Hey Hey and a Big G'Day toya,
 
What a beautiful evening!
Amigo and I chatted our way through until seven in the morning.
It was such a wonderful time, full of happiness and a new found friendship.
 
Soon the house was waking around us and we all then headed out for a local breakfast soup which neither Amigo or I liked much. It was gravy. Seriously, it was just like gravy but with chilli in it to pep it up a bit. There were no noodles, just gravy! Luckily there was a thin crusty bread to dip in.
 
That was nice!
Amigo and I opted for a few tea eggs along with the bread instead.
 
After saying a big thankyou and good bye to the guys we began our journey back to Kaifeng. Poor Amigo was so tired that her near awesome English had flipped and she was calling buses trees and the day night etc. It was so funny to experience, one day almost perfect, the next like a young child.
 
We slept and chatted our way home and after grabbing a few burgers we headed to the coolness of my hotel room where we curled up and slept most of hot afternoon away. When Amigo headed home to help her mother for a few hours I headed to the Yangqing Taoist Temple which can be found on Dazhifang Jie just passed Zhongshan Lu. My hotel can be found somewhere between them.
 
Just as I paid my 15 Yuan entrance fee my mother called to see how life was.
I hurried inside to escape the street noise and sat in the temples peacefulness happily chatting.
 
After saying good bye I then noticed how beautiful the temple really was. Both the temple and the Jade Emperor Tower were first built in AD 1033 during the Yuan Dynasty (AD 1206 to 1368). The Jade Emperor Tower is eighteen meters high and built in three layers. Until 1985 when the site was excavated, only two layers could be seen. The temple grounds, like everything in Kaifeng had been victim of continuous flooding.
 
To enter the tower you now have to walk down a small set of stairs that takes you five meters down to the entrance.
 
I left the temple feeling very happy and dropped into a phone store and gave Li Ping (Joyce) a call. The poor girl was so hot as she is teaching summer school and had just finished the day's classes. She told me to hurry home so we could spend the evenings in air-conditioned eateries and at my house playing cards and watching DVD's. It was great to hear her voice again and I'm looking forward to her happy smile and our evenings together.
 
After the temple I began journeying around 'that' part of town until thunder could be heard in the near distance. Soon lightening flashes could be seen and a charge soon filled the air. My first thought was to head to a Net Bar but I didn't remember passing any. So I headed back up the road to my friendly little eatery for dinner instead. Before I reached it huge gusts of wind seized the city and signs and other metal objects were being knocked over or thrown through the air.
 
Luckily I made it to the eatery unharmed but crashes could be heard for the next several minutes.
 
Then the rain began. Wow! It was huge! As I chatted to my friend and ate vegetables and meat it rained and rained and rained and never let up for the next hour. Then it suddenly stopped and only silence could be heard. My friend and I then ran to the nearest Net Bar and there I stayed for the next several hours.
 
I had no choice as it was pouring rain with so much force that it was impossible to leave.
When I did finally leave I was greeted by a sight I was not expecting!
 
Everyone was walking around the city in water up to their knees. It really was an amazing sight. No streets could be seen and all the shops had been flooded. This is supposedly a normal occurrence this time of year my friend told me. Kaifeng has been flooded three hundred and sixty eight times in seven hundred and forty years. This was just a little rain! We went our separate ways and I giggled to myself as I wandered towards my hotel.
 
All around me I could hear people yelling the same question to people over the road or into their phone. 'Do you know where there is an eatery open so we can get noodles?'
 
I just made up that question but I did understand the 'Where is and Noodles'. There must have only been two or three eateries that remained open and I found a place amongst the millions to sit and slurp my late night feast of 'Wei Mein' (strangely shaped flat and thick noodles).
 
It was funny that the power was out, all the roads and stores were flooded and all anyone could think about was eating noodles.
 
Mate I love China!
 
Thankfully when I returned to my hotel we had power. I was so tired after the adventure to Zhongzhou that after grabbing a beer and taking a mouthful I fell straight to sleep and woke several hours later with the light still on and the beer in my hand.
 
Thankfully I love beer so much that in my sleep I still won't spill it.
Ha Ha!
 
Beers N Noodles toya.....shane.
_________________________
The soundtrack to this entry was the most awesomely funkin 'Phunk Junkeez!'
The album was 'Injected'