We woke up bright and early at 5am, and GoJek-ed to the airport, reaching way ahead of time to check out the Harry Potter set-up at Terminal 3, and to have breakfast. This time, we tried The Green Market at Terminal 2. Food was pretty decent! There was a Harry Potter exhibition at the airport, so we had fun taking some selfies before the flight 😛
Our flight was on time and some 300 minutes later, we arrived 😀
It took us about an hour to clear immigration and queue to get out of the airport due to the security checks. It was a 10-minute brisk walk to Terminal 1, where the 长途汽车站 Coach Station is, and where we experienced the first blast of 7 degree Celcius smoky air…Thankfully the queue at the ticket counter was very short, and we managed to grab tickets for the 4pm coach to 杭州 Hangzhou (¥115 per ticket including insurance; sales stop 2 minutes before scheduled departure).
Once we got the tickets, we detoured to scan all our luggage and dashed to the end where we got our tickets scanned and made our way to Bus Stop 1. As we were the last few passengers (tickets sold in running order and we had the last 2-seater), there were almost no space for luggage! The driver was busy smoking and made no attempts to help. Hubby and another male passenger helped each other out to make space for all the remaining luggage bags *thumbs up*
After some confusion about seating (guess some passengers thought it was free seating), everyone managed to settle down and the bus left 4 minutes past schedule.
It was an overcast day, and the windows kept fogging up, so the views were all misty, giving it quite a romantic feel, LOL!
The bus ride took about 2.5 hours, and I was instantly freezing the minute I got off the bus. Being peak hour at 6.30pm, we had trouble trying to flag off the road (not fast enough, drivers saying the location was not along the way, etc). We also tried using 滴滴出行 Didi Rider app (unsure how accurate the English GPS was). After switching language, we discovered that the queue for a car was quite long. Eventually, we decided to enter the 全家 Family Mart to get some hot oden (¥6.70) to warm up.
Finally, while queuing in Didi, we managed to flag a cab. It took us about 15 minute to reach our hotel for ¥17, but trying to get a cab actually took us 1 hour! What a way to start our adventure!
Here was our 6-day itinerary:
Day 1:
- After checking in and enjoying the complimentary warm logan red date tea from the hotel, we popped into the nearby 老杭州家常菜 for a quick dinner after a quick rest.
- Strolled around 河坊街 Hefang Street
Day 2:
- Half day trip to 飞来峰 Peak Flown in from Afar and 灵隐寺 Lingyin Temple
- Went to Hangzhou Station to purchase train tickets for subsequent trips
- Visited 西湖 West Lake
- Dinner at 胜利河美食街 Shengli River Food Street
- Strolled around 南宋御街 Southern Song Imperial Street and 河坊街 Hefang Street
Day 3:
- Day trip to 绍兴 Shaoxing
- Checked out 吴山夜市 Wushan Night Market
- Dinner at 咬不得高祖生煎
- Coffee break at 尚咖啡 Chen Coffee
Day 4:
- Travelled to 上海 Shanghai
- Lunch at 大壶春 Dahuchun
- Visited 豫园 Yu Garden
- Strolled to 外滩 The Bund for the day view
- Strolled to 南京路步行街 Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street
- Pit stop at 不二茶铺
- Dinner at 莱莱小笼
- Visited a bookstore on the way home
- Snack from 阿宝炸猪排
Day 5:
- Half day trip to 古猗园 Guyi Garden and 南翔古镇 Nanxiang Ancient Town
- Coffee break at BUZZTIME Coffee
- Strolled to 外滩 The Bund for the night view and 南京路步行街 Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street
- Dinner at 老兴隆 and 老街小食
Day 6:
- Early lunch at 桢记热气羊肉火锅 Zhenji Reqi Mutton Hotpot
- Take away coffee from 植趣 Coffee Zhi Qu Coffee
- Train to Pudong Airport
- Pit stop at 和普咖啡厅 Hope Kaweh
- Home sweet home
Reference:
- We referred to this blog to find nice food along 南京路步行街 – https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/27558710
Eat.Eat.Walk.Walk . 吃吃走走 