It stopped raining so I went for a walk in the morning to check out the canals and the rest of the waterways. During my walk I decided I would leave and head towards Ningbo. I still feel very frail and weak so I splurged and took cabs instead of public local buses.
The bus ride to Ningbo took 4 plus hours of which I slept most of the way. When I got to Ningbo terminal it was already sundown. There was confusion in the communication with the youth hostel staff. It took awhile to figure out the directions they were giving me was for a different long distance bus terminal. They gave instructions without street names but with landmarks. But the landmarks were not significant it was labeled under as ”the tall building”. Well, tall buildings were everywhere. When it was all sorted that we were not talking about the same bus terminal I took a cab.
The first cab driver wanted to meter me without telling me how much it would cost and when I inquired into it he refused my service. I got onto another cab for 15 yuan. I was no where near walking distance like the person on the phone at the hostel instructed.
I checked into the hostel and I was placed in a room directly above the dinning area where the TV was being blasted on some Chinese tear, jerking, drama. I turned the heater on to warm up the very cold room and left it running and went to the connecting café bar. I sat there and asked the bar for hot water. I was not told I would be charged for hot water until I got up to leave. It was the first for me experience getting charged for hot water. The server said I should known of such a rule. I walked out of there feeling weird.
I continued to stroll around the water and ended up at a nearby park where a group of 50 people were all doing jazzercise. They were all women and was being led by a man who was very much into arm movements that are liken to Japanese style. It was fun to watch them move. Then another small group was getting started as the jazzercise group ended. This group was being led by a female who was into aerobic dance and concentrated on floor travel. It was fun to watch them too.
When I returned to the room totally tired and ready to rest I noticed how my room did not warm up. I asked for the reception to come and check my heater. I told her it would shut down automatically after 2 minutes and confronted her that she must have known this already. I questioned why she would lie to me and put me in a room without a working heater. I must have looked really sad and helpless because she told me not to look at her in such a vulnerable way. I was so tired, I was on the verge of tears. She ended up putting me in a different room with a working heater. However, I found out later that the window in this room didn’t shut.
In fact the whole place looked great but had major flaws in architecture design. The windows were designed in ways that didn’t shut. The restroom doors were too big that it would jam into the wall. Overall, it just looked like someone skimped on the building of this place.
