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Hi,
We have now reached Hong Kong and have been here for the last 4 days. A very nice city where we are suddenly the poor people. I feel like sitting in the subway begging for money. The people here are very friendly, especially the Indians who keep asking to make me a suit. I have spent the last 4 days saying 'no thanks' so often I should tape it. If I stopped to speak to these people I would be spending the next year with 20 suits and an arm full of fake Tag and Rolex watches. Wouldn't be a problem though as I could carry them in all my fake designer bags!
The last time Nicola wrote we were in Yangshuo. A beautiful village about the size of Hatherleigh with 30,0000 people living there. I loved it, especially the fact that I could fill a bucket with sweat after every movement and I made a lot of Mosquito friends. It was great though and the nicest part of China we visited.
We took a cooking course as I felt that Nicola had room for improvement. The highlight was the trip to the local market to buy the food we would cook. Our very Chinese chef Richard (he was a local) picked our meal from such delights as Dog, this came fresh or for the man on the go already roasted and on a spike, frog, there were bags of them jumping around, or turtles swimming in their tanks. We opted for dried Bamboo Rats and Ox tripe. Lovely jubly!
Only kidding, we had a very good course and eat some lovely food made in Richards apartment overlooking rice fields and mountains. If we learn Mandarin we may be able to put some photos on here to show you.
After cooking we headed straight to the river to watch the locals fish using Cormorants. They dive down and catch the fish and with the help of some string around their necks cough them up into a basket. Thats just the fisherman, you should see the Cormorants do it! Very weird and fun to watch. It also gave the flies another chance to eat a foreigner.
We spent the next two nights in a farmhouse in a small village without any of the usual comforts such as TV, air con or the chance of sleep during the night. Nothing too important! It was one of my favorite places. Listening to the girls screams of 'Spider' or 'Frog' in their rooms was a lot of fun while we played pool and had a beer. The first day we had a bike ride through some of the most amazing scenic countryside we have seen. We had lunch in a local farmers house before exploring a cave and getting very wet and muddy. A really enjoyable day!
We took a couple of local buses into the hills next for some welcome relief from the heat and a chance to hike the Longii rice terraces and stay in the minority peoples villages. It was very isolated and the scenery spectacular, ruined for the locals by our group turning up and drinking through the night. We all had a great time and the local Zhang people put on a show for us of singing and dancing while we drank their plum wine. It was a shame to leave such a lovely place and head for the city again but Hong Kong was up next.
So after a month in China I feel I have nearly eaten as much Chinese food as Matty Adams does in a week and we are ready to head to Vietnam. Its been a great experience and we have both loved every minute.
Thats it for now as must go and get ready for going to dinner with Nicola's friends Rima and Minesh tonight. I am sure I donated our hostel room to the Blue Peter Shoe box appeal back in 1985 and its not changed since.
Cheers
Michael
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