Chongqing a muggle copy to hand to most

We've just eaten a spicy soup in "Chongqing a muggle copy to hand to most" which was next to the "Adult Thing". I had an entire conversation in Chinese today. Vikram and I ended up in a Chinese tea house where we enjoyed Pu'Er tea being poured over the frogs.

We then went to the market. I bought a lotus bud to chew on. Vikram bought some peaches. Sandor got something that looked like a doughnut. Actually, we were not very adventurous. We could have had a dog. Vikram was particularly taken with the manner in which they gutted the fish whilst they were still alive. He also liked the bucket of bull frogs.

We had frog for breakfast a few days ago. It was very bony.

The conference is over now. Vikram and I are taking the train to Kunming tomorrow.

Last night our Chinese failed us. We asked for beer and got porridge.

My beautiful yak in Shangri-la

Yunnan is wonderful!!! I'm in love with a yak in Shangri-la. It was white and very fluffy. I sat on it and had my photograph taken!

We had a dramatic bus ride through the mountains (the road went up to 3.5km high but I didn't get altitude sickness!). We only saw a few crashes. One truck went off the side of the road. We saw the first bend in the Yangtze river. Then I sat on my yak. What a yak!

Then we ate a yak kebab and then headed on towards Tiger Leaping Gorge on the Shangri-la side. This was incredible. The whole of the Yangtze river gets squeezed in a narrow gorge. The power was incredible. The waves were massive.

Then we continued the drive higher into the mountains (there were lots of goats, buffalo, yaks and donkeys all over the road + a few chickens and a sad looking monkey in a tiny cage). We went to the Yunnan observatory which is situated in spectacular scenery. Vikram and I bought a potato from a lady on the street.

We finally got back to LiJiang and had the conference dinner. I was allowed to eat the Chicken's head.

Oh dear

I'm waiting for my bus to the airport and so decided to check on who was reading my blog. Apparently, someone recently found my blog by typing in "blog chengdu hookers". I've just tried this myself and my blog comes up in google as the third suggestion.

I'm guessing that whoever did this search found my blog a bit disappointing.

A few photos

Thanks to Rob, I can upload a few photos of myself.

Don't let Sha read this blog

Sha told me not to talk with strange people, nor do anything dangerous. This occurred to me as I was clinging on to the back of a "taxi" hurtling down the highway with people like Rob Hollow wearing a very silly shirt. My shirt has bells on it.

Anyway, I didn't fall off and so that's okay. We had a rather dramatic conference dinner. It involved dancing and setting off hot-air balloons (actually huge lanterns). In contrast to a few, our lantern did not catch on fire. I've just been looking at my photos and they all seem to be of Rob posing with some Thai ladies.

I had to chair a session today. I didn't understand any of the talks.

Another great day in Chiang Mai

I gave my talk today to a rather empty audience. Oh well! Afterwards, Rob and I went out for dinner. Chiang Mai really is excellent. We had another dramatic tuk-tuk ride into the city, walked around the Wat (where you can have a chat with a monk: "suggested topics: The life of Monks"), admired the trees (I thought that the massive trees were Bodhi (or Bo) trees, but I've just looked them up and now I don't think so --- Faith, what's the tree in the first picture -- it's massive?

We had a fun dinner in a restaurant that was "perfectly located" and "nicely decorated with Lanna Puppet". The rice came in a "chic banana leaf cone". "You will definitely enjoy the chef's laughter". Well that was true ... I accidentally ate the strongest chilli that I've ever encountered and, I'm sure, without drinking copious amounts of beer would have ended up in hospital.

We walked through the night market, stopping to buy some gifts and to decide whether Rob needed a large pair of boxer shorts or not and having an icecream. We ended up walking back to the hotel. Tomorrow is the last day of the conference. Then a day riding elephants. Then off to LiJiang. I'm really annoyed. Vikram and I discovered that we could get to LiJiang by a bus ride to Laos and then a 12 hour boat ride up the Mekong. Instead, I'm flying and have to spend from midnight to 6am in Kunming airport.