"....................................................................................."
They were snorting things at her as she sashayed by, but their swine language was beyond me.
Anyone willing to translate?
"....................................................................................." They were snorting things at her as she sashayed by, but their swine language was beyond me. Anyone willing to translate?
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The next morning I woke to roosters crowing and the sight from my bedroom window through dense fog of villagers washing under taps in the yards, tipping the leftover breakfast noodles to the chooks (what kind of spell-check is this that doesn't recognise the word "chook"?) and then traipsing off out to the paddies again with the ducks and the geese and the buffalo. I dragged on another few layers of clothes, grabbed the camera and did same: Gemma and dawn on one of their rare encounters, and no-one was hurt. This day goes down in my Chinese travelling experience as one of the best! I walked, took photos, scrambled down just about any track I found along the road (found a few villages at the end of a couple of them), sampled some of the snacks at the grill stand in front of a school, tried on some native clothes in one of the local tailors for the fun of it and collected kids until at one stage we were a straggling bunch of about 15 squealing laughing kids and me. I finished my day of walking at the Bada lookout a few hours before sunset. From there I was treated to extraordinary views of the entire Yuanyang valley, and the grand (and steep) slopes of flooded rice terraces glinting in the late afternoon sun. Magic! Click here to view the Yuanyang Rice Terraces album.
I was curious to know whether my blog name was in use elsewhere, or if it could be construed as meaning anything at all, so I did some digging. Here's one of the things I dug up: Jam Tin bombs (1915): emergency grenades made in the front line at Gallipoli and elsewhere utilising discarded ration tins as containers. (various labels, British and Australian). © Tommy's Pack Fillers Is it possible this was the source of inspiration for my nickname? Having completed my first round of exams I treated myself to a few days out of town. First stop, lovely Jianshui, a small, peaceful town 3 hours bus ride south of Kunming towards the Vietnamese border. In the busier season Jianshui attracts a decent (but not scandalous) number of tourists to see its pretty treelined streets, relatively untouched old town and very interesting local architecture, the Zhu family ancient home and gardens, and one of China's oldest / largest (I can't remember which) Confucian temples and centre of Confucian studies. It is a town that is also known for some great regional food treats especially their barbecued tofu and some incredibly simple but superb tasting noodle dishes. I spent a couple of days riding the town's buses, the hostel's (very scary) push-bike, moseying about watching the town's squadrons of hairdressers playing pool on outdoor tables set up in a shopping arcade (jammed with hairdressing salons funnily enough), exploring the back streets and food markets, temples and dilapidated ancient homes and waiting for my next excuse to eat more of their fantastic noodles. It is said that there is a magnificent 16 span ancient bridge a few kilometres (some say 3, others say 9 and Google Maps says 15 kilometres) out of town which I planned to visit on the not so trusty rusty steed belonging to my hostel. Alas, the road at the edge of town descended rapidly (the road, not I) and for a considerable distance out to a vast open plain which I quickly decided may well have been a tasty downhill spin but was definitely beyond the talents of my ancient and (already) screeching, undersized bike. My recently operated meniscus also had a say in the matter and called a halt to the trip and I am yet to visit the lovely old bridge. That's what I didn't see. Here's a little of that which I did see.... Click here to view the Jianshui album
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