She made me do it
Greetings one and all. Apparently ‘blogging’ or something like that is some new fandangled craze thats got everyone excited – personally I dont see anything wrong with the average guys version: an annual 4 line e-mail, am I right or am I right? Anyways, in the interests of the preservation of my sanity I will contribute my meagre offering to the all conquering god named ‘BLOG’.
OK, well the missus has kept you all pretty much to date with our movements etc. so far so I’ll not start at the beginning. We’re in a small Town called Lijiang at the moment which is really awesome in fact – quaint, relaxed and picturesque as its nestled in the mountains, its pretty much all you could ask for of a small town in China. After an overnight bus ride(lets just call the bus fragrantly rustic and your imaginations can do the rest) from Kunming, we arrived mildly rested at like 6am. In what seems to be the norm for chinese bus journeys these days we were uncerimoniously dumped at the ass end of town and left to make our own way the last few miles to where we actually want to be. After an great little breakfast (yeah you really start to appreciate things like toast, butter, milk and fried eggs when they are not readily available) we checked ourselves into a cute little place called Dongba House <- hope thats right I’m sitting here trying to see the name on a window somewhere but cant so my best guess will have to do as I cant be arsed to get up walk 3 feet to check for sure. After we got our shit all set down in the dorm room after breakfast I had an idea. “Lets go for a leisurely bike ride through the countryside”, I says to myself and so I suggest it to the missus. After we hand over the moola for the bikes we pick the ones we want from the 10 or so bikes the hostel has for hire and set off. After about 500 meters of actually riding (you have to push our bike out of the old town here as theyre banned) I hear a nagging voice in the back of my mind which astonishly transforms into a nagging voice about 200 meters behind me on the road. Jen had a 1 in 10 chance of picking the mule of the pack (gears are screwed, chain slips, cant adjust the seat etc.) and she nailed it first try, thats pretty damn impressive. Anyways after Jen spent another 15 minutes or so in Dante’s 9th Circle of hell astride the wild beast, I caved. I adjusted the seat on my perfectly servicable Giant mountainbike, handed it over and got aboard the most evilly contructed 2 wheeled machine known to man. We made it back about 3 hours later, sunburned and sweaty and a little the worse for wear. After all is said and done though the scenery , surroundings etc of the rde were well worth it. Definitely some of the nicest scenery we’ve come across anywhere in China. I have all manner of ailments now, including probably at least 3 slipped discs from my time aboard the 2 wheeled paralysis machine masquerading as a mountain bike, but I’m sure a hearty meal and a few beers will start to ease my pain.
OK kids, thats way more than 4 lines now so I’d best love and leave you all. Ya’ll take care and we’ll see you on the other side.
Peace.
Jonno.
