Finally! A Break!

Today's weather:  High = 25  Low  = 21
Showers

Today is a nice break in more ways than one.  We get 5 days off in a row for the Dragon Boat Festival.  This is a better deal than last year where we had the 9 day May Holiday.  This is because we also had the May Holiday this year for 4 days, and it adds up to the same.  But having a holiday at this time of year is far better, since we're all getting very burned out
 
The plan is to head over to Chongqing and do some biking, partly to prepare for Tibet, and partly to finish a goal that was already attempted 3 times without any success.  You can go to the Crazy Guy on a Bike website (http://www.crazyguyonabike.com) and search for my alias which is Shanghai Steve.  The trip will all be documented there, as well as on my travel blog.
 
Since the folding bike was busted from the last trip to Indonesia, etc.  I did some last minute repairs, and then rode out of school directly to the train station.  Once there, the bike went straight into the back and I walked onto the fast train.  The timing was rather tight as we had to work on half a Saturday (yuck) but I bolted out of the gate at 12pm and just barely made my train which left at 12:29pm.  Yes, a close call, but I wasn't going to let the fact we had an unannounced last-minute Saturday workday to make up time (sick) to stop my original plans.

My flight to Chongqing was departing out of another airport --- Wuxi, to be exact, where the price dropped by half.  Getting to Wuxi was a surprisingly easy break, as I was expecting the worst.  The fast train left at 12:29 and stopped at an unexpected station called 'Wuxi New District'.  Yes, this was in the countryside, but it was only 4.5km from the airport, which was a beautiful break here.  So the train pulled in at 1:05pm and I got to the airport at 1:15pm, with PLENTY of time to spare.  In fact, I got to the Wuxi airport faster than I would get to Pudong airport in Shanghai.  It took 75 minutes from the time I left the school gate until checking into my flight.  Unbelievable.
 
Not only that, but the airport was not busy despite the holiday rush.  Everyone must have been flying out of Shanghai, and this airport was not well known.  So I enjoyed nice service, including free internet at the departure gates where I am typing this now.
 
But I better stop as they are calling flight boarding, and it looks like there will be no delays.  Another unbelievable break here.  Let's hope this keeps up for the whole trip !!!!!