Day 39: February 11, 2013 The Chinese Underground

     Today held one of the greatest surprises since I have been here – AMERICAN STYLE BREAKFAST! I have never stuffed my face since I have been here as much as I did this morning. We only allowed 15 minutes for breakfast assuming it would suck as usual, but ended up being greeted by a giant buffet full of delicious food. I had fried eggs, sausage, pastries, fruit, and cereal and could not have been happier. After steeling a muffin for the road we loaded the bus to start our day. 

Temple

     We started out by going to a famous Chinese temple, which was cool to see the architecture and extravagant decorations as always. I made sure to rub the lion’s head and ball for good luck and then we were on our way to a river cruise.

     The cruise was nothing special but was still fun and gave us a different way to see our surroundings while hanging out on a boat. After the cruise we had yet another family style meal, which was the best yet. There was literally nothing that I didn’t love. Between breakfast and lunch, I don’t think I have ever been so satisfied by my meals since I have been in China.

Put people in hole, chopped off head, dropped in canal!

     After lunch we started on our 3-hour bus ride to Hangzhou. The first thing we did when we arrived was go to this cave, which none of us were expecting to do. This was definitely my favorite thing we have done so far. The caves were so cool to look at and were all lit up with neon lights, which only made them look more amazing. We climbed hundreds of stairs to get to the top for a great view and then made our way back down to get on a cart on tracks that took us back to the exit. The ride was really exciting, yet a bit scary since you had to duck down and lean side to side to avoid hitting your head on the cave walls. 

Cave entrance

     Once we got back outside, there was just a gorgeous view of all of the surrounding mountains. There was also what seemed kind of like an adult playground that would be way too dangerous for little kids. There were a few really sketchy plank bridges, swings, and slides that were a lot of fun. That was our only main event in Hangzhou for the day since we had such a long ride to get there so we just headed back and checked into our hotel.

Playground

     We were expected to be let down after the Holiday Inn, but this hotel was also really nice. I took about an hour to catch up on some blogging for the trip and then it was time for yet another family style dinner. The dinner was once again amazing and I had no complaints. The bullfrog and tofu were even really good! After dinner Adam, Bryan, John, and I finished some booking details for our trip and emailed our ME 375 teacher to try to get an extension on our homework due over our trip. The homework isn’t posted and it is due in the middle of our trip where we are going to have limited internet access the entire time. With no response, we are just hoping for the best and that we won’t be having to do homework while in Hong Kong. 

     After that we decided to go explore the city, which once again was pretty dead. We did make our way down the lake and walk along the shore for about hour or so which was really relaxing and made for some really good conversation. Once we got back to the hotel, we helped Tyler’s girlfriend come up with a Valentine’s Day gift for him and then called it a night. Although we were not expecting much, we decided to give ourselves a longer time for breakfast in the morning just in case it was as good as today’s.