Ben, keeper of the commerant

Shower songs to date: a surgeon and a doc from scrubs, powertrip by monster magnet!

Actually Hong Kong, im an idiot

Hello everyone, it is day three here and we finally have some free time to do stuff. Day 1 and two were pretty uneventful as i was late leaving the airport on day one so missed my briefing and my meal, basically i got to Hong Kong and went to bed, though I'm still jet lagged so had very little sleep. The next morning i did get to have about two hours just wandering the streets, including the infamous Nathan road, looking for some electronic bargains, however i found myself saying 'coulda got that cheaper on ebay!' what a sad state of affairs. Had my first Chinese meal, porridge and noodles, however the porridge is slightly different from what I'm used to, with raw fish in it! Rather tasty though.

Boat cruise 1

         My fellow travelers are all very nice, and all much older too, I'm the only 'child of the 80's' here! They are Gis, Pear(?) Simon and Sarah. My guide is called Dragon Chang, what a legend name! He's also very friendly and knowledgeable.

      Day two was pretty much a bus to Guangzhou then lunch then a 13hr overnight train to Guilin, from where we got another Bus here (Yangshuo). Got to use a squat toilet though! Fun.

Yangshuo is a very nice beautiful town, far less pressured and Tourist orientated than Hong Kong (a few hours in Hong Kong was enough for me i think).It is set amongst the picturesque scenery of huge limestone Karsts(basically big mountains). Got a bit of an insight into true rural culture today, courtesy of a wander around Yangshuo park, which was literally packed with groups of men playing what appears to be Mah Jong. I stood out like a sore thumb! Also made a complete tit of myself trying to be clever and use my phrasebook to ask how much something was, yet didn't realise that i wouldn't understand the answer, so had to show her what i was trying to ask as i had no idea what she said! Oh well. Just got back from a tour of the Li river which was spectacular, saw several of the Karsts that are actually on the back of some of the national currency (oooh i hear you say!), including the nine horses and some others whose names i forgot. Also got my picture taken with some comerant, which for the uneducated are birds that have been trained to catch fish, yet have had their throats tied up so that once they catch the fish they cannot swallow them, and the fisherman just takes them from the bird. Honestly, we humans are lazy bastards aren't we, now were even getting bids to do our bidding!

Boat cruise 2

Thats pretty much i can be arsed to say for now,will try to upload some pictures asap.

Boat cruise 3

Me and my birds

My bunk

Park 1

Park 2

Squat

Streets

Streets 2

Streets 3

Yangshuo park

Yangshuo streets