Family comes to town

One of the things we were looking forward to when making our way to China was spending quality time with family and friends - as much fun as it is travelling around discovering new places and faces there is nothing quite like spending time with your family and friends and sharing your journey with them. As you know we were basing ourselves in Guangzhou with my sister Julz and her boyfriend Dave for a couple of weeks before meeting up with my folks and the Parsons to travel a little bit around China.

Our hosts Julz and Dave

We had a surprise visit from Kelly my older sister, she flew in for a fly by visit, where we spent the time finding me the perfect wedding dress, setting up her maternity business and spending as much sister bonding time as we possible could! Her trip flew by but we had an amazing time and I will forever be grateful that she made her way all the way here just to help me sort out the wedding dress saga - I am a designer but a designer in interiors, who knew wedding dresses could be so complicated - throw in a massive language barrier and you have a nightmare on your hands. Fortunately Kelly, being a part of the fashion industry managed to hurdle us over the language barrier and I have a beautiful wedding dress in the making, with awesome memories to go with it.

The Three Sisters Living it up in China

On the 9th of June the 'wrinkles' flew in to town. Now before you are shocked and horrified, that is their terminology, not mine. Let me introduce you to these awesome animated characters, who added so much fun and humour to our China leg of the trip.

Charlie (left) and Jimmy (right)  - first class clowns of the trip

Ermie (left) and Annie (right) the sisters

We spent an awesome weekend in Guangzhou with the wrinkles, drinking copious amounts of South African red wine (got to love duty free), hours on the phone trying to track where their luggage had ended up because it certainly was not with them, more time in my very limited toiletry bag and wardrobe along with Julz very much bustling toiletry bag and wardrobe trying to find something for mom and Annie to wear until their luggage arrived as well as make up - not that make up is really necessary in this town as you sweat it off the minute you put your big toe out the front door. But besides all the admin we went shopping at the export market, we squeezed in a yoga session much to Annie's dismay, dined in some of the finest restaurants in Gaungzhou - Teppenyake and Roku Sushi to mention a few. Drank more red wine, lots of beers and laughed A LOT. Where are the boys in all of this, doing boy things like going to the electronic market, drinking beer, drinking beer and drinking beer. As you can see the theme was set for our next adventure, this trip through China was going to be all about learning about the history of China and spending most of our days in museums and historical sites........... not quite. This holiday was really about making memories, laughing,drinking and eating a lot. Beer plays a very important role in this trip and often helped us make decisions on where to eat and when.

All together at last, happily indulging in some SA red wine

The three taches

Jimmy trying his hand at cooking up some Japanese cuisine

The boys demonstrating the Chinese built in air conditioning system

Meeting up with old friends in Newtown 

The morning after

1 too many beers were had...

and the boys were feeling it!

Sadly Jim and I were not able to join the team to Beijing and Xian due to visa extension issues, so remained in Guangzhou for an extra couple of days before heading off to Dali in the Yunnan Province to meet up with the team again and explore 'rural' China....

Travelling in China (not for the fainthearted)

Love it or hate it, traveling China can be a very interesting and sometimes very frustrating experience. During a torturous 8hour local bus journey from Shangri-La to Dequin in Western China, at least half of the passengers chain-smoked away in the enclosed busses, gassing you half to death; ironically this occurs under the signs affixed to the ceilings that state "Smoking Prohibited in Any Part of This Bus At All Times".

For the Western traveler, even those accustomed to traveling out-of-the-way and non-modern places of the world, China can seem very dirty. Roadside toilet stops can cripple you. Some of the finest examples of crummy toilets are to be found along these bus routes. Imagine being able to smell the urinal/bog from a distance of 50 meters away, these scents burning your nostrils and eyes from afar. Entering the menacing ablution block reveals a slanted concrete floor in a square room, some Chinese squat alongside the wall (in the open view of all) while others pick a corner or wall and do their business, splashing on those squatting due to the wall less interiors. All the 'business' gets funneled to the lower sloping area of this concrete room and through a drainhole which is expelled out into the river below. At one stop we were blessed with a long drop scenario where a train of white maggots crawled up the long drop walls. A new game of 'hose the maggots' began and after wretching a coupe times and puking in my mouth it was, sadly, time to exit this palace. To make this all worse many of the ablution blocks we were so lucky to have visited happened to charge a 5rmb (ZAR5.50) 'toll' or 'usage fee' - FOR WHAT I ASK? The mindless toll lady/man could pocket over 100rmb (ZAR110) for every bus that passed through their scented establishment. It is clear that not a cent goes towards to upkeep of their pride and joy block.

