Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

roach in the morning





I woke up this morning and walked into the kitchen to find this on the counter.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

9-29-2008 - 10-5-2008 Yangshuo County

Here we are - Jess, Vicki, and me (behind the lens) at Huizhou bus station waiting for our bus to Yangshuo for National Day holiday!


We are on the 'sleeper bus' and ready to go!

Oh yuck! Okay... not so comfy anymore. This bus is way over capacity... we are 5 people across and jam-packed from head to toe, in this position for about 14 hours! EEK! And take notice of the guy in the middle there who just came out of the hospital with the IV tubes still hooked up.
Okay so we made it! We are in Yangshuo - WOOHOO! We are staying at a hostel called Monkey Janes and Miss Monkey Jane herself was kind enough to pick us up from the side of the street where our bus dropped us off at 5:00 am. Our room is not ready so she was kind enough to let us catch some ZzZz's on the rooftoop - it's a bit chilly for us so we couldn't sleep... instead we opted to watch the sunrise.











I don't know about you, but it doesn't matter how damned drunk I get, I sure would never take a shot of that snake mystery drink.
The streets of Yangshuo before the tourists rise.




We were very happy to find this open restaurant for breaky and pleasently surprised to see western breakfasts on the menu!


Ahhhh... a little bit of home... look at those Canadian flags - what beauts!









Jess and Vicki doing some window shopping!

cormorant bird fisherman













This man took up up to see some treasures he wanted to sell us... hmmm... interesting treasures.




Store selling only matches.









Wankelong shopping square... where we bought terrible Chinese wine and snacks.

The shelves stocked up with the melamine infected milk products.












Our hotel room.







Oh YEAH! Enjoying a delicious meal at Lotus Vegitarian Restaurant





























Taking a walk along Green Lotus Peak which is along side the Li River.





































A small community we came across while wandering the streets.

























































Oh yeah baby! A bike ride in the country side!





standing in the rice patties.








































A trip to the barber!
Taking our bikes and selves across the Li River to get to ...





... Fuli Town!









































Stopped at the Three Sister's Cafe for lunch.





















Damnit I don't remember the direct translation here but I was told it was something to do with equity and peace which I found ironic for China... I'll update this later with the exact translation.


























Oh yeah... enjoying a bevvy at Solo Bar!



















Met this nice fella, James and his daughter at Solo bar.
Of course I find a lesbian... having fun at Buffalo Bar.























































Jess and Vicki absolutely exhusted of saying, "Bú shì" so completely ignoring the women trying to sell postcards, and other land fill.

The Yangshuo market... frogs and snakes in those tubs.





























Dogs being butchered... the man in the back finished skinning one and it looks like it's been based. Some women (not in photo - she was cutting dog meat at a counter to the guys left) was yelling at me to stop taking this photo... I didn't realize and all of the sudden a piece of raw dog meat came flying at me and hit me in the arm. I was disgused by the scene!









Yangshuo Cooking School!











Yum... beer fish!













Delishious... lotus root and cashews. And eggplant goodness.











4 hour bus ride or so and we made it into Longji! Here to see the rice terraces!


I'm inside one of the villager's homes.
























A cute performance put on by the 'long hair minorities' in Ping'An Village.




































































This women is cooking delishious steamed rice in these bamboo shoots.





















































Dried lizards.




















Beers with our new friends we met in Longji - Mark and Anthony.


Back at Solo again!

















These guys were SO funny! They - like several others - wanted their picture taken with us 'westerners'... They did not want Anthony in the picture - I guess he looks too chinese for them... haha... so I handed my camera to Anthony to take a couple pics of them taking pics of us... hmm.. does that make sense? You get the picture!

Me and Anthony just as we were saying goodbye... he's off on more travels!




This beautiful sea of lotus pads (I think) in Yangshuo park.







Going up the pagoda in Yangshuo park.
... and the view.



















... and the 17-year-old boys who invited us to join them for a beer and fruit in the gazebo. This poor, poor monkey.








Our last meal in Yangshuo at Luna restaurant.






Moon Hill.


















This was a fun cab ride!



























































And back on the sleeper bus for an extended 17-hour ride home.






Sleeper bus drops us off at the side of the highway in Shenzhen where we had to try and figure out how the hell to get to the Shenzhen bus station to catch our next bus back home to Huizhou... a cab ripped us off but we got there and just in time! ;0)