The getaway gals go to China...

I enjoyed my long weekend in Yangshuo, China with five of my good friends. We considered it as 'one last getaway'. (Yes, we're into the land of "lasts" these days!) I love Yangshuo. It is one of my favorite spots in China. It's only an hour flight from HK, so that made it an easy destination (the journey seemed almost too easy when I remembered my last trip to Yangshuo a few years ago- a 25 hour train journey!).

Anyway, it was a great time- beautiful scenery, good exercise, decent food, awesome accommodations, a fun chance to try out the Mandarin, good visits with friends. My favorite part about being in Yangshuo is going for bike rides into the countryside. This was a daily requirement, along with a daily dose of banana pancakes and a shake of some kind. Here are a few pictures from the weekend (the rest can be found here):

"West St."- Backpacker central.

Tammy, Ashley, Maureen, Mary, Wenny, and myself.

Hmmm.

New friend.

Not bad, hey?

Save Bumfs!

I'm writing from our "7 Day Inn" in Wuhan. We arrived from Shandong province earlier today. I flew to Beijing and met Jason, Shannon and Emmanuelle there. We took a very speedy and posh train to Yangzhou. On a number of occasions I have been a little thrown off by the newness of things in China- there has definitely been a make-over in some spots since the Olympics. The main reason for being in Shandong province was for our good friends' wedding. Carl and Cathy are both special friends from the year I spent living in Hubei. It was great to be there, and also to see many old friends again. So far I've had two massages. I've eaten eggs and tomatoes twice. And I've seen some high quality Chinglish. Like today in the bathroom, the toilet paper dispenser said "Save Bumfs". Think about that one...I've got nothing but laughs from it so far.

While Shandong was great, coming back to Hubei has a definite homey touch to it. This is the China I know best! As we walked down the street for supper, I was excited to see many of my favorite things: a good sports store, a stationery store where I can buy many funny Chinglish notebooks, a man who sells baked sweet potatoes, a dumpling shop, a bubble tea shop, a dvd and music store, many things to eat on a stick, and most importantly, a hair salon where I can get a cheap hairwash and head massage. :) Yes, I'm back at home in China! Love it. Tonight at supper I was quickly reminded of why I packed on the pounds in China...the food is so so good! I also love being back in Mandarin-mode. It's a lot easier for me to understand than Cantonese and my vocabulary has a little more stretch than my Cantonese, which is very limited. One thing that is notably different this time around is the addition of one really really cute kid! Emmanuelle draws plenty of attention...I've laughed many times thinking, "Wow, that person looks so excited to see me; isn't that special?! I wonder why they are so interested in me!" And then I remember who's tagging along behind- it's the super squishy beautiful blue-eyed baby girl!! Ha ha ha!

The best part is seeing our friends, though. That's always what you remember most about a place, so coming back brings back so many good memories. I'm looking forward to making more in the next three days!