A good half of the bar is outside – large downstairs terrace and good outdoor space above lets you see out easily. The location is on the way back from the Qiantang River on the Hupao Road junction with Jiuyaoshan Tunnel and so makes a fitting stop on the way home from your Meijiawu bicycle trip. The pints came a little slow – that’s only important for the first pint I guess, but the first is the most important… And the din that is Hupao Road can be a little oppressive at first. But if you have been in China for more than a week I bet you can block that out with a little mental effort.

At night there is supposed to be a band and a good vibe.

Whoever Mr. Guo Shilin was, he must have had some cash and guanxi. His house was built in 1851 and to have the pull to get a spot right on West Lake he would have pulled some strings. Big strings. The house has smallish living quarters and large gardens stretching in all maybe 100 metres along the lake. The style is very much East China garden, with rockeries, ponds stacked with Koi, windows that somehow look like mirrors – except you are not in the reflection, solitude, and views, some manicured, some natural. Guo’s place faces absolutely east, so the morning sun rising must have been spectacular. From his err breakfast terrace Guo would have seen the whole of Sudi Causeway, an expanse of water and felt a cool breeze.

These days Guo’s Villa is a part of the extensive garden parks of Hangzhou that surround much of the Lake. Of course Sudi is still there, and in the hazy distance Hangzhou is shimmering.

There is something to be said for those street side crappy pool tables you occasionally see  outside a small shop on the edge of Hangzhou. The beer is cheap, the tables are nearly free, and the worn out rubber, cracked slate (warped wood) and disfigured balls (gulp) means that seriously handicapped pool players like myself can compete a little with the pros. A little.

But there is also something to be said for a real pool bar. It’s warm in the winter and cool in the summer, the tables are flat and while the beer isn’t quite so cheap, it is at least cold. There are many middle of the road places that help bridge the gap between street-side and real place, and you’ll have to find those yourself. But for a real table, Colors Pool Bar is probably the best pool in Hangzhou.

Colors Pool was opened two or three years ago by a Singaporean pool champion. Dont know why he chose Hangzhou – maybe he thinks us lot have a trick (shot) or two to learn. But once here he found a great spot on three floors in a small street running north from the Hyatt hotel. It’s pretty obvious that he knows a lot more about pool than interior design: the place is nice to look at but the tables are goooood. So are the sticks.

There are two tables on each floor, when he could probably have fitted three. The furniture is haphazard, the walls dark red and the bar looks like a pill-box machine gun slit. But hey, we’re here to play pool, not diagnose the owner’s design health. And in any case, for those  waiting to play, Colors is still way more comfortable than any other pool bar in the town.

After a game or ten, you can retire to the roof. There is little outdoor seating in Hangzhou – sitting outside in Hangzhou, until recently, was not considered fitting for modern urban dwellers – and colors does this well, with a large roof terrace overlooking remnants of old Hangzhou.

Tables are about 65Y an hour so you can play 8 or 9 ball. The guys rack the tables in seconds so there isnt much of a delay between games. Beer gets big discounts if you buy by the bucket.

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Jamaica has some pretty good eats too – the photo here doesn’t really do it justice, but this Jamaica Club Sandwich is full of cheese, pork loin and bacon, and is oozing with mayo and butter. The bread is fresh and soft with a little chew and a crisp outside. It is definitely worth the trek to Xihu Tiandi just for that. Jamaica has several other tasties on the menu, meatballs, paella pasta and some more sandwiches.

Jamaica does not seem that busy in the afternoons, although the booze on the menu may help fill the place up of an evening. Without the Quaker-ism of Starbucks etcetc, you can smoke eat and drink all at the same time. For now anyway – there is a rumour that China is going non-smoking too.

To find Jamaica, wander into Xihu Tiandi – I prefer the northern most entrance just after the Dahua Hotel and follow the lake bank to the cafe – but there are good signs all over the area.

If somebody ever gets there at night, let me know how busy it is.

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This rather new addition to the bar and restaurant scene has about 10 different names, but Vineyard sounds best, so that’s what it’s going to be on this page. Vineyard is a favourite afternoon hang-out for this office-less wannabe writer. The internet is good, the Illy coffee is really good, and there is a range of enticing stuff on the menu priced from 30Y to 200Y for a massive piece of Australian steak. The place is attached to a wine cellar showing a range of mostly Australian wines and you can drink them for the shop price in Vineyard, which is great.

