China/Thailand

So yesterday was great, looking forward to coming home, but got do a cooking class. Where we were tooken to a local food market and picked out food. But seen some awful stuff. THe meat part was not appetizing it was quite sad really. I did not enjoy. seen all sorts of animals, just what your thinking, yed i saw it. But he class was fun, we made kuing pao chicken and sweet and sour pork and dumplings. Food was great i ate it all. THen three of us went caving where we walk through 3 km of cave and swim in a mud hole, we came out of the cave and we were in the middle of these fields that were secluded from everythign else. Met a few local farmers on the way out and they looked at us like we wre crazy., In our group we had 5 chinese girls and so in the mud hole i walked up beside one and then they started pickiong up hand fulls of mud nad rubbing it all over me. At first i was liek what is happeniong but then i went along and just threw mud at hem and rubbed it in. It was wierd. Had a supper for the group, caught a night train and made it to hong kong today at like noon. It was raiingn crappy weather. We then realized there was a typhooon warning out. THen looked into my flight just know nad realized that it is delayed until 23:20 tom night. I am so so so so upset, i just want to be home. I don not want to be here any longer. So now i am not sure what to do, i might not get to see mom, and i dont know when i will get into regina. I am really really mad. I dont even like hong kong, sick of being here i jsut want to get home. I guess i will get there eventually even if it is hour hours later. Well off i go to make some phone calls and try to figure this out. this sucks, last day of my trip and it is ruined, i was looking so forward to gettin home and seeing everyone but my hope is dead. Its kinda scary, the hotel is swaying back and forth, since we are on the 21st floor you can really feel it. So tonight we have been jsut sittin aournd in the hotel room hanging out and playing cards and drinkign. Sucky....

Today i got to sleep in, so nice! ONly slept till 8 though but still felt good to know i dint have to get up for any reason. Had a great breakfast with panckaes which are more like a huge crepe with bananas, then went to a river cruise on the Li River, beautiful scenery, loud boat, but it was nice. Still very humid here and i dont stop sweating. Clothes are constantly damp, gross. Had a lazy afternoon, then met up with a few to go for dumplings, this is when my chpstick skills failed me. I dropped a dumpling into my lil plate full of vinegar and soy sauce which splattered all over my white t-shirt. NOt pretty.... THe fishing is done my these birds called comorants the men tie a lil rope around their neck so they cant swallow the bird, they also have a rope around there foot, so the birds dip down and catch these fish teh man on the bamboo raft takes his bamboo stick and hooks the rope on the foot pulls the bird up and makes him regurgitate the fish into a basket and trhows him out agin. iT was relly neat. I got to hold the bird, but the basket smelled really bad, like vomit. WEnt shopping and wasted a whole bunch of money again. haha and i got ripped off and some stuff that i bought, everyone else got them for like 1/3 of the price, made me mad. OFf to bed, tom i do a cooking class and then caving. SHoud be a good time.

the scenery here is incredible. ITs surprising to see the mountains pop out of no where, its flat as can be, like saskatchewan then all of a sudden opps there is a huge rock. ITs crazy. THe countrysidde people are very poor so it was kinda coolto see that. WHen we climbed moon hill there are these ladies that follow you all the way up, one lady per person. SO wehn they saw us coming they all started runnig to make sure they got a person. THey expect us to buy water or postcards or soemthing from them for escorting us up the mountain and for fanning us. My lady told me theis sob story about how she has no job and her two boys are in college and no money. WHen i told her i had no money she gave me this sad sad face that made me feel so guilty. BUt i relly had no money so i didnt get anything, i fellt awful. THen shopped a bit and bought a suitcase to take home stuff in a lil more easily. THe light show was greatr, a lil slow at times but there were 600 pople in it. THe mountains coming ouyt of the water and then all lit up was gorgeous. The first time i saw stars since i have left home was tonight during the show. IT was magnificent. THen went for a drink after and the place was horrific service. Took almost two hours for some peoples meals. And very confusing deciding on all the extra activiiteis. So tom i do a river cruise at 1130 then a show about the fishing at night. THe next day is busy, cooking class in teh morning, then caving in the afternoon. group supper and then on the train to hong kong. So busy few days then home time, which mean si only have an afternooon for shopping so i better be on the prowl. WEll goodnight.

well today was the first officila day in yangshou. THis is the parts of china i really wanted to see. Its absoliutey stunning. Yesterday was a travel day and we arrived here at baout 1030. Today we biked around the countryside and went to moon hill. Climbed moon hill and had beautiful views from the top. This is the area that has mountains shootig straight up and just out of no where. Made of limestome. TOnight we are going to light show that is produced by the same gguy that did the olympic openieng show so it shall bve good. But everyone is waiting for me now so i will write more about the day later. the waether is disgusting, soaking yet all teh time, so humid it was 36 degrees today. I have never sweated so much as i did today hiking that hhill. K more details later.

The most amazing scenery yet, absolutley breathtaking. I dont even know how to describe it. THe first day we hiked from 10 to 5 but with many breaks and taking group pictures takes along time so that was a good wya to get a breather, since the most of hte first day was up ona steep incline. It was kind of a tough climb, felt it at the time but once you reach the top it was absolutley stunning. The mind cannot even fathom teh vastness and immensity of the mountains. THe river being thousands of meters below and a waterfall across the way but yet we could hear it pounding and rushing, just the sound is awesome cant even imagine the power behind it. We had these horses and their ppl follwo us most of the way waiting for us to tire so that w e hire them to give us a ride but lie that woudl ever happen i felt sorry for the horse as it was, climbing this massive mountian over rocks and mud let alone with some lazy ass person on top. Made me feel good for my horses just relaxing in the pasture. but everyonce in a while i would get the arom of maure wandeiing into my nose that would make me slightly miss my boys at home, weird i know. At the top there is this edge that you could go out to to take pictures but the man was trying to charge people 8 yuan for pictures so he got mad at us and we just ignored him, felt kinda rude but how unfair to charge us for a picture after we worked our buts off to get there. I took so many pictures but hte upsetting thing is that if anyone looks at them they wont be able to understand the beauty behind it all. This is definately somthing you have to experience personally to really apprecaite it. WE stayed at tea horse Guest house, so cute amazing view and great food for cheap. I had two huge meals for 5 bucks. WHen i woke up theis morning i looked out the window to see pure white. It had rained and the fog had settled deep into the crevices of the mountain, so throughout the walk we could watch the fog disapear and cme back it was crazy how quickly it would change. Within a minute it would be totally differnt. SO i got to experinnce it in both weathers. Quite nice. I really enjoyed the hike it was amazing!!! ONly 6 days left then home.. cante belive its over already...