beerfish

nothing much to report at foshan, until i picked spanna up. otherside we were just chillin or drinkin or eating at the muslim place and stretched noodles! it was great to see span at the airport and i had a big sign so she's know who i was. we trekked back to foshan. the remaining time was spent drinking again, and buying bus tickets.

we had a bit of a nightmare when we went to go to the embassy to vote. it had moved, but we had the new address only in english (no chinese). so we were looking for the old place with the new address only in english. then we found the old place, discovered it was no longer there and went with a taxi to the new place (60 kwai later). BUT it was awesome to be able to vote in china, and i'm glad to know my vote will count.

after the consulate episode, we headed back to the main city and to some markets. a bit hungry we sought a noodle shop and foudn one. we ordered what looked safest and got some awesome soup, lovely noodels, scruptious vegies... and intestines on top... whihc we left. other than noodles - jiaozi have been serving us well.

for the rest of the day we chilled in the orchid garden which was near the train station. we left a bit early and had to wait a while for our train.
it was fun to be on a sleeper train again, i think we'll take heaps more of them. it was comfortable, warm and takes you to a new place overnight! i thought it was a bit like a cot and being rocked to sleep.

we found some australians on the way off the train and onto the next bus to yangshou. it was good to hear familiar voices, there are very few tourists around. yangshou is a city set in rice paddies on the river, with karst limestone mountains all around (same as halong bay). it is really nice, and kind of eerie with these huge peaks rising up from everywhere.
we hired bikes after being harrassed at our hostel and high tailed it out of town. we hadnt been anywhere rural in china, and it makes such a difference. there were still heaps of touts at the touristy places and trucks beeping at us everywhere, but the air is a bit cleaner and you feel completely dwarfed by the steep limestone cliffs.

we headed to a lookout up a huge stair climb and had a great view in every direction. we ate our $1.20 dragon fruit up there as well.

we ended up meandering home, eating beer fish (a local dish of fish cooked in beer and vegies) at a joint near the river, and then looking in at all the markets and farmers markets. we might go for a shop and some jiaozi (dumplings) now and maybe some beers at a rooftop cafe. noice.

tomorrow i think we are planning on catching a bus up to 2 towns away, walking to the middle one (24km) and coming back by boat. were really not eating that much - except for heaps of fruit - because we are always on the go. its quite hard to find safe food because its impossible to read any of the chinese. i guess in yanshou there are a lot more english menus - its nice to try the local specialities...

love to all - onto yunnan next, i think...

to china

its been a fantastic few days. we stayed at ko chang's porn bungalow (where i was on teh net last) for about 3 nights. it was quite relaxed and we walked along the coast for meals, swims and adventure. we read a lot. i think ellas read 3 books. one day we went inland to a waterfall which was beautiful. we sat on the rock ledge eating fruit and reading in the shade, occassionally going for a swim, but nothing too tiring. 3 days ago we headed to the other side of the island to the remote 'treehouse II'/ its a huge eating area set right on the waters edge (at high tide) on its own beach and tiny bungalows. there was a real hippie commune atmosphere, and we did.. nothing. really we read, and slept, and talked with fellow travellers, ate a lot and went exploring. the highlight was probably last night when we went for a sunset swim. the red sun dipping out across the clear warm waters. very nice - and fish for dinner!today we spent entirely in transit, from the half hour taxi to the boat, the 40 minute boat, the wait for the bus, the 7 hour bus, the broken down bus, but finally in our hostel at about 6pm. now we wait for jesse. we will hopefully rendevous at the lava bar in khao san, but first, ella and i will have one last dinner as just the two of us before the zanker arrives. will be great to see him! thanks for the messages!

now, off to china.

ko samet and beyond

Ahh relaxment!
Ella and I have spent about 4 days on the beach doing jack all!
We left Bangkok the next morning after we got in and jumped on a bus to ko samet, which was easy enough. We were on the island by about 3 but had a bit of trouble finding the place we wanted to stay, but it was eventually worth it! It was absolutely beautiful. Picture a small beach about 30 m long with white sand and jungle right down to the beach. We were staying in a small bungalow about 5 metres from the high tide mark. We were the only hotel on this beach. Beautiful – and the water was magic! (it was called Ao Nuan for anyone wondering). We were originally going to spend only 1 night there, but ended up staying for 3 because we didn’t find anywhere better!
We basically lay on the beach (got sunburnt – ouch!), ate beautiful thai food, slept, had a few beers, ate more, swam more, read our books and ate more. We always wanted to go out and have a few drinks but never really managed it – theres not really any reason to anyway. We saw a fire show one night, but that was about the extent of the adventure! It was seriously just a relax time.
Yesterday we spent the day travelling to Ko Chang. It’s a much larger island, about 50km in circumference and a lot more developed. We did find a nice place though – Porn Bungalows, which has a 2 tier dining area straight over the beach. Last night we sat on chairs on the high tide mark (its shallow for a long way) and ate pinapple curry with chicken, basil and chilli wide noodles, papaya salad and beers and cocktails! It was awesome. I think we might try and do some more adventurous stuff here, maybe some walking in the jungle to waterfalls, and might even go snorkeling or something. Theres so much to do – maybe even ride an elephant!
Everything is so easy and relaxing, and its great to let our hair down before we begin some serious (and colder) travel. Missing everyone, and very much looking forward to meeting up with all the trevl partners!
Photos to come!