China II

(Apologies this is a bit piecemeal as far as sequence of events go as it has been done over 5 days due to finding a good computer - we are now in Lijiang post Dali and Kunming)

Since Guilin where we last left you, we have hit Yangshuo for a few days and Nevervisitagain Nanning and after a 13 hour overnight train ride are now kicking back in Kunming ready to embark on Dali.

As a confucian proverb goes (excerpt from the book i'm reading at the moment - Red Dust) "never trust the wily fox who shows pity for the sick chicken". This could perhaps best sum up the experiences with the local traders in Yangshuo - sometimes we were the fox and other times you clearly felt clucky. It relives memories of the smiling assasin that cooly skun Moof for an ornamental necklace and then offerred him a FREE friendship bracelet in the Himalyas (and I agree Moof it was a sweet purchase). All that said Yangshuo was a super place to shop and we managed to get some absolute steals.

Yangshuo is most notable for its amazing Karst peaks which litter the countryside, one of our photos of which was a feature this week on the main page to travellerspoint! Kudos to Chris Halpin. Anyway keeping with William's prose, highlights:

• Getting burnt by our student friends in Guilin for some other backpackers - we were supposed to meet at 11am and they never showed up, we later spotted them talking to some other foreigners!!

• Early morning Elderly Kungfu around the lake of Guilin...with swords - Thommo's retirement home.

• Sitting on a bucking bicycle for 6 hours - yeah the scenery was magnificent but after the first hour on the dirt tracks behind Yangshuo all you could think about was a soft seat and untroubled wrists.

• Coke and ginger tea, where has this concotion been all my life - and I hate coke!

• Kunming canine cuisine in dog alley - rest assured we passed.

• Mass 24 hour dancing in the park - I guess after being starved of arts for 40 years who could blame them.

• Paying 50 mao to walk into a public lavatory (which has open cubicles that are waist high and have no flushing mechanism, purely a long porcelian gutter) and watch some local take squeeze out a poo a metre from where i was using the urinal - nice.

• Legally purchasing 2 bagfuls of fireworks to release on chinese new year - wish you were here Thomas.

Award winning photo. Will 0/500 (photos taken) Kempo 1/10.

1412 Dragon Bridge...

..and the guy that built it.

Big Banyon Tree over 1500 years old - we think, can never be too sure what with the supposed hundred year old pagodas in Guilin that turned out to be 6! - and the lady featured sowed the seeds.

Broccolli - Chinese know what they're talking about.

Couldn't think of a better place myself for a good shave then next to a major arterial.

Jerry - need not say more.

Source... (and there is no such thing as an analogy to sqealing like a pig, the sound was awful, they knew exactly what was going on.)

....to serve.

(unfortunately doesn't quite show but the guy next to the truck is wearing a two piece suit) so to all my fellow office workers out there, take note of the novel chinese way of passing the time when the work load is low.

Canine cuisine.

Cool kid, cooler cap playing some death warrior style computer game.