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Southern-style Shampoo
This is how they do the head massage and shampoo down South. Sitting here with my feet on top of my shoes. For a person who used to love not wearing shoes at all in this kind of weather it's rough to wear and walk around in sandals all day - not that they're bad shoes. They're some of my best and most comfortable shoes. My hair feels nice on the back of my neck. Paul just took me to get a head massage at the best Salon in Daliang (not to be confused with Dalian as the only difference in spelling is the g in English but the characters are completely different). The massage itself was so relaxing that I fell asleep (or just about) but then afterwards the man who blowdried my hair literally took 4 minutes arranging my topmost hair trying to figure out where it was supposed to go on my head. Afterwards all I could think to tell Paul was "Camillo is better than him" to which he replied "of course!" The hairdry and shampoo was 15 kuai whereas Camillo's is 30 and I wondered if Paul was just saying that for the price but he said the exact same thing I was thinking. Camillo is so careful
Small Waterfountain
A small waterfall at Qing Hui Yuan with every single head to me it's like he has magical hands - and that's the reason I love watching him work. I often want to tell him never to lose this skill.
As we pass over a bridge with boats of all shapes and sizes lounging in the water beneath I am reminded of the fish and turtles that sat lounging in the water at the two temple complexes we saw today. The gold images of the Bodhisattva hall - with hundreds of Bodhisattvas one after the othe rin different poses based on how they're remembered with their paintings or with different animals or standing chatting to so many others.
As the darkness begins to settle I'm reminded of the sharp greenery of nature all around these beautiful complexes.
Today Paul and I went to two temples - Qinghui Yuan - where we got to meet a Chinese painter of a whole lot of monkeys which were on display there. I got to take a picture with him. There was also a group of small caves that we got to walk through. It was really nice to walk around with Paul. He knows no more Yueyu
Temple entrance
The entrance to Baolingshi. (that's what Cantonese is called in Cantonese) that I so at a couple of points I had to translate for him or him for me. Being aorund me reminded him of the Salon boys, and same vice versa, so we talked about the boys and hunan dialect and spoke some Dalian dialect together. As a roommate of mine here in the hostel said it must have been strange for people to see us because I was speaking Mandarin and he was speaking English. Every now and again I would say something in English and he wouldn't understand, thus leading me back to speaking Mandarin.
As I sit here now in my upper bunk staring across at two sleeping bodies and one man playing with his fingers in thought the Cantonese music that I bought with Paul is being played and reminding me of the ever so short bus ride from Daliang back to Guangzhou, half an hour, that I took while writing the first part of this entry. When I got back I went to buy a bus ticket to take me to Zhaoqing tomorrow and then got a little lost on the way back - having gone to
Paul at the temple
This is a wonderful HUGE temple I went to with Paul. It's four levels. Here he is in front of it. the wrong exit at my stop on the metro. I made it most of the way before it started, for the first time in China, pouring. I ran a little way but then walked the rest and ended up walking into the hotel a bitt drenched, which made them laugh.
I came into the hotel and met two nice me staying in the room. One is from England and about 6'5" and the other an average height Japanese man who is traveling the world for 10 months (I'd sort of love to do that but it would definitely get tiring). They were nice - the Japanese man was a bit left out due to his level of English - although I tried to include him. The British man and I went to dinner. Everyone there was shocked at my Mandarin and kept wishing to talk but I was able to speak with the British man some. It was a good dinner of rice and eggplant with some meat and a soupy spicy tomato sauce.
Supposedly it's an international holiday but I have still yet to figure out which one.
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