Wuxi-Hangzhou: Day 5

The following morning, we went to this place called "Li Garden" (Li Yuan) still in Wuxi. The story here is about a guy who not only knows how to fish for himself but also willingly teaches everyone else in the village how to fish for a living. The governor was so pleased with this Li guy that he named his garden after him - hence the name "Li Yuan".

Here there are 4 "pondok" positioned at the North, South, East and West of the lake. At each "pondok", there were different plants cos these "pondok" are used by the governor to enjoy the scenic beauty of the lake and plants in accordance to whether it is spring, summer, autumn or winter...

Then we were brought to this place that makes "Zhi Sha Tea Pot". We were shown a variety of tea pots that were apparently available to us at a special attractive rate (so they say)... I saw a nice 'Zhi Sha' mug which cost RMB900 (RM450). Later on, I saw the same mug at one of the shopping streets in Shanghai retailing for only RMB150 (RM75)... tsk tsk tsk... Lucky thing I didn't buy that damn mug at Wuxi!

After that, we visited the largest "Tai Hu Lake" at Wuxi called: (Tai Hu Yuan Tou Ju). Again, beautiful garden with scenic view next to a lake.

Here at the "Tai Hu Lake", there's also this dragon tortoise, which was said to be Mr. Dragon's youngest son... Toss a coin and make a wish. If the coin lands on the dragon tortoise's shell, your wish will come true...

Then we were hesitantly brought us to this Pearl Shop (cos our "ti pei" - local guide was lazy). Nothing much here, but Ah Ong bought me half a dozen of pearl cream with natural gold and silver essence. :)

Then it was time to leave Wuxi to Hangzhou. What was supposedly a 3-hour journey turned into a 6-hour one!!! Firstly becos it was too foggy, the highway had to be closed and secondly, the bus had a punctured tyre.

We stopped by "Nanxun Water Village" (Nan Xun Sui Xiang) for dinner. The sky was already very dark (sun sets at 5pm). Nanxun is a water village cos it is surrounded by a river in between 2 rows of ancient looking houses. We had "chou tou fu" here. The smelly tauhu was soooooo smelly that no one dared to eat it... it's not the typical fried smelly tauhu but the steamed kind... Only my brother was adventurous enough to take a bite. But only one bite... cos it was waaaay too smelly... hahahaha...

We took a quick walk around the village and were all dressed like Eskimos cos it was drizzling and freezing cold!

After that, we continued our journey to Hangzhou to check in. That night we had supper at one of the small eateries next to our hotel. The shop was a small one... there were only 4 tables in it but the food was superb and cheap too!!!

Before we left, 4 locals came in and ordered 4 duck heads. We all looked bewildered cos nobody eats duck heads in our family... like how exactly do you eat it and what is there to eat lehhh? But ahem... it is a local delicacy... just like how we Malaysians like durians that Hongkies thought smelt like cat poo! Hahaha...