Yingshang Hotel Guangzhou

... we haggled for some jewellery and sarah is ruthless. we sat down at a table in a long hall of Chinese restaurants and tried duck and chicken bone dishes, then it hit, whitewash face of sarah dissapeared into the horizon of black bobbing cuts, she returned in a matter of seconds to only say a few words 'i vomited, in front of a chinese family, they ran away and squealed'. I looked perplexingly at her but we quickly ...

We caught a train from HK to Guangzhou on the 4th. Its a very hectic city. Lots of people, bikes, cars and buses. people riding bike on the road with ridiculous things tied to the back. we are staying on an island in the city named shamian. its very pretty, but a true tourist hub. our hostel is lovely. we thought that we were truely livinh the high life until we visited a hotel across the road that ...

Enjoyed our meetings and colleagues. Went to dinner at a typical Guangdong/Canton restaurant. Menu was very creative. Plenty of exotics - baby pigeon, sting ray, fish guts, beetles, snakes, chicken feet. Was a bit naseous, but likely because of jet lag.

... doesn't speak English nor does the lead of the sim-card mafia, but he jumps in the front seat after I negotiate 200 yuan for the ride into the city using the hotel's chinese character address. Guess he just made commission on me. 30 minutes to GZ city center

... As you can imagine I nearly had heart failure worrying! I had visions of him being turned back from China (this might have been a blessing in disguise!) and just when I thought he was gone forever a load of chinese people in white suits from head to toe (think astronaut) appeared from the room he was in......thankfully Ollie appeared a few minutes later looking unharmed but with a white mask clamped to his mouth...hilarious sight!

... luggage, I spent a miserable half hour desperately trying to find the train to Guangzhou. I could not refund my ticket, I had the wrong kind of money, and one ticket lady told me there were no more seats left to buy. I had already told Vivian I would be late because of missing my first train. Then I was afraid I would have to change it again and tell it would not be 6:30 but rather 10:00 when I arrived! By the time I changed my money (please ...

... other beautiful caves as well, including the Clearwater Cave, the longest cave passage in Asia. Also in the park is a 480 meter canopy walk, on a rather wobbly walk which truly tested my anxiety of heights. From Mulu I took a flight to Kota Kinabalu, via Miri. In KK I met the Swiss girl Gabriela and the guy German Max. Every night we ate great and cheap food at the large night market. The next day we took a ferry to the Tunku Abdul Rahman NP, and we went to Sapi Island. The ...

... celery and garlic. We also had noodles instead of rice. My favorite thing tonight was the dish with eggplant and garlic. The sauce was incredible. We also got napkins at this meal. They passed around a tiny box for each of us to get a napkin. I really have a difficult time with drinking hot tea when the temperature is so hot outside. The beer was cold and the room was air-conditioned. We got back to the hotel at 7 pm and took a ...

... provided rehabilitation services for children with Cerebral Palsy. The kids were so cute and were laughing and playing; I really wanted to pinch their cheeks! While we were there, our tour guides were speaking loudly, and I felt that we were being rude: I think it was storytime and a performance for the kids. Their families were watching them and they looked pretty ****** that we were intruding. We left the Centre and Peter led us towards dinner. Food again? Okay!

... Zenhai Tower and Yuexiu Park. After being dropped back at the hotel I ventured out for a walk by myself and arrived at one of the first McDonald's in China. Ordered a Big Mac meal by pointing at the placemats, did the calculations in my head, and came up with the theory that a Big Mac meal was about the same price in Australian dollars anywhere in the world. Had a surreal moment when sitting outside McDonald's I realised that I was listening to John Farnham singing.