I woke up around 6.45, got ready and did a bit of research charging my phone before leaving around 7.30 to get the bus to the train station. I got bus 4 which went quite a way on the right direction so that the parallel road was about 250 metres away. As I didn't know where the bus was going to go I got off and walked to the other road to catch bus 8 which I knew went to the train station. With the suitcase the walk seemed a bit far and the bus stop was a bit further along the road. I waited there with a man and I saw bus 8 coming but there was a bus 9 in front which the man wanted so that stopped for him and bus 8 went past the stop with me shouting at it. A few minutes later though another bus 8 came and was fairly full up so maybe the other one had been as well. I got off at the train station and got inside without much of a queue. The station was pretty small for China but it did have hot water so I filled up my oversize (168g) pot noodle and read my book. It was 8.30 so I had a while before the train and we started boarding at 9 when for once there was time to get on the train without running and I found I was in the sleeper section but with the beds turned into seats. I think I'd paid more and I should have got soft seat instead, still the journey was ok and we arrived at 12pm. I got off fairly quickly and was one of the first onto bus 4 outside the station which I knew went to the old town. I'd chosen pigeon hostel as it was outside the old town so hopefully easy to get to and I got off the bus with just a short walk to where agoda and booking.com said it was. I walked through a market area but the hostel wasn't there and on the main road I found a hospital which was past where the hostel was supposed to be. I left my suitcase and wandered around the block to look for the hostel with no luck, I was looking for the name in Chinese as well in case they hadn't translated it. I found a travel agent and asked them where to go and I got pointed in a direction back where I'd come so I went that way and a bit further around the next block with no luck. The map location was obviously wrong so I tried across the road and there were some shops but nothing that looked helpful. I decided to find a hotel to ask in as they might speak English so I went to 7 day inn where I could connect to the WiFi, possibly in all of their hotels now. I asked and they didn't speak English and weren't sure where to go, so I translated part of the address and they pointed me to the old town so I went and got my suitcase and headed there. It was not easy going through the old town with a suitcase as there were lots of people, a meat market (which was at least had a smooth floor) and cobbled roads. I looked for hostels and hotels to ask where to go but some of those on the map were not there and others couldn't help as they didn't speak English or had nobody on the desk. I got stuck at a dead end and decided to leave my suitcase in an inn there where nobody was around. I walked through town and had to pay the 80 yuan old town entry fee, but as I thought my hostel was inside the town I'd need to pay anyway and it lasted for 30 days. I got directions and went to that area but couldn't find the place so I asked at another travel agent and got pointed back towards where I'd started. I decided to get the address in Chinese which I thought I could do by changing the language on booking.com so I went back to 7 day inn and changed it to the only language that looked like Chinese. I also thought of just changing hostels as I hadn't paid yet but there were none that close to where I'd left my suitcase. I tried to go to what I thought was a nearby hotel to try somewhere different but it turned out a fair distance and there were police training outside and I wasn't allowed in. I went back to the travel agents which was near but the first couldn't help so I asked in another and the girl spoke English and said she didn't know what language that was that I had translated it to. I went back to the 7 day inn and got 300g of biscuits on the way which I ate and then changed the language and this time I checked afterwards and it showed the flag of the country so that was good. I walked back round and ate all the biscuits and decided to buy a top up as it would help and my phone battery problem had gone with my new USB cable. The mobile phone shop person didn't speak English and went I asked for internet he gave me WiFi connection for the store. It turned out that they didn't do top ups, so I left and went to the travel agents where the girl told me that the language I had now was Japanese. I don't know how I'd got the flag confused, maybe I was not thinking clearly after all this running around and not eating properly. So I went to the mobile phone shop changed the language and went back to the travel agents where they had a customer but still helped me and I put a bookmark on my map where they said it was which near to where I'd got off the bus but on the west not east side. I went there and couldn't find it but I did find a hotel which had left the WiFi code so I logged on there and walked around asking a few travel agents who couldn't help. I'd decided to book somewhere else it was 4pm and I'd arrived at 12.30 so I went to the WiFi place but the hotel people were there and wanted to maybe get me a room. I showed them the address of the hostel and they knew where it was and a lady with a pram kindly took me there. The place was called dove hostel not pigeon and was etched in wood on the side of the door so difficult to see. The guy there was slow to check me in so I used the toilet and then I got shown my room just up one flight of stairs and it was a bottom bunk with one guy in the room and 4 empty beds. I left my charger and some things in the room and then went to get my suitcase in the old town and when I went into the hotel there was a woman there who seemed to thank me when I took my suitcase so maybe she thought I had stayed there. I came back to the hostel and the room was not locked now and there was nobody there so I changed into shorts finally and left around 5pm. I walked around to find the post office, but there was none there so I asked at one of the old town information buildings and they told me there was one in the old town open until 9pm. I got to the northern part of the old town where there was a big waterwheel with a fair few tourists around. From there I walked north along the river/stream to the park which had the dragon pool. An old French woman told me it was good and I walked around entrance and found my way inside although it turns out the old town ticket is used to get in to this place anyway so I already had a ticket. I came to a tourist photo spot where there were naturally a few people taking photos of each other. I walked around the lake park and there was a Thai luck pavilion which didn't look that special and had also been built recently. There was a bridge to another pavilion on the lake and I went across and back to the East side where further along there was a fairly big Phoenix building with several layers that was nice. I went to the end of the park and then back and all around the paths and then I took a path up the hill but there was a sign with restrictions that people must go in groups of 4 and the path closes at 4pm. I went back to the south and there was a learning place and another path up the hill whcih was also closed the same as the first one. I headed back into town where there were lots of wooden buildings and shops selling same things like drums and small cakes and I didn't see any post office.
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