Moganshan is a picturesque bamboo nature reserve (I thought they’d have enough already), two hours north of Hangzhou. Our ‘hostel’, Howoolife Hostel, was like a four star hotel retreat with wooden furnishings and mud packed walls. I couldn’t venture too far from a toilet (not for the reason you’d immediately think) ( for our stay here and thankfully, I was room bound in luxury.

Day 16

Hotel bound and chickens

Whilst the group were out, I went for a walk in the bamboo forest near the hotel but got pestered by bugs so turned back (remember this for later).

The group went off for a hike to an ice cold lagoon and found out that our tour guide was PETRIFIED of chickens. I later experienced this when he saw chickens near our hotel then screamed when a dog walked past. We had to form a human barrier down the path so he could sprint down in safety. This fear extends to all winged animals, including butterflies.

Day 17

Eyelid intruder

I woke up that morning with tears a fat eyelid and could feel a prominent scratching on my eye ball. A girl in the group, Kelly, lent me her eyedrops and I finally got the bugger out- it was a black blob surrounded in white goop- lovely.

I spent my day catching up on video editing and writing about Beijing whilst the group did another hike (in the rain, so I wasn’t that jealous).

Day 18

Enroute to the train station in Hangzhou, we stopped off for lunch (I daren’t eat at this point) then zipped next door to a snake farm. There were supposedly 100’s of snakes being farmed behind the scenes but we saw a small, but varied, handful. There were water snakes, tree snakes, arrow headed snakes, Cobras, Boa constrictors, the works. The safety was a little questionable as some of the cages were just celoptaped shut where the locks were broken (for the poisonous ones, too). Some of the snakes held so still, Leah started playing ‘real or no real’.