Golden Week

It's Golden Week! It's a holiday starting on May 1st, celebrating Labour Day with Chinese Characteristics. It's almost a week off - almost because everyone has to make up the week days they miss by working/schooling on weekends! Grammar classes/kiddie teaching for nine days straight is most assuredly uncool.

On the last working day we went to the park to chill out. We discovered many small schoolgirls paying to be trapped inside inflatable plastic balls.


It was cheaper to go for a row on the lake, so we did that instead.


Nat and I tried to go on holiday, but bumped into 900 million other locals doing the same thing. Turned out they'd planned their weeks a bit better, too. Still, realising similar opportunities would be few and far between, we dived in.
We'd heard of a lovely sounding Buddhist-sacred-mountain-monastery at Jiu Hua Shan, and that it was nestled in rugged terrain. Great, lets go! I could even meet my old Chinese pen pal on the way. Woo!
Alas, accomodation was scarce and Natalie and I ended up travelling only as far as Nanjing, sharing the very last Single Executive Room in a relatively expensive hotel. Yes, the bed was a tight fit, but having spent the day lugging our luggage all over the tourist-infested Yangzhou in search of bigger ones, we were too tired to care.
See?


So, after a single night away, and having bags packed for at least three, we found ourselves braving the bus ticket queues for a ride home. No Buddhists, no pen friends, nuthin'.
It wasn't all disappointment, though. The weather was fine and warm, and...
- We did take a creaky little trip in a pedicab, a first for us both, and ate at some sort of famous teahouse in Yangzhou. I drank a beef stock dumpling with a straw and Nat didn't.
- Rode a two-seater bike around Nanjing's nearby mountain and botanic gardens. Couples were getting married all over the place, posing sweatily amongst the blossoms.
- Found an awesome little cafe in the twisty backstreets. The enthusiastic Frenchman in charge made a mean G&T.

Once again, we forget to take the camera with us. So you can click on these pictures and see shots of the hotel room. Oh, and some of our degustation at Les 5 Sens.