%-off deal, it’s actually similar price as the one we’re staying in - AND it comes with free broadband. We decided we had to stay there - at the corner of the entrance of Food Road/food court, shopping, department store, it’s much better than the places we’ve stayed at, so we booked it for our next night’s stay immediately.
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