Hey Hey and a Big G'Day to you

HHHhhhhuuummm...um...I...um...Yangshuo....

...what can I say to excuse myself....

I'd like to tell you about the Black Buddha Cave, the Water Cave, Yuulong He, water gardens full of splendour, Green Lotus Peak (another damn Lotus...thing!) and Man and Lady Hills. I'd also like to fill your head full of details of watery romantic adventures along the Li River, markets full of colourful foods and aromas, minority peoples full of smiles as they bargain a price comfortable for both

(they win, you lose! But hey, you get to walk away with a....colourful thing....that you can do...stuff with...why did I buy this again? What I should have purchased was the pair of 'original' Leevy Straus 502's I walked past back there!)....

I'm afraid to say peoples, this time around in Yangshuo I saw my 'not so fluffy pillow' by day and MC Blues Café by night. I met a hell of a lot of good people from all over the world, ate a lot of Western Food from all over Yangshuo (oh my poor stomach had no idea what to do with it!), listened to some damn fine music (thanks to Derik's remarkable collection) and drank copious amounts of good clean cheap Chinese beer.

Hey, it's refreshing after a good days sleep! Man needs a good beer after a good days sleep...you've never heard of that one? Old Chinese proverb from the Tianyang area from around 2005AD.

This time around In Yangshuo I spent my time with people.

I filled my nights, well, early mornings until the 'later' early mornings chatting to the English Students that fill the Cafés in Yangshuo over the summer break. It's like a pilgrimage. Each year they flock from the Nanning/Guilin area universities to work for free in Yangshuo Cafes. Why for free? So they can talk to us, people like you and I whom speak English as their native tongue. They are young, vibrant, full of genuine interest in our world and if their tongues could manage it and/or if you would allow them, they would ask a million questions every minute they are with you.

After sunrise, we would go for a breakfast of Joutsa and answers.

You would shuffle the food in your mouth between the Joutsa and the never ending supply of answers demanded of you. No, it's not that bad, if you didn't want to be there you wouldn't be, you would have politely left hours ago. Me, I love China and being a teacher here I love to give the answers to the 'what's this, what's that, how say this, what this mean' questions. Or as some of my younger students would say 'Arrrr, hello/goodbye' questions. They would be pointing at something of interest but not know what or how to ask so they say the only three words millions of Chinese know...Ok, hello or goodbye.

The pointing action makes it a question that requires a genuine answer.

After breakfast we would make our way to the river, jump in fully clothed and be carried away by the current. When the rocks on the bottom begin to connect with your knees, legs, arms and head you quickly find yourself rather sober and desperately trying to doggie paddle your way to the rivers edge, be it the right one or wrong one.

I do remember making it to Moon Hill and climbing it for my 4th time in a daze after 2 hours sleep.

Hey I've plenty of photos from up there, I can look at them when my memory requests it! My visit to Yangshou was a special time. One not spent racing around the place on a bicycle or going from market to market or magical view spot to magical view spot. It was spent amongst people. Might have been spent sitting in pretty much the same bar each night, but each night the people change, the students change, the food got better and the music even better.

I met Mickey for the first time when I was in Yangshuo five years ago.

When it was a tiny little place for long term travellers to kick their heels off, sit back and watch a DVD whilst eating their first Western Food for many months. It was up the other end of town and I would sit and contemplate life and my diary dates and what I had done on which date. Nothing changes, I still can't keep a decent diary which is why I fill my diaries full of jibber. But people like my jibber, it seems to make them comfortable in some strange way, I like to jibber so we all seem to be happy.

This time I can thank Mickey and Canadian Derik for another wonderful time in Yangshuo.
Guess I'll be back again real soon!

Beers N Noodles toya...shane