Fishing!!!

So we left Vicky's apartment for the airport.  While her brother was driving us there, we started hassling Brandon about not writing his mother.  After a fair bit of encouragement he relented and took Vicky's iPhone and wrote "Hi, This is Brandon."   Of course, being 12 this was to be expected.  So I offered to ghost write his letter home and Vicky handed me the phone.  I wrote a nice long text explaining how he adored his mother, missed his little brother, etc. and returned it to Vicky who hit send.  I think he'll write more from now on, but I'm working on material so I can do my part if necessary.

 

The Guangzhou airport was incredible… easily as large as Terminal C at Newark and very clean and organized.  Airport security was a breeze… no need to remove your shoes and I even wore my glasses and belt while going through the metal detector.  Once through security I heard Tiger get excited about seeing "Taipingsha" which is a very famous noodle restaurant so we quickly had a 20 minute noodle meal. 

 

The flight was nice and except for the language could have been a western flight with one exception.  Although we were the last to board, there was plentiful overhead storage space available.  The Chinese people are not afraid of checked baggage.

 

So at the end of the flight we are met by Xiaoling and her family.  And believe it or not we were heading fishing.  They took us through some of the "suburbs" of Chongqing (which really means the relatively run down part), but there was this nice open area where a man ran a fishery.  So we fished for the afternoon in his ponds, however, this "Laowia" (slang for white person) quickly overheated.  To give you an idea of the hospitality I received, within a few minutes they dig out an umbrella chair and George is safely plied with bottled water and I focused on staying cool and photography. 

 

We had a grand time fishing.  The boys seemed to like it (Brandon more so than Tiger, but both caught fish).  At one point Brandon caught a huge fish… Vicky rushed to help him try and land it, but we were unknowledgeable.   The rod broke in half and this wise old fish is now dragging a 3 foot section of rod to brag to his friends.

 

We then went into the associated restaurant (a rural restaurant… doesn't have a name) where the fish we caught were cooked up in a variety of dishes.  It turns out my tongue can't separate the bones from this type of fish so Vicky had me try the other dishes.  I did try a little, but then resorted to vegetables, rice and an egg-tomato soup.  Finally, I had my first Chinese beer!

 

Xiaoling's family was wonderful.  Her husband, Huangwi, speaks a little English (Xiaoling's English is impeccable) and her parents and nephew, while not able to speak English, were more than willing to do what was necessary to express themselves.  It was a wonderful dinner before our drive to the dock.