China: Hang-zhou Time at The West Lake

Our one full day at the West Lake in Hangzhou was spent circumnavigating said body of water. Around 10km around, it was a sun drenched, and tiring walk. Incredibly picturesque, it far outshone the wonders of the Summer Palace in Beijing. We wandered around it's network of tiny islands, gardens, pagodas, and humpback bridges.

The evening was another relaxed affair; however, we actually ended up going to two restaurants in the space of an hour. The food in the first one was inedible at best. Tiny portions, greasy and at times quite frightening. We ordered duck, which turned out to be a whole little mallard (or equivalent) Head, beak, spinal cord; it was all there. However, the meat seemed to be missing. After paying too much for far too little, we got the fuck out of dodge. After our inadvertent starter, we headed back in the direction of the hostel in search of a main course. Hanging out in the garden of our hostel were some local chinese people who worked in hotels around the area. We asked them for directions to a good local restaurant, which resulted in two absolute charmers- Devvy and Jim- taking us to an amazing, cheap, and local restaurant. Not only did they show us the way, but they translated the menu for us, ordered, gave us advice on chopstick wizardry, and chatted to us throughout our meal. Ace. Their english was incredible too. Jim especially (a sure fire geek), was incredibly fluent and knowledgable. It turned out his job was in a local posh hotel, where he was required to deal with people's complaints all day, every day. Consequently, he had a good rant and told us stories about some of the complaints he received. A particular highlight was that of a Canadian gentleman whose underpants fell onto the bathroom floor, so he demanded that the hotel buy him a new pair, or give him a free night's accommodation. Jim found this particularly funny it seems. Jim's expert command of the english language was further demonstrated as he continuously provided us with various titbits of information about Britain with great gusto e.g. "the Clyde is the longest river in Scotland." It seems Jim (in a worryingly similar manner to Vinny) has clearly spent far too much time on wikipedia. I exchanged email addresses with the chap and he has sent me some charming emails thus far, complaining about his life and describing his aspirations.
Some incredibly sincere highlights include-

1) "Are you still in Xi'an, how about there?...I dreamed to visit there for a long time, but every time end at failure."

2) "now everyday I have to work, sometimes I feel very boring, everyday just repeat the same thing, everyday must face a gang of angry guest. sometimes I wondering why they addicted to complaining."

3) "I like to make freinds with youngest,especially the same age with me. we have the common."

Charming.

Next stop was Xi'an and the Terracotta Warriors. 21 hours on a train later, and we were there. Phew!