China: Mini Town Mazes and Mini-Mountain Jaunts

We arrived in Suzhou at night and asked the chap from the hostel about a good place where we could go for some quiet beers. However, he seemed to be having us on somewhat, as he directed us to a region where the majority of venues were most certainly "Lady Bars". The other places which had a distinct lack of breasts on show, were just dead. We played darts over a few Tsingtao's in an Australian bar. Then we eventually found a rather jumping club/bar called Scarlet. Masses of local youths seemed to be loving the tunes being played (incidentally there was far too much Akon for our liking). However, we ended up hanging out with a local lad called Eric, and some of his friends.

The next day we got the local bus to a nearby canal town called Tongli. Unfortunately, Vinny and Stu refused to pay the entrance fee to the town. Nevertheless, I was not gonna waste the day, so I went in whilst the chaps spent the next four hours reading. The town was packed full of peaceful gardens complete with mini pagodas and ponds teaming with Koi carp. I strolled around the many canals, humpback bridges and backstreets, which was certainly a welcome change of pace from the frenetic energy of China's big cities.

That night we just streamed the England vs West Indies test match on the internet.

The next day we went to Tianpingshan in the Lake Tai area, where we had a particularly hot and sweaty hike. There was also a bizarre mini-disneyland themed-amusement park at the foot of the mountain, complete with statues of the seven dwarves and paddling pools.

Shanghai was next! And the arrival of Keegan.