East / West Wuzhen

I was right about Vanna.  She was definitely better than exploring by myself.   We met up in the morning and immediately had lots of things to talk about. It turned out to be her birthday!  She was so anxious to hang out because she didn't want to be by herself on her birthday.  I was happy to be with her on her birthday in this amazing little town.

We started at the East Scenic area.  It feels like more of an ancient town than the west side.  There are still people living here in tiny houses on the water.

Down one of the tiny streets was a place where they make rice wine.  I had a taste.  It was good but very strong. 

After the east scenic area we headed back to the west area and had a relaxing afternoon exploring.  We followed signs to a temple.  On the way Vanna told me that it's an ancient tradition for girls to go to a temple and ask for love.  I could obviously use help in that department so I was eager to get to the temple.   This is what we found when we got there:

Looks like no love for me anytime soon!

We saw these slabs of stone with water and paintbrushes sitting on top.  Vanna explained that this is what they use to practice the characters when they're just learning because it saves paper.

I ate one of these delicious pancake things that he put in this barrel to heat up. It had some green vegetables inside.

This man uses these birds to go fishing.  They are tied to his boat.  There just happened to be an article about him in a newspaper I read on the plane on the way back.  It's a pretty cruel profession and is luckily becoming less common. 

We wandered into the children's area and Vanna started playing this game that played a tune if you could pump enough water through it.  Once she got it going we realized the melody was Happy Birthday!  We were relieved that she wouldn't have to suffer through me singing her happy birthday.

Goodbye Wuzhen!  Next stop:  A last minute trip to Hangzhou.