Tiger Leaping Gorge
The first day of the hike I met a couple of Canadians, Jade who I got along with really well, she's from the interior of BC, grew up on an orchard and has done tree planting and another girl from North Van. Also, we met this self-named guy named 'Slick' who's 30 from Britain who was not very impressed with my au-naturel legs and armpits and kept exclaiming rude remarks out of pure shock.
'There aren't many of your type left in Britain!! Look at those legs!!'
The next day we met our New Years Crew: Yanis, a tall unsure but gorgeous guy with enticing blue eyes from Latvia, Harro his confident funny and quirky friend from Estonia who studied with him in Latvia but is an exchange student in Hong Kong, Maple a Chinese-kareoke singing stereotype (sorry to say), MAthew a tall fun-loving gangly bright blonde guy from Britain, Marion a subdued but very cool girl from France and Minca the most out-going-flirty and fun South Korean girl I've ever met! Tada=best New YEars EVER!!!After the hike we all headed to Lijiang where we stayed for a couple days until the night of the YEAR.
Biking
NEW YEARS
PARTY + Good company + FEAST + Singing + Dancing + Countdown & kiss = JOY:)
New Years we all sang in the jungle the boys did the bass a wimbawee and the girls the aweeeeeawimbawee, french( Romain and Marion) and english, we sang Capoeria songs from Brazil (this guy named Victor from Germany), Maple sang us a cantonese song, Minca a Mandarin song, Harro and Yanis sang some Borat quotes and ANNa whipped out Amazing Grace and Lean on Me which me notoriously sing. I learned a new Chinese drinking game that involves numbers, turns and punishments which were of course giving out kisses.
The following day Jan. 1st I enjoyed doing a full day of biking around with Harro and Yanis, learning as much as I could about The Baltic countries. Yanis studies in Kazhakstan with Minca and is always singing Borat's national anthem for Kazhakstan and quoting lines from the movie. My geography is so off, I never knew that Latvia existed or where Estonia was. I think that in the future it would be really neat to travel Eastern Europe. why? because it exists! WOw! Plus the boys have done a good job introducing me to their respectable countries. The weather was hot, we all got some red colour on our faces and our chinese bicycles held out surprisingly since we were on red bumpy dirt roads cylcing through rural villages and then on the cobble stone streets of Lijiang.
LAOS
It was SUCH a rush to get to the Laos boarder, and I am surprised I made it, but incredibly relieved since my multiple chinese visa expired yesterday January the Third, requiring me to exit the country beore re-entering for another 60 days.
LAOS is absolutely the perfect thing for me! It's so relaxing, laid back and hot! I left Anna in China but met up with her again in the small village that we're in called Nam Tha. Today we biked all around the village to a small waterfall and then spent a few hours swimming and lounging with some locals on the side of a river while enjoying a Beer Laos. So far the travellers here have been a bit strange and incredibly snooty so again I'm happy that Anna and I are together. Tomorrow we head to Luang Prabang on an early bus and I'm sooooo excited to get there and do some hiking, beer drinking, laying in the sun and having a good time before heading back to Chengdu to settle and find work. On the other hand, Romain is close to Chengdu, and so I'll be really happy to see him again. I think I"ll be in Laos for only 10-12 days.:)
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