This is clearly why China has earned its reputation as the king of health hazards. Their lack of poor personal hygiene is very evident as one travels far further and further away from the large (in Chinese standards ie, less that 5 million people) cities. The contrast truly fascinates me as you'd go for even a simple haircut and the hair washer lady would wear gloves and a face mask and wash his/her hands before and after washing your hair. Thereafter you know, at some stage, they will be off to the toilet and find the dirtiness and filthy conditions a normality and be completely happy with that as they are so accustomed to it.

I think this lack of hygiene story starts at a very young age where all children come featured with 'crotchless pants' as standard. They do their business whenever and wherever they need to. Ie, NO NAPPIES.

Need a poo son? The sidewalk is a tremendous place, i've heard wonderful things.'

On one of these local busses we witnessed a Chinese mother hold her child over one of the many bins in the isles (spitting bins) while the little critter squeezed one out. At the next stop we hoped, PRAYED rather, that mommy would disgard of this fowl smelling bin business that little Johnny had left us. No a chance. We had to endure the rotting smell in the 30+ degree heat that the bus offered for the remainder of the journey.

During another memorable trip through the glorious countryside on route to Laos, we caught a 17 hour night sleeper bus. This bus was fairly empty, thankfully, but shortly after it got dark the wheels started to fall off. A baby managed to puke all over her unsuspecting father which created a rather 'unpleasant' odor for the rest of the bus to endure. At just about the same time we came to a halt in the road, the only single lane carriageway to Laos, as an overloaded truck had become stuck, blocking all traffic along the road. For two hours we were left there to stare at the truck waiting for some action to take place. Finally the truck was simply driven out from its position - ie, complete waste of time a he could have driven it out 2 hours earlier!! By now it was nightfall and clearly the two bus drivers were hungry because we stopped at a roadside stall in the middle of nowhere. Everybody out (we gathered - not fluent in Mandarin.....). An hour down the line we were still at this roadside 'eatery'. 2 hours later, still there. After a painful 8 hours the bus started up and we were on our way! 7 hours waiting for the drivers to sober up from the numerous beers they consumed with their dinner at this eatery. They don't speak English, I don't speak Mandarin, how do you converse to ask what why when etc? Frustrated? OH YES! Who do you complain to? The people you complain to don't understand a word anyway.... So our 17hr trip turned out to be a 25hour MARATHON of a journey. This also allowed us to miss the connecting bus to the Laos border crossing, forcing us to stay another night on Chinese soil which we now loathed! Patience is the name of the game here. China may be advancing but their mindsets and attitudes remain deep in the gutter.

Canton cuizine

Guangzhou (GZ), the bizarre food capital of China sure has some crazy dishes on offer. There is a saying here that if it flies, crawls or does not stand upright and talk, children excluded, it will be eaten. First off I must add that there is not a pigeon or cat or dog in sight around the streets of GZ.... Coincidence? I think not.

There are an estimated 18,000 restaurants in GZ itself, this excludes streetside stalls. Every street corner and road is littered with choices, some delicious looking options and some not so. The variety of different animals on offer is ridiculous. Some odd dishes we got to try include the following:

Snake stew. It tastes as good as it looks....

Donkey

Ducks jaw

Crunchy frog was devoured at the aptly named 'Crunchy Frog' restaurant

Pig's loung

Pigs tongue

Not too sure whats what by the looks on the faces.....

And to wash it all down, the ideal Chinese meal compliment, TEA, with a loooong spout

There are many many more weird dishes to choose from, as you can imagine, but the city that takes the cake (as seen on a recent documentary) is Beijing. There is a dog street in the city that serves all sorts of household dog - in my eyes this is cruel as per our association with the canine animal (don't shoot me i'm just the messenger). There is also a famous restaurant that serves up different kinds of penis. Yes, penis. OUCH! Donkey, camel, dolphin, whale, the lot is represented and offered in their menu. Whole yak penis or sheep testicles on a bed of curry, anyone? They're supposed to increase male potency. Believe it if you will but this is definitely NOT my cup of tea. I recon us Saffers are potent enough..... Thanks.

On a brighter note we managed to go to a place called Tepinyake underneath the CITIC Plaza. Wow, what a place. For the bargain price of 169rmb (R180) you get your own private room and waiter along with your chef for the night. The price includes as much Sake and Asahi beer you can handle as well as anything on the menu.

Asahi - Japan's finest

Chef Pong and mis magical stove

An eat and drink all you can place - nearly all our mates would get their money's worth just on the liquid refreshments, never mind the food.... These food options include everything from shitake mushrooms wrapped in paper thin beef fillet strips to sushi to tempura to lamb chops, fish and everything in between. The food is heavenly and just melts in your mouth. We managed to frequent this establishment and roll out of Tepinyake Asia, fully satisfied, many times during our stay here. Best meal of the trip - 10 points and a gold star!

Very delicious. The blurred area is Chef Pong's lightning fast hands

So much of goodness mixed with a pile of garlic for fresh breath confidence (top right)