Lake Tai

 We wake to a bright morning in Wuxi. Paired with the energy of our evening last night, I feel positive about what today will bring. After breakfast, we meet Angela in the lobby, where she again passes on her father-in-law’s compliments to the boys on their chopstick skills.

We all load on to the tour bus and head back to Lake Tai. We have the chance for a short but brighter walk before heading to the pearl factory a few minutes away.

You know the drill by now. We’re greeted at the factory doors, taken into a showroom, told about the cultivation of pearls and then let loose in the showroom. Well, we were all destined to break at one point in time, and apparently, today is my day. An hour (and a couple of hundred dollars) later, I now own two beautiful strands of pearls. (I keep telling myself it’s ok because the trip was so cheap!)

From the pearl factory, we head to a tea pot museum, home to the largest tea pot in China and some pretty impressive and detailed craft tea pots. However, after my little spree at the pearl factory, I won’t be spending $300 on a teapot and tea cups. Thankfully, this is a short visit and we then make our way to lunch before the afternoon drive to Hangzhou.

Lunch is another game of “Is this pork or chicken?” but there’s an actual coffee shop downstairs, so Katherine, the boys and I excuse ourselves from lunch and indulge in a $5 cafe latte. It’s everything that lunch wasn’t!

From here, we part ways with Angela, thank her profusely for her hospitality and begin the 2 hour drive to Hangzhou.

En route, Michael comes around to collect the $90 mandatory gratuity that each person owes. This was clearly laid out to us at the time of booking and is non-negotiable. This money is to be shared amongst our two Michaels, all our local tour guides, and the bus drivers. It’s nothing when it’s broken down this way, and the trip still remains such a bargain.

Still, there are a few people who feel like the gratuity should be “optional” and not “mandatory,” and therefore decide not to pay it. It’s a little awkward for everyone.

We arrive in Hangzhou by late afternoon and check into a beautiful hotel. Michael checks in everyone who has paid the mandatory gratuity and we make our way to our rooms, curious as to the fate of the others… It turns out that the people who refused to pay up will be responsible for covering the cost of their hotel rooms in Hangzhou tonight. Michael says, “Sorry, in China, we have to punish you the Chinese way.”

Unfortunately we’re quite far from the city center and after venturing across the road to check out the dining options, we end up at the hotel buffet. I feel I’ve failed as a traveler again, but after all those meh lunches, a couple slices of pizza really hit the spot.

After dinner, we sit with Nick and Sue in the hotel bar, discussing our weird and wonderful group dynamics. The boys return from massages with a bottle of liquor that tastes more like lighter fluid, so Ray goes out to buy a couple of bottles of wine and we sit in the hotel lobby until the wee hours of the morning, talking life. We’re making the best of it, but there’s no denying we’re ready for our arrival in Shanghai tomorrow and to have our freedom back… Or so we think…