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.

a strange and busy few days. we flew into kunming, and just stayed a day en route to lijiang. unfortunately the day in kunming was pouring rain, so instead of exporing the city, we went to the cinema to see an english language movie (”eight below” in case you were wondering – which, if you’re a dog lover is a schmaltzy but wonderful movie. not that we had a whole lot of choice.) and hide out for a while. then we went shopping in parkson’s department supermarket, which was just *nirvana* for me. see, other people collect teaspoons or t-shirts. i collect new snacks. i love to try things i can’t even identify just to see what they taste like. most are interesting and tasty, some are blah, and only a few a truly awful. yesterday was a bonanza. i found wasabi flavoured potato chips, extra strong mentos, barbeque meat snacks, green tea biscuits, lemon custard filled marshmallows, and seaweed flavoured peanuts. yumm-o. needless to say, however, i felt rather ill after tasting all those at one sitting.

and then we took the overnight sleeper bus to lijiang. which i imagine is something like the night bus from the harry potterbooks, only cold, dirty, uncomfortable, and smelling strongly of fetid feet. not the nicest 11 hours i’ve ever spent. and then we got dropped off in lijiang at 6 am, in the dark, with no idea where we were (not the bus station, certainly).

but, with a hefty dose of deductive reasoning and not a small amount of wandering, we found the town centre – which is quaint and cobbled, and full of handicrafts and food. we had a gorgeous breakfast, and then rented some mountain bikes for a nice long ride into the countryside, through picturesque naxi minority villages, rice fields and green mountains. i got sunburned (since it’s the first time my skin has seen daylight in a year), then we came back and relaxed with a beer and a hot shower.

beats the hell out of a monday in the office.