Triumphal Hotel Anshun

... br>The best bit about yesterday has to be that Tom went out looking for dinner whilst i grabbed a shower, and when he came back, he had chips and sausage! We have eaten nothing but noodles and rice with spicy food stuffs for 10 days to finally have something mildly english, was amazing. Even if the chips were under-cooked, and the sausage over-cooked. Oh well.<br><br>We're off to Kunming today on a train, heading south to Laos.

... and the guide gives lots of explanations in chinese, so we just enjoy the views and the smell of blooming rice plants. After that, we go to Malin Gorge, a beautiful gorge with cliffs of more than 100 meters high and many waterfalls feeding Maling river. It's a fairytale landscape. We get a long walk by the riverside, and enter some of the natural caves in the cliff. We get completely soaked again, but it is worth it. From down the river up the ...

... especially in tourist areas when talking about handicraft it is expected and even basically done for you. Our rule is, if there isn't a written price then there's no price at all really. And if there is a written price, take it lightly. We chuckled more and went over the individual prices with her. She named them all, raising her voice to a shriek and wouldn't budge. By now neighbors, all middle-aged Bouyi women in traditional dress, were coming around ...

... to fog up from the mist thrown up by the waterfall. There's so much water in the air we can taste the river. The water is low now, and I wonder how people can take pictures in the high summer season without drenching their equipment. We ascend the mossy, well-worn steps that lead to a hole behind the water curtain. This takes us to a reinforced path with dangerously low, toddler-height barriers, a sort of dragon's lair behind the watery plunge. Behind ...

... whizzed by at high speed. Eventually, just as our muscles started to finally relax, we heard a sound of locking gears and screeching tires: "THE tired engine has ceased!" We fish tailed across the highway, veering from lane to lane until finally the clutch was pulled and the bike regained its stability. We came to a stop on the side of the road and pushed the bike to a safe place while traffic was wheezing by! In shock we waited a few minute before our next move ...

... spices and they still arrived covered in the usual pepper and dry chilly that we find everywhere here. There were some delicious potato-cakes at another stall, something like hash-browns cooked in chilli powder, but Yoong did succeed this time in getting some without the chilli. Earlier in the day we had bought some lovely fresh strawberries from a street vendor and we'd brought some along for dessert. Our internet information told us the entrance price to the ...

... s predictions, there was no sign of rain today and the weather was quite warm. I started the day wearing four shirts and a jumper, but ended up taking off all but two shirts. First stop was the lower Dragon Caves, where boats took us through a network of colourfully lit caves with stalactites and stalagmites in the shape of dragons, bunches of grapes and various other forms according to the Chinese imagination. Then we went to an above-ground cave which was used ...

... gweilos were not allowed. The usual excuse - not "hygienic" enough for foreigners. The next one, at Y128, was acceptable but it was hard to communicate with the staff. We ended up at the Hang Do Hotel, a two-star hotel opposite the station, with nice rooms for the special price of Y158, including breakfast. The room reminded us of City Garden, where we lived for two years in Hong Kong, but the only non-Chinese TV channel was French, presumably ...

... or two, they are as interested in our Western teaching methods as they are in learning English. Of course there are those, like in any class, who don't show up or only show up in the physical sense. But, that's life. We have our favorite foods and restaurants, now. We eat chow mien or fried rice at a Uighar (a Muslim minority) place near us four or five times a week. They are friendly and patient with us when we venture to order other ...

... bit daunting to try and fill their shoes, it has been great to hear all about the site, and the people there who will be daily fixtures in our lives. Many more things of note have happened, but I've gotten all the important stuff out. We will be in Guiyong without internet service for a week (we'll have it when we actually move in, though), so this is it for a while again. Oh, our host family's dog, Dou Dou, had a puppy. There's a picture in the photo album!