Liabo Golden Palace Dongguan

... Five Horse Meadow Temple. Of course I was the only one who was prepare for hiking, as I had actual hiking boots rather than sandals or nearly slippers as some others in our group did. So when we reached the trail I forged ahead and got some nice quite hiking time all to myself. It was very beautiful, other than the heaps of trash everywhere, and I could only imagine the beauty that it once held.

The Five Horse Temple was not quite what I expected but it had an ...

Our short day trip to LongGang turned out to be an all day trip.

First the GPS system did not work very well. As Amy tries to drive in the China traffic, Eric tries to understand and give clearer directions with the Chinese GPS. We did bring our Garmin GPS system, but the Garmin maps are all wrong, so we had to rent a local Chinese GPS system.

it took us about 1 hrs to go to LongGang, which is only about 50km from where we are staying in Shenzhen, this is ...

... about finding a place to live. I looked at a place in Tai Po through the week. When the real estate agent said one room, I thought she meant one bedroom. It was such a small place, just one room with a kitchen the size of a broom cupboard and as hot as hell. It wasn’t terribly cheap either. I could have hung on and just waited for something to come up and that would probably have been the best idea, however, I wanted to get it over with and move in somewhere.

... almost swim through the air. The park is really nice and the cycleway to Tai Me Tuk goes along the waters edge. I visited an Insect information house, but didn’t see any insects looking for information, and climbed a lookout tower. I’d been walking for over a couple of hours and the heat and humidity was doing me in so I laid down in the shade of a tree. I didn’t intend to fall asleep but woke up feeling bloody awful. Walking back to Tai Po Central ...

... We asked the waitress how many foreigners come into the restaurant and she said we were the first three she's ever seen. We drank this snake liquor that was pretty horrible at first. After dinner we went to get a massage. I asked that we go to the place that is in our hotel and it wound up being a beautiful place. They had a menu that has hamburgers and all kinds of other things on it ...

... it's because we are older and it's respect for age. Pretty nice. "Always been the same to me, That's the way it must be, Headed down theat dusty trail again." Sunday we went to the Peak - walked from new Star Ferry pier (alas) through the throngs of Filipinas on their day off and on up the hill to the tram entrance. The Peak was as always, wonderful, with stunning views across the city. While we were there we were approached by some "tourist spys" - children ...

... Pakistan, Somalia, Phillipines, China, Australia, and who knows where from sub-Sahara Africa. Took the famous CKM stairs - in Leslie's word, "gritty." One huge difference between traveling now and in the past is that now we are in touch with people in the U.S., Cambodia, and Thailand. In the former times, traveling put us out of touch and out of time.. The up side of this is that we are in touch and the down side is that we are in touch and somehow a little more in time.

... been in. Everything seems to be done on a bigger scale here. In fact the nighttime city reminded me of one of those futuristic, post-apocalyptic supercities in sci-fi films - like Mad Max or Blade Runner. When I woke up this morning, I rather missed my lovely, airy house, my soft bed, the friends, both old and new, who I had left behind in Brisbane, and I wondered, a little, what on earth I was ...

... Repeated failures of process, colleagues who don't pull their weight and incompetence can't be outweighed long term by the good stuff - unless you're committed in other ways. What's even more interesting is to watch people come into an environment where others have subconciously developed an emotional attachment and made a psychological investment. Seeing an individual arrive and intelligently ...

... off to the Stanley street markets. Which people apparently come to Hong Kong just to visit. I brought 2 pendants and a mobile phone holder. I wish I had brought more stuff but I guess that's why Ill have to go back! All very cheap!!! Then we went to the top of one of the mountains and were carried down by a Cog-Railway train, which was uncomfortable but fun. Anyhow Im off now for lunch and to see if I can hunt down those DVD's Nathan wants... I just got back from wandering around for a ...