Slept lightly last night, knowing I'd have to wake early. Meant I woke at every coming and going in the room, which was a lot! At 2.30am, the guy who had previously locked me out of the room got up and /fed/. This was not eating, it was feeding. Nuts or something. Rustle, rustle, crack-ack, munch, munch. Repeat for about 20min. With the light on. Chinese couple having a domestic at 5am outside the hostel. Get up.
Holy crap! I'm in Thailand! How did that happen?
A Chinese post-mortem: I liked China, loved the Chinese people, but I'm not sorry to leave. Definitely a country I will return to - even just to Yunnan, to see Lijiang, Dali, Shangri-la... After that there's Hong Kong, the Yangtze, Shanghai, the lesser parts of the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs. I kept missing my step while wandering China because I as so pre-occupied looking at everything around me. Even once on the bike.
Have to be careful on the roads though. To drive, one needs a mixture of confidence, daring and bullying. And it's impossible to bully anyone as a pedestrian, so you need a tonne of confidence!
Don't travel during festivals. Don't store vital info in Google Docs or Dropbox.
Bird & flower market in Yunnan - also the dogs, chicken, cats, etc. market.
Chinese hand counting:
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Holy crap! I'm in Thailand! How did that happen?
***
A Chinese post-mortem: I liked China, loved the Chinese people, but I'm not sorry to leave. Definitely a country I will return to - even just to Yunnan, to see Lijiang, Dali, Shangri-la... After that there's Hong Kong, the Yangtze, Shanghai, the lesser parts of the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs. I kept missing my step while wandering China because I as so pre-occupied looking at everything around me. Even once on the bike.
Have to be careful on the roads though. To drive, one needs a mixture of confidence, daring and bullying. And it's impossible to bully anyone as a pedestrian, so you need a tonne of confidence!
Don't travel during festivals. Don't store vital info in Google Docs or Dropbox.
***
Bird & flower market in Yunnan - also the dogs, chicken, cats, etc. market.
***
Chinese hand counting:
***
Met a lovely couple while checking in for the Bangkok flight. Paul & Sue, from England. Very pleasant to talk to. Chatted with them while waiting for immigration to open. They've spent a month in Yunnan, coming up to a year away. Both left their jobs under reasonable circumstances (gov't cutbacks) at the same time, so they rented out their house and just took off! So admirable. Both in maybe mid fifties. Met in India, returned there several times. Lovely people.
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Found hostel easily. No kitchen, no common room. Friendly girl behind the desk called Pla. Get the feeling the other lads in my room are party people. Saga of laundry. Took a wander round a nearby park. Reminds me of Central Park - big pond, pedal boats, skyscrapers all around. I think I'm sick of cities. The cars, the honking, the men shoving photos of girls in my face. Laos is calling to me. Chiang Mai is inaccessible at the moment, though an American (MIchael) at the airport recommended Chiang Rai as less touristy. N&S are heading to Cambodia on Tues, think I'll join them. Meeting them for dinner in a bit.
In an Irish bar at present - Guinness is delicious.
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Part of me wishes I was in Beijing for the cycling... if I knew everything, I could plan much better!
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