Kaiyuan Shaoxing

Our trip across to Shaoxing went smoothly, not many people on the bus so we ended up in one double seat each. There was a 'comfort" stop which surprised me as it was only about a two hour trip. we got off the bus just to stretch our legs. I have on one time used the facilities at a comfort stop but they are not or were not the most comfortable, cleanest or convenient so pass on them now where possible.

We avoided the touts at the bus station as we knew where we wanted to go and grabbed the first taxi off the rank. The hotel is called The New Century grand hotel, they are part of a chain but locals or people in the know just call it the Kaiyuan. Its funny that I thought that was like a nickname but on our bank account, it states Kaiyuan.

We were settled in our room by mid morning which was good as we were meeting a friend for lunch. Andy would be working that night and couldn't go to the reunion dinner that was planned but he could make lunch. We wandered the streets near the Kaiyuan and ended up settling on a Sth American place for lunch. It was tasty, i think we were the only ones there at the time. Warren and I went back one other night for a meal as well.

These orchids were in the entrance of the lift area and I'm blowed if I could tell if they were real or not.

One afternoon we came back from a walk and our room had not been done, Warren realised that he should have turned on the switch that said "Make up My room". He turned it on and we reclined on our beds, these were twin beds. Not long after our door bell rang and as I was closest to the door I opened. it was the housemaid and did she go off when she noticed my bare feet and processed to grab a pair of slippers from the trolley and press into my hands.

I brought them home plus the pair that had been in the room to use.

Breakfast was a buffet each morning and it was so nice that the staff all greeted us in English. We have found out before that none well none that we spoke to anyway, were locals, they come from many different parts of China. We did recognise some of them from years ago.