The nice thing about an organised trip is the price, free!
The trip was on friday and friday lunchtime I was eating in the school when I got talking to one of the teachers, I talked about where I worked before, wenzhou, she was from wenzhou, actually I said, I'm from Cangnan, she said wow she was also from Cangnan, actually I said from Lingxi, wow she said me too! I said I worked at Cangnan Zhong Xue, wow she said, she lived really close! Amazing! so we chatted for a while over lunch and she was also going on the trip!
I taught my classes as usual on the friday until 2.30 and then went straight to the bus waiting outside to leave for the trip! I packed a bag with my camera, tripod, spare lenses, and some sort of clothes or some other unimportant things...
With all this away we went and I chatted some more with the girl i met at lunch Phoenix, and got a bit of a rest on the bus, as it would be a busy trip!
We arrived at around 5.30 into WuZhen and after 20 minutes milling around got our tickets (free) and into the park! As it was already late and raining we went straight to our hotel (although i took as many pictures as I could on the way) and checked in, Chris and I were sharing a room, but this room was not the usual one room twin beds affair, when you walked in the room had a small sitting room, with no windows, just two chairs and a (locked) fridge of beer etc, then a corridoor led back on one side with the bathroom first, very nicely done out, and then first chris's room, with wooden slat covered windows opening into the coridoor, and then my room at the end, with a small window into an alley, so seperate single rooms, but behind a single door, but each room had its own key card, very strange! The hotel itself was very nice and usually our twin room was 880 a night, (88GBP, 8 is the luckiest number out here..) and it was all very clean and well done out, the bed was very soft memory foam and the covers very comfortable. Unfortunately we didn't get much time to relax, 5 minutes after putting down my bag and taking out the few clothes I bought we got a knock to leave for the evening meal! I grabbed my bag with camera, tripod etc and shot out, with chris following 10 minutes later.
We walked 5 minutes into the town and went to a lovely restaurant down a series of back alleys, attached together by old style bridges and nicely done out, we spread the 30 teachers over 3 tables and the meal began. There was plenty of food and lots of new things to try, including the local wine, around 11 percent so not too strong, and quite tasty! Chris and I were careful however and didn't drink much, before long the 'cheersing' that Chinese people love came out and we had the chance to drink as much as we could as all of the teachers individually share a shot of wine together, ok in small groups, and once around, but with a huge group, and of course you must cheers them back, and then several rounds, it can get pretty intense and before long our table had put away 7/8 bottles of wine, to much merriment. As the food started to wane the teachers started to mix between tables and the cheersing started all over again! We were strongly hinted to do the same and move down the table, especially to the table with the dean and vice deans on and drink a glass with them, which was good fun, and make some jokes, and make our face known a bit!
After the meal eventually finished we had two choices, go to KTV and sing, or go on a boat ride, I however had been dying to try and take some pictures so I made my excuses and Chris and I, along with another teacher from my office, headed off together to take some pictures!
I had my tripod and so setup and took as many as I could of the night scene, before the 10pm light shutoff time and we walked about half way around the village exploring and photographing in the light rain, getting some beautiful shots!
We got back to the hotel at 11 after a very long day and the teacher retired to his room leaving Chris and I alone with a locked beer fridge. It turns out that as Chris inspected it the fridge fell open in his hands without any damage and so we had a beer in the room before an early bed, knowing we had to be up at 7 the next morning!
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