This entry may be censored....

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Hey!

Again, I've been slack and offline for ages, and now I have too much to tell you and not enough time to say it all. So, in the interests of internet brevity, and my own sanity please find a 5 weeks in China executive summary and a fun Chinese quiz below:

Yangshou - a 'unique' landscape equalled only by Halong bay (Vietnam) and Krabi (Thailand) was lovely, though I was there when GOLDEN WEEK hit - and about 120,000 chinese tourists descended on a city with only 50,000 beds. So I left and went to:

Dali City - where I stayed longer than I anticipated due to travel companion dramas, delicious food and a very comfortable hostel (not in that order).

Lijiang and Tiger Leaping Gorge - no tiger leaped that gorge, but it was beautiful.

Chengdu: Not much to see in the city, but the biggest buddha in the world right nearby and a mystical mountain that thwarted me with rain and evil monkeys.

If you are ever going to visit China or are interested in Chinese culture, maybe you'd like to try the following CHINESE QUIZ (created during recent 34 hour and 59 hour train rides):

1. On a Chinese squat toilet, you face:
a) The door
b) The wall
c) Door? Wall? I just squat over the trough and try to pretend that I'm invisible to the 20 Chinese women waiting in line laughing at the colour of my arse

2. In Yunnan Province, why would you NOT buy Marijuana
a) You would probably get shot
b) Why buy it when you can pick it from the edges of the fields

3. Why doesn't anyone steal the flowers in pots from the displays in most Chinese town squares?
a) Everyone appreciates the artistry of the gardeners and believes that it should be a community display
b) You would probably get shot

4. What liquid is most likely to poison you in China?
a) Milk
b) Beer
c) Bottled Water
d) All of the above

5. Why do Chinese babies/toddlers all wear 'split-pants' (crotchless trousers)?
a) To harden them up for winter and train them for the squat toilets (see question 1)
b) So the rest of us can tell which gender they are

Needless to say the whole China experience has been brilliant! So much so that I decided to spend all my 'setting up back in Australia' money and come through Tibet to Nepal.

A nightmare to organise, but here I am, in Tibet - and while everything is calm on the surface (and it smells like yak butter) there is a huge military presence espeically at night and kids with guns (they are in army uniforms) on most of the roofs overlooking the temples. It has been spectacular so far - even including the much delayed 59 hour train ride to get here. Tomorrow we head on our 5 day jeep trip to the Nepalese border via Everest Base Camp.

More from Nepal. Love to you all!

Quiz answers: 1- a or c (depending on whether you want to be 'authentic chinese' and then you don't bother closing the door, squat any old way, spray at will and play around on your mobile phone) , 2 b, 3 b, 4 d (melamine, formaldahyde, excessive clorine respectively), 5 b.

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Comments

[Julianne]

Quiz Champ
Hey lovely thanks for your quiz - it's great timing cause work has a trivia night coming up this week and if there's any chinese-toilet/poisoning/dope related questions i'm going to shoe it in (beyond that i know some useless stuff about Elvis). Love reading your adventures and the fact that you went on a 59 hour train ride (or was it delayed for 59 hrs?) either way your hard core. How goes the showers? do you smell like a backpacker yet? Glad to see you put your 'setting-up-life' money towards something good - you're only there once, and when in Rome and all that! Keep smiling (and away from yakky drinks) Love jules xx