Polo Paradise

Apparently Marco Polo arrived here in Hangzhou and loudly declared it to be a paradise on earth. Maybe he was dusty after months on the silk road and it was the sight of water that prompted this response, since water, more specifically the West Lake, is what Hangzchou is all about.

Let me explain. Some ageless age ago West Lake was just a bit of wetlands next to a river. Then a poet governor or some such decided to dredge up the silt of and pile it into decorative islands and pathways cutting across the wetlands, which now was turned into a proper lake. Generations of poet-governors to-come all outdid eachother building pagodas and temples and new walkways and decorative arched stone bridges and such - and somewhere along the way Marco Polo came wandering into to schene to say his legendary words, then bugger off again leaving a whiff of history behind him.

From personal empirical evidence gathered during the last two days, I can now say, that in Marco Polo's heaven, there are musical fountains that turn on every hour to splurt to Beethoven's Fifth, misty mountains that rim the ever calm waters of the lake, there are the ever present little kiddies everywhere with doting parents/grandparents attached, and every bench (of which there are many in our celestial home) is taken up with smoothching couples snuggling up and feeling romantic. Yes, in paradise they have bees and flowers alright! As the photo below shows, the cherry blossoms are just coming out. As they obviously always are, since it's heaven.

Well, all in all they've made a decent job of it through the centuries. What with all the tweaking and pruning and decorating, the end result is still just a lake, but a very finely landscaped one! What has been heavenly also, has been the weather! By Finnish standards the past two days have been warm summers days. Sitting by the lake and feeling hot! That's what it's all about ladies and laddies! Tomorrow I'm off to Kuala Lumpur. There I will be sitting by the sea and feeling very, very hot no doubt. It's off to the tropics for me!