Laotaimen Luxun Native Place Youth Hostel was my home in Shaoxing. I was there 3 nights, September 18-20. The accommodations were the least expensive of the trip. It was $78 for 3 nights or $26 per night. I reserved a family room as that was the road to having a private bath. The young man who took me to my room kept wondering where the rest of my family was?
Here is a street view in the area
Not very promising,I though. when the taxi driver from the train station finally found the hostel. This shot shows the actual front of the Hostel
If you blow it up you can just make out the sign:
Cities in China are laid out this way. The blocks are MUCH larger than in the west. What you see on the street is just the entrance. The actual buildings expand behind. Below are the two most impressive internor shots.
This is a common seating area:
Signs
Posted notes
Graphitti on the walls
Coy pond
tool shed
And now we come to my room!
For once I took pictures before I threw all my stuff around the room and even have a strange man in the mirrow.
The only window in the room was from the bathroom and allowed the noises from the adjacent primary school to drift in though one could see very little beside rooftops. The room was more than clean but I was never tempted to try the shower. It helped that I did not have a bike to ride to get me sweaty. As always, I used a card or request at the front desk to avoid anyone coming to clean the room which of course would have meant that I had to tidy it up.
Later dinner in the youth hostel restaurant. It was very good, with a wide selection. It seems they could make anything.
That night I had an upset stomach for the one and only time in China. I blame it on he ice used in the mixed drink. Maybe it was a margarita. The only place I ever drank anything but bottled water was at Skywells where they employed a filter. Here I was not sick at my stomach but lots of diarrhea. It was gone by morning!
Here is the family that ran the restaurant eating in the same room. The second woman from the left is the mother. She spent several years in Los Angeles doing nails. Her English was really quite good. The people at the front desk had some English but not a lot.
Youth Hostels are of course a wonderful way to travel for someone like me who loves meeting people. Laotaimen was almost empty and I talked to no one. It was a beautiful building.
More shots of the dinningroom.
And two shots of breakfast on two different days
