Hi All,
Found my pen again...
Chinese new year. Vanessa and I headed off to the supermarket and purchased some random bottles of chinese alcohol including wine, spirit and beer. We had new years eve dinner with a table full of fellow travellers at the hostel with the highlight being chickens feet (yikes). We talked the afternoon away and then decided to head into the bar section of town for some entertainment. The nightclubs were going off and we entered one large one to the tune of 'old mcdonald had a farm' with techno beat. The beer was small and expensive (35 yuan for a normal sized) and we sat and watched for a while. It was very retro with the robotic chinese dancing. Very 1980s. I probably had already sampled a few too many beers and felt the need to loosen up on the dance floor. So on went the sunglasses to go with the black jacket and the terminator look. Strangely it wasn't long before I was the centre of attention. Taller and more solid than the average chinese male and sporting at least a little light coloured hair. Even more strange was that I was stealing moves from saturday night fever and the wiggles.Sadly I forgot spirit fingers but the chinese were loving it anyway . Soon I had a red dressed admirer and then with a bit of encouragement five of her friends also were dancing with me. Wow they surely must have had more beers than me and the girl in red was getting very close. Yikes. Time to evacuate the dance floor before thing got any stranger . Wake up chinese girls your dancing with a middle age man. Your beer glasses must be thicker than mine.
We moved on and headed to a small bar with live music which sounded great but was in chinese. The beer was also expensive so we ate all their peanuts and sunflower seeds and left to arrive back at the hostel in time for the new year.
It sounded like war had just erupted. There had been firecrackers going off around the city during the day but once the new year had arrived restraint was no longer required. Fireworks lit the sky all around the area and we had a great viewing point from the hostel balcony over the old city. It was spectacular.
Some of the others from the hostel had ideas to continue the evening back in the old town. We didn't need to speak their language to understand what was being said and that idea was soon put to bed.
So that was it for the fireworks we thought. Daybreak came and the war started again. Surely the stocks of fireworks in china must be running low but still even in Guilin now the crackers are still going off and it is at least week later! The paths are covered with red which is cleaned daily in the old town but in the country the red remains until the environment cleans up.
Lijiang is such a cool town to explore. We are still getting lost and discovering new and interesting parts. Yes it is tacky and touristy in the centre but the best part is that you don't get hassled. Buy if you want to or not or just explore.
Tomorrow we head off to Tiger leaping gorge for a bit of a walk.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
