April: "I just can't see a situation where I would join another overland tour."
November: I'm on another overland tour. I've got my reasons but I'm not giving them to you because they'll just sound whiney, and frankly I deserve the stick.
So I'm in China proper now, the land of restricted internet access. We crossed the border into Shenzen, which turned out to be a surprisingly normal town. The only reason you would know you weren't in Manchester is because the buildings are taller. Shenzen also turned out to be a city that's bigger than London that I've never heard of, I have a feeling that that might happen a fair amount over the next couple of weeks.
I'm in Yangshuo now. I feel a bit sorry for Yanshuo, it's surrounded by limestone karsts which a fortnight ago I would have found amazing but in a post-Ha Long Bay world it just seems a bit average. We went "bamboo rafting" to see the karsts. The bamboo raft was neither a raft nor made of bamboo. Guess us tourists wouldn't go for it if it was called "plastic pipe boat".
We went on a bike tour through the karsts too. We hired tandems, unfortunately the guide didn't appreciate that his mountain bike with its suspension, gears and small turning circle was far better suited to offroad tracks than our tandems. Evidentally there's a reason you don't get tandem BMXs.
Watched an old man cormorant fishing last night. That's not the most vegetarian thing I've ever done. Getting picked up in the dark from a back street wall by a boat with no lights put down such a good base-level
of weirdness that seeing a man throwing choking cormorants off a boat seemed fairly normal.
And I've just been hot cupped. Which really wasn't that pleasant, apparently the scars go away after a week or so. Which is nice.
Weirdest Food: China 's not disappointed so far - dog, lily flower intestines, bring on the weird.
_________
Apologies to anyone who's tried to contact me on facebook, I can't get it here. You'll just have to use good old email. How very 2002?
November: I'm on another overland tour. I've got my reasons but I'm not giving them to you because they'll just sound whiney, and frankly I deserve the stick.
So I'm in China proper now, the land of restricted internet access. We crossed the border into Shenzen, which turned out to be a surprisingly normal town. The only reason you would know you weren't in Manchester is because the buildings are taller. Shenzen also turned out to be a city that's bigger than London that I've never heard of, I have a feeling that that might happen a fair amount over the next couple of weeks.
I'm in Yangshuo now. I feel a bit sorry for Yanshuo, it's surrounded by limestone karsts which a fortnight ago I would have found amazing but in a post-Ha Long Bay world it just seems a bit average. We went "bamboo rafting" to see the karsts. The bamboo raft was neither a raft nor made of bamboo. Guess us tourists wouldn't go for it if it was called "plastic pipe boat".We went on a bike tour through the karsts too. We hired tandems, unfortunately the guide didn't appreciate that his mountain bike with its suspension, gears and small turning circle was far better suited to offroad tracks than our tandems. Evidentally there's a reason you don't get tandem BMXs.
Watched an old man cormorant fishing last night. That's not the most vegetarian thing I've ever done. Getting picked up in the dark from a back street wall by a boat with no lights put down such a good base-level
of weirdness that seeing a man throwing choking cormorants off a boat seemed fairly normal.And I've just been hot cupped. Which really wasn't that pleasant, apparently the scars go away after a week or so. Which is nice.
Weirdest Food: China 's not disappointed so far - dog, lily flower intestines, bring on the weird.
_________
Apologies to anyone who's tried to contact me on facebook, I can't get it here. You'll just have to use good old email. How very 2002?
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