Guigang Furong Hotel

... for a river cruise this afternoon - the Li River this time. Tomorrow is an all day bike ride - more blinkin exercise!!! Still haven't twigged that I'm not on a 3 week holiday yet... seems like I've been away ages. Can't believe this part is nearly over - its been a real experience but I have to be honest... I'm looking forward to sun and english speakers. Later!

... night at home - always ordering too much from the local favourite take away. The fellow travelers stationed there were also on the level, and of a standard that I had not come into contact with.. maybe they were a little older, maybe a little wiser to the world and one's impact upon it, or perhaps just more matured to life on the road.. An Aussie guy with his 3 kids, all having mini-adventures of their own in this historically packed country.. what better way to start the school ...

... planet, i found the bus station we needed, only 3 mins walk fron where we started! We got our bags, then went back to the bus station, then tried to book an overnite sleeper coach to Guilin. what a nightmare that was! as well as the chinese not knowing what queing up is (many people simply walked in front of me whiloe i was stood at the kiosk!) we also had trouble telling the woman where we wanted to go, and how much iy would be! By now ...

... in England. It's all relative, I suppose, but this place actually did feel like a small town for the fact that the 300,000 were spread out over quite a large area due to the spectacular scenery of the region. Mostly flat plains and paddy fields, the countryside is broken by green, winding rivers and towering limestone pinnacles rising abruptly out of nothing, as if dropped from the sky. Strange and beautiful, they interrupted the ...

... of eating in bloody West st. As a matter of fact, this was probably a mistake. Why? The meal was cool and the company great. Dining with two cute local girls. Can't say I've done that in a while. The mistake turned out that we'd be riding home in the dark. Ever ridden on a tandem bike on a poorly maintained highway with no street lights? I don't recommend it. The girls were petrified. I was merely ******** myself. One cool thing though was that they both ...

Hey Hey and a Big G'Day to you I finally made it back to Tianyang after a fantastic weekend in Guigang to welcome in the New Year. I caught the 4:20pm train last night that left Guigang well after 5pm and made it into Baise around 11:30pm or so. Here I sat on the side of the road trying to flag down buses for well over two hours ...

Hey Hey and a Big G'Day to you Just returned from a fantastic weekend in Guigang. Last time we were in Nanning we met up with some teachers that Leeanne knew and they invited us to their fair city for beer and bbq. Being the good Aussies that we are we accepted. After school Friday I caught a bus to Pingguo...did anybody notice something in what I just wrote...no, I said 'I caught A bus', meaning ONE bus the entire way ...

Miscreant Musings 'Twas the night before Xmas, And all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, Not even the noisy bugger upstairs. The hammer drill being used in the apartment above me has momentarily stopped. Every morning on the stroke of 8:30 the noise begins; hammering, drilling, sawing and other construction related sounds. It is an annoying cacophony through which it is impossible to sleep. Sometimes I feel like marching up the stairs, kicking down ...

Brass Monkey Weather It's cold. But it's not the toothache-inducing, mind-numbing, body-freezing cold of a Canadian winter, you know, the kind where your boogers turn to nasal pebbles as soon as you step outdoors. The kind where if you're a male you're afraid to get 'caught short' because going for a pee means rummaging through three or four layers of clothing (including button up the front long-johns). The kind where if you're outside and your teeth are beginning to float ...

... git for making some poor old lady pedal you all over town for a measly couple of Yuan. Having said all this, there is really only one fundamental problem with the public transportation system in Guigang. Nobody seems to know the timetable. I'm sure that this is an exaggeration, somebody, somewhere, must have a reasonable idea of when the buses run and where they go. I just haven't met him yet. Not being able to put together a reasonable facsimile of a question ...