When Vineyard frst opened it was a little dead, which I enjoyed as I could get on with writing banalities in peace. The owner of the bar (now ex-owner / part-owner?) owns the whole bleeding building of Zhongtian Dasha (中田大厦) and this was supposed to be a place, no doubt, that he could show his girlfriends or business buddies and demonstrate that he really is rich enough to own a place in a seriously good location and do nothing with it. Consequently, it dawdled on for while without any direction or identity.

The place looks pretty swish, designed by some mega-star designer from Oz whose name I cannot remember. Walls are in grey with purply-mauvy abstract pattern art – someone tell me that’s called – and the black wood tables are lined up every morning with a laser beam to make sure there is not the vaguest kink in the aesthetic. The lighting is so complex even the staff havent got their heads around it yet as they demonstrate well at various times of day when the light level has to be made more designer. Again.

The Western grub is always pretty good in a Hangzhou sort of way and one could never argue with the price. Lots of pizzas, sandwiches, steaks, burgers. Somebody with a sweet tooth has stocked a fridge with tonnes of Italian looking cakes and icecream.

So we have a designer looking place with good coffee, pretty good wine, non-designer food at prices for students, not much custom and pretty much no identity whatsoever. And the boss didnt notice or didnt care, or maybe even wanted it that way.

However, he probably didn’t reckon on Wade. Wade is well known in Hanghou and used to look after the laowai in In Club sometime before it became Out Club. Dont ask. Wade is filling the place up, and despite the less than perfect set-up, he has started to create quite a rocking atmosphere, no doubt largely due to his own encompassing joviality. Friday and Saturday evenings are full with party-goers coming to take in the cheap booze, live music and garden. Added to the mix are the guys that run the Hangzhou Expat 2009 page on Facebook. Lots of fun games, prizes and cheap cold beer served by the case load. If you’re after a quieter glass of wine or a seriously iced Aussie beer, maybe pop in during the week…

Day times are far more busy than before, with several people coming to steal MY internet connection.

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Warm evening outside Maya Bar

Maya Bar has become an institution for the expat crowd living in Hangzhou. The small unassuming place fills up quickly after 9pm pretty much any night of the week drawing people who want to have a couple, or more, well poured drinks and properly served Tiger beer. By midnight, the bar is often in full swing with many looking like they are going to be settling in for a night.

Maya has a few secrets of success, although they probably wouldn’t be secrets in many other parts of the world. Keep it simple, good drinks at a fair price, cool music and great staff. No Rusty Nails, Sex on the Beach or Singapore Slings in this place, instead, healthy long drinks all for the same flat price. The menu is small – the six or so things on the menu have a tex-mex theme and is kind of modular – combinations of the same 3 things. But it’s all well tasty and the kitchen stays open until very late – great to soak up all that beer.

There might be no Sexes on the Beach, but Maya does make a few mean jugs of cocktails. Strawberry Daiquiris, Margaritas and others. These things are not for the faint-hearted, so be warned. But they delicious.

Tiger might be a boring beer, but the owner at Maya keeps the equipment clean and carbonation correct and it is probably the best poured Tiger in Hangzhou. There is a range of imported beers: Budvar, Old Speckled Hen, Rogue, Greene King, Guinness (Surger type) and a few others, so there is some real beer available too.

The bar is dominated by, yes, the bar. The emphasis on bar service over table service, cool staff and the long bar means that it wont be long before you are chatting away with a bunch of others. And if you happen to be there for a live gig, you’ll be singing along with those others too.

For all of us living on the West side, Maya is on the way home from pretty much anywhere in Hangzhou, so pop in.

Gig in Maya Bar

“Let longe Hyatt”. English isn’t his strongest suit. 45 minutes later, laptop and swimshorts (in hand) I am settling into a teak chair outside the Hyatt restaurant. It’s a bit early for a White Russian, but we had been drinking those the night before, and didnt really want to mix it up. And while English may not be my company’s forte, vodka, with small amounts of additives, is.

Back at home 5-star hotels and MacD get kind of lumped together – wouldn’t be seen dead in either. Sorry Hyatt; it’s not about food or service, but at home there are better ways to get either a burger, or a veal escalope on mushroom risotto. In Hangzhou however, I find myself frequently in Hyatt, and MacD. (Again, sorry Hyatt). Normally, of course, it isn’t just to laze around on the terrace all afternoon, being gently massaged by a few White Russians. Not much talking: little bit of Facebook (The wireless from the bar, Bellevue, upstairs is fast); sun soaking through for the first time since, err, September; loads of people wandering buy, some even worth looking at. All in all, a pretty relaxed way to spend the afternoon.

Followed by a swim and a sauna. Life can be good in Hangzhou.