Tuesday, 4th October 2005

Hey Hey and a Big G'Day to you
OK, so I gave in and took a trip to Lingyun after saying I wasn't going to. After giving my bike a good thrashing on Saturday, Sunday and Monday I got bored, the bug bit and I packed my small pack and caught the road side bus to Baise. I was going to go to Jingxi but decided on Lingyun instead. Bus trip took around three and a tad hours. I arrived as it was getting dark and after booking into the same hotel as last time I headed out for a town walk.

As soon as I turned the corner five children around the age of 9 and 10 ran up to me and surrounded me as I walked up the street. They took me to the huge tea pot and tea cup and we sat and done our best to talk. One of them had not so bad English which was surprising. We then headed across to have Joutsa. A couple of them ran to get their Chinese English teacher whom came by for a short visit but she was too shy to talk much and the children done most of the talking. As soon as it was their home time I walked slowly back down the main street and sat at the little bbq area outside my hotel and read for an hour or so until a couple of Chinese students came to sit with me. One of them was named Slatter, his English was pretty cool. We shared beers and bbq and talked until my hotel wanted to shut the steel shutters. I thought this was a good time to say good night. We made plans to meet again on Friday.

Wednesday, 5th October 2005

Slept in and after a shower I headed out for a walk in the beautiful sunshine. I really love this town. It is just adorable. It is set amongst the crazy mountains, it is small, not dirty and the air is clean. I was met by some of the children from last night whom were around the corner waiting for me. Made me feel horrible for sleeping in. They took me on a walk along the towns canals. We headed out of town for a short distance and then walked back in again.

One of the kids wanted me to come and meet their family. We headed down to towards the BBQ Street and I was introduced to a huge crowd of people. I joined the 'males table' and soon the beer was flowing. Luckily for me Slater and friends were walking by and came over to save me. They also explained to me that I was at a funeral feast and the family wanted me to return each day I was there as it would continue of several days. I said my thank yous and accepted their invitation and we headed towards the mountain pagodas with several children following.

We met one of the children's sisters on the way and she joined us as we walked the many stairs to the top of the hill. There we sat and caught our breath before I had to take a million photos of the children sitting and posing all over the top of the mountain. It was a heap of fun. Here I found out that Slatter was an 'artist'. He wrote poetry and had even had one book published. I gave him my schools address and hoped he would send me a copy of his book. Maybe Mandy or Yang Yang could translate it and read it to me.

We left the pagoda late in the afternoon and the guys left for home. I was taken to the sisters house to drink tea and watch television with the children skipping along behind. For dinner I was taken back to rejoin the family funeral feast. There I stayed for many hours. A few of us left and headed down to BBQ Street for meat sticks and beer.

Thursday, 6th October 2005

I headed for Joutsa for breakfast where I met four Medical Students from Baise. They told me several more students had come to Lingyun for their National Day (Week) holiday and that most of them knew some English. They were leaving after breakfast. I asked them the direction to the cave that was nearest Lingyun. I wanted to walk and they were rather shocked. But it will take you an hour to walk. I told them I considered an hour a short walk. They laughed gave me direction and they headed to the bus station. I headed the other way and in around one hour and twenty minutes I reached the little park that housed the cave.

The cave was just as beautiful as the guide whom took me and another Chinese family through. She only knew a small amount of English and with the families fathers encouragement she walked bise me and tried her best to describe the caves history and funny shaped thingamabobs. The cave took nearing an hour to walk through and at the end the father from the family invited us to eat lunch with them. His English was to find was incredible as he had worked in America for many years off and on.

My beautiful had to return to work and the family headed to their car. I declined their offer of a ride back to Lingyun and I headed out into the fields and into the next little village. I said a million 'Hellos' and played soccer with some of the children before walking back to Lingyun. I decided to head up the mountains to walk the five pagoda walk that Slatter had pointed out to me the day before. This took you up the huge mountains that towered over the little one we walked to the top of. The walk took several hours and my knee began to hurt again. This had happened on the way down from the Mingyong Glacier. It did then; it got worse as the day went on.

I finally made it to the last Pagoda where I met several more Medical Students from Baise. I joined them for photos and we then continued to walk up, over and around the other side of the mountain. Here we sat watching workers as they built a new road on the hill side. I sat in shocked amazement as the fact that it was all down with manual labour. It had already taken many years to build what was in view. The families lived in tents further up the road. I took some photos to remind myself never to complain about anything again. I was shocked at the way they had to live.

The students and I headed back down the hill. When we reached the bottom we all decided on KTV for dinner at their hotel. Here I found that the two girls, Jiang Mei and Arden were students and the guy worked for the government in Lingyun. They had all been college buddies. Arden has since changed her name to Zero (I write this on Monday, 27th February 2006). The three of us keep in contact several times a week, usually. I am yet to find another person whom has a more beautiful smile than Zero and a bigger heart than Jiang Mei. Jiang Mei does her best to help the students in the little villages around her little village; she will soon become a Dentist and Zero a Doctor. I'm unsure what time we all walked to my hotel and began bashing on the steel rails out front. Luckily for me they walked me home as no one came to rescue me. Zero (Arden) rang the number on the door and soon the gates were unlocked. I said my good nights and we planned to meet for breakfast in a few hours.

Friday, 7th October 2005

The alarm went off at 7:00am. I felt like I had just got home. After a shower I headed down stairs and across the road to meet the others. We then hired a van and driver for the day and headed out to visit a tea farm. It was just beautiful. It was like viewing rice terraces but it was in fact tea trees. We sat for tea tasting and I was in love! The tea was just beautiful. The morning aged and soon it was afternoon. We headed back to Lingyun for lunch. Around mid afternoon the girls wanted to head to the top of the small Pagoda Hill. My knee was too sore by now and we all hugged good bye. I went back to the hotel, packed and grabbed the next bus back to Baise. When I returned to Tianyangs town square where I always get off the bus, I heard my friends yelling across from the market place. I headed across and joined them for dinner and beer. It had been a beautiful National Week. I have visited Lingyun several times since and will continue to return as long as I live in Tianyang. It is such a pretty and relaxing place. I would have stayed to spend the weekend with the girls but I had to return to begin teaching the following day. What a pity!