The acrobatics were amazing, amongst other things we saw plate spinning whilst standing on poles, a woman that did ballet on her head on a pole and 5 motorbikes driving round the inside of the 'cage of death'. I've never seen anything like it!
Had an excellent day on Sunday. It was raining from the start and we got completely lost after the taxi driver dropped us of at a location of his choice. It was all going to sh*t when we bumped into a Chinese guy who offered to take a photo of us. He turned out to be a complete legend - Colin Powell (Xhiao), but he preferred and introduced himself as the former. He warned us against the tea house we asked him directions to and instead took us to one down an alley and up some stairs that turned out to be a lovely place although the toilets left a little to be desired. They were across the corridor in another building and were kept under lock and key but the bowl of rancid cabbage outside didn't bode well for a comfortable visit to the facility. I don't know who they were trying to keep out of here:
BOG
But the tea house was fantastic. We spent about 2 hours drinking all kinds of tea that were meant to do all kinds of stuff from releasing phlegm to increasing sex ability. I ended up buying some wood that you can drink or suck (can't remember what it does) as well as some ginseng and a bunch of other stuff. Here we are doing said activity (note Colin's 'God Bless America' cap):
COLIN POWELL
After that we bumped into a bunch of guys that turned into an even bigger group as we walked with them to some house down a back alley which turned out to have a shop operating from within. First thing I saw when we entered was a blot meat cleaver on the table but that sort of thing is perfectly normal in China. Anyway The Hoser and I managed to haggle a couple of Ralph Lauren shirts down to 95 Yuan for the two (about 3 pounds each) although we had to walk to the end of the street with a crowd following us for them to back down on the last 5 (they wanted 220 yuan for each when they started). After that we went out on the town and got stupendously lashed before climbing the Jin Mau Tower the next day and getting stuff together for a 26 hour train ride! Well we're now in Yangshuo, a smaller village towards the south. It's beautiful but unfortunately has some sanitary probs. There was a rat in the bar last night and cockroaches in the cracks of our tables at breakfast this morning poking their little antennae up for a taste of our noodles! There were swings at the tables in the restaurant though so that kind of made up for it. Anyway I got a few photos up, it's too difficult to post them all on this site as everything's in chinese. Here's the link to them:
THE LINK TO THEM
The most important one is the group photo I guess.
From left: Andy (Kenty, Kentish, Beefy); Kate (Kity Kat); {Fran; Joe; SJ; Steve} (Cambridge Massive); Alain&Mandy (The Outsiders); Chris (Hoser, The Hose Bag, Hose Head); Erin (Our Intrepid Leader) and Ching Chong (Panda Dundee). (Absent: me (taking the photo), John (Taking a shit centre-left behind wall), and Sarah (Rah Rah [K&S a.k.a The Blondes, The Girls etc.) (Presumably watching him)
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