Chillin' in China - Part 1

Each time I seek his permission to go on my RTs, he never created much fuss. I guess after being together for more than 20 years, Abe knew that he couldn't stop me, not when my mind is so set in doing something. Kata orang berpada-pada at pushing your luck lah kan. Hence, after a series of RT trips, plus several outstation work assignments, I knew I was going to run out of luck with my "jalan-jalan permission seeking" very soon.

It has been a while since we went on our "just the two of us" trips. If I recall well, beach bumming in Phuket circa July 2007 was our last. So, to draw the final curtain on 2009 travel with some "us" time seemed like a good idea.

The bookings for Air Asia tickets to Hangzhou was done quite early in the year. Its price was indeed an offer one wouldn't want to miss - RM230 for a return trip!! It's dirt cheap, even cheaper than doing domestic traveling. That is how easy it is to travel these days, AA keeping its promise - "Now Everyone Can Fly", and for the two of us - Hangzhou and Shanghai here we come!!

Hangzhou - famous for its intricately designed parasols

Hangzhou the capital city of Zhejiang province, is a sub-provincial city located in the Yangtze River Delta and located 180 kilometres southwest of Shanghai. Abe had been here twice actually, once when he first started work and the second time was just after we got married. On both occasions, he was there for some hydro conferences. I think it was during his second trip that he got that painting in our dining area of the famous West Lake in Hangzhou. Twenty years after his maiden China trip, Abe was making his return to these two cities.

Battery power motorbikes and bicycles

We arrived late in Hangzhou on that 24th October evening. Upon our arrival at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, we proceeded to taking the airport shuttle bus to downtown Hangzhou. As in any other Chinese cities, language was immediately a challenge. Not many people understood English and conversing with the locals required lots of creativity. It was like ayam and itik talking - lots of gestures and sign languages. We were lucky to have met a group of Indonesians who had a Chinese guide that night. The Chinese local helped to find out about our hotel stop and provided us directions to our hotel. Incidentally, this guy was an engineer who worked in a power company in Indonesia and both he and Abe had exchanged a topic or two about their what they do at work. Not bad huh...a local Chinese and a Malay conversing in Indonesian!!

Our hotel was on Tiyuchang Road, one of the main streets in Hangzhou

It was pass midnight when we got to the hotel. Checking in was fast, thank God. We headed straight to our room after that. Changed, prayed and next thing I knew it was morning.

Autumn leaves at West Lake Hangzhou