WENZHOU!!!!

Okay so I may have fallen asleep a bit too fast.  I woke up almost 2 hours later and we were still on the ground!!!  Remember, we have to catch another flight in Wenzhou, originally we only had about a 3 hour layover.  We finally take off, unfortunately I pass out again until mid flight when I see the estimated time of arrival at destination being about 15 minutes before our connecting flight departs.  We start considering the possibilities, we would have to collect our luggage, go through security, check back in, and then board all in 15 minutes.  Oh, and planes usually close the gates 15 minutes before the plane takes off.  So we decided that a couple of us, Greg and Austin run up ahead while we get our luggage all together and then see if we can do anything.  We get there, Greg and Austin go, we get that bags and everybody is pretty clueless, we don't have any working phones so we couldn't really find anybody.  Nick went searching until we found them at customer service attempting to communicate with the people.  Our plane had already left by the time we found Greg and Austin so now we are negotiating new flights, hotels, transportation, etc.  At first they tried to blame missing our flight on us until I showed them our flight times and then they had to have somebody verify.  It was difficult to talk to them, since they would help other people that spoke their language first.  It also didn't help other customers were incredibly rude and pushy.  I have no idea how long everything took, but we finally arranged for a bus to come get us, drive us to a hotel the airport has a deal with and food as well.  Luckily, the airport paid for everything.  We would be catching a flight the next day around 8 am.



The air was so gritty.



After a 40 minute bus ride we arrive at the hotel and the first words we say are "hello" and then all the clerks start laughing, at this point we all knew this was going to be rough.  We do get our key cards and our bags upstairs, about 5 minutes after we discover our rooms a troop of room service people come up and start yelling at us.  We eventually determined that it was time for lunch and they had it all set out for us.  The food was okay, certainly not the best thing I've ever had.  After, we went up to our rooms and slept, until about 3 hours into our slumber, yet again there was a banging at our door. Before they started talking we just walked out back down to the cafeteria and hardly ate anything.  None of it was really that great anyway.  But now we were all awake, and since we were in Wenzhou we figured why not explore?



Yeah we walked out about a block to the right and a block to the left.  Wenzhou was a dirty dirty place.  We eventually found a mall, barely lit, and checked it out real quick.  We bought a few things from a grocery store for breakfast the next day.  While I had to give up buying a really nice hiking backpack for 25 RMB. That's 5 USD by the way.  We didn't stay out long, it was somewhat terrifying and I was sure I began to develop asthma.  The air was terrible.  To get back to the hotel we had to cross a street.  Simple right? Not in Wenzhou, zero lights, zero crosswalks, and limited visibility with the smog and plus it was night out.  Best imitation of frogger I have ever seen.  Everyone made it back alive and we were so ready to get out of there.

It was Easter and instead of looking for a basket at 6 am our taxis arrived, my taxi driver was pretty sketch, he wouldn't stop rocking back and forth.  Anyway, we get to the Wenzhou airport.  The international flight terminal was about the size of one half of a basketball court. It all looked scary, but I didn't care.  Austin, Greg, Nick and I practiced some feathersacking while we waited.  We actually got pretty good at it, until we almost hit some military personnel.  We stopped after that, it was about time to go anyway.



PEACE WENZHOU!

The flight itself was great.  Our meal was a snickers bar, a bun, three cups of coffee, and some veggies.  Since there was only about 15 people on the flight I had a whole row of seats to stretch out.  I can only hope the 16 hour flight back home is nearly as good.  We got back and I never realized how much I missed Hong Kong, it was looking really good after that adventure.

Peng Chau & Tram @ Night



Possibly Cheng Chau Island?



We had one of the more explorative weekends with walking up Finger Hill on the Peng Chau Island also taking in the miraculous view of Hong Kong on top of Victoria's Peak at night.  Both were incredible.  Peng Chau Island is a really laid back old fishing community that is as different from the hustle that is Hong Kong.  Peng Chau is relatively small and you could probably walk around the island in almost two hours.  Once we got there we decided to start walking and soon came up to a dead end, or so we thought.  Frank Klaver, being the Dutchman that he is started climbing up the rocks, me, Greg, and Clement fallowed suit.  I had to end it early since my ankle I sprained a week ago still wasn't at it's best.  So I took the rest of the group; Austin, Siobahn, Keshia, and Christophe up Finger Hill.  Once they got over the name and composed themselves we started the trip.  We actually ended up taking the scenic route and passed by an inlet with a little bit of beach and rested up there for a second.  The next side stop we took was a tomb, unknown to us at the time, so we didn't wait around long and got moving.  We eventually arrived at the peak and the view was brilliant.  To the right you could see the bay and it's beach cut out between the hillside.  Forward you could see the surrounding islands and their own rocky features. 



Top of Finger Hill



It was a pretty warm day so we stayed on top of the hill for a while and waited for Frank, Greg, and Clement to get back and once they did we went down to the bay to check everything out.  The island as a whole is pretty laid back and seemed like a nice place for people to enjoy a weekend away from Hong Kong.  But we were getting pretty hot and hungry so we stopped at the local foodmart to pick up some snacks so we could make it back to campus.



Pork Curry, so good everytime

The next night Greg, Austin, and I jumped on board with a group of exchange students going to Victoria's Peak to view the city at night.  Surprisingly we had very few hang ups on the way there and we were able to board the tram almost immediately.  The ride up was really steap and also had a lot of great views, although I was sitting on the wrong side.  We acsended to the top to what is one of the best views in all of Hong Kong.  The city was so lit up and you could make out some of the hill sides as well.  You could even see all of the really nice boats and yachts in the bay.  The group I was with found the viewing place easily so we had to wait for everybody else to catch up.  After we tried to do one of those cliche "jumping" shots we decided we should go get something to eat.  Despite the restaurant being on top of mountain it was generally well priced and I got pork curry, as well as three other people.  I think this is where my strange obsession with curry started.  I literally have ordered it at every restaurant we've been to.  It was a really great night, I am still meeting new people and getting to know everybody else better and better.







Victoria's Peak