To China and back ...

[Irishman]

Yesterday Sunny and me spend the day with Dave(Bee) and the lovely LingLing.
We walked to the top of Baiyun mountain which was quite a long walk but the weather was great and though it was a long and hard trail it was worth it for the magnificent views at the top.

With aching muscles afterward LingLing drove us to a great restaurant where we had the obligatory tasty dumplings.
Dave insisted on trying the "private place meat pie" but I drew the line at the "big bone rod" dish !!!

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After that we went to get a traditional Chinese Foot massage which was great.
A wonderful day and fantastic to meet another brother from the forum.

I only had my camera phone so all the group photos are on Dave's camera, hopefully he will post up some later.

[Bee964]

Martin,

I have been a little busy here. You could say busy as a BEE! Also had to wait for 4 days to get my luggage. I am still trying to decide but I think it will be a new thread for this trip.

Irishman,

It was a great day yesterday. I hope that LingLing and I can see the fireworks with you and Sunny.

[Arnold]

Nice Picture Guy's . Always great for Member's to meet up this way .

[Martin]

I agree with Arnold.  Fantastic pictures, and glad you guys were able to meet up.

[Chong]

Great picture.

Irish ... I see that you have to carry the knapsack [ with a water bottle ] which I did everyday in Kaiping ... hahaha.

Have you guys tried the Chinese foot massage ... where tiny fishes nibble/eat the dried skin from your feet   My sister tried it in Taishan. She said it felt funny but it was relaxing.

[mustfocus]

Hey Chong,

I haven't tried it, but I've been warned against it.  They tried bringing it here in Canada after seeing it in Asia, but there was a concern as the fish are capable of passing along infections from whatever feet they have consumed the dead skin from.

I think it's necessary to carry a backpack whereever you go when travelling.  Mine was loaded with water and an umbrella which I used every day. 

[Irishman]

Yes I'm chief bag carrier. i feel so privileged! There was fruit and nuts in that bag too! As well as a towel Sunny insisted on bringing to dry my back with as her mother told her to make sure i didn't get sick!!!

Last night was incredible here. This time we are staying in a &Days Hotel in Panue which is just outside Guangzhou (used to be a separate city). Setting of firecrackers here is tolerated and boy oh boy do the locals go to town. All evening there was the constant crackle of firecrackers out side building up slowly throughout the day, it was constant then at around 23:45 thing went ballistic!! I don't have the superlatives to describe it! One example -  A street a couple of road over from the hotel (we are on the 7th floor so have a pretty good view as the buildings in Panue are not high rise like in GZ central) was crisscrossed lamp post to lamp post with fire crackers, they were going constantly like very loud machine gun for for at least 10 minutes with a grand deafening flash and finale! This was by no means exceptional, across the view all i could see was flashes and hear bangs near and far. Fireworks were shooting off balconies everywhere, the air thick with the smell of burning combustant. Its still going on, to a lesser extent right now as i type this at 23:40 a day later!
This morning we went for brunch at Sunny's folks house and then went pedal boating with her sister.

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Outside every business are the remains of a firework extravaganza which they all set off before opening, these are the remains from firecrackers her parents landlords let off outside their apartment block for good luck! Sunny is holding the New Year red envelopes for her parents and sister as is the tradition here.

We had dinner back with her folk's and then went to see the wonderful GZ new year fireworks with Bee and LingLing which was special in its own right, but I'll let Bee fill you in on that on his post.

[Martin]

Great update Irishman.  Nice to be getting these different updates from guys there for the New Year celebrations.  Did you manage to get any sleep with all the noise outside?

[Chong]

Now that you're a married couple, you have to give out Red Envelopes to every single person and children that you know & meet face-to-face. My wife used to receive 10,000 RMB during Chinese New Year from her boss & family [ 11 Uncles & Aunts in total ]. She and her cousins used to make the rounds of visiting every married couple that they know during this celebration ... hahaha.

Irish ... how much have you guys given out so far

[Irishman]

Last couple of days have been a bit of a blur.
About a week back I found myself getting mild stomach cramps which got worse and worse. Sunny brought me to the hospital and the doctor diagnosed an intestinal infection. Sunny said this was in the news at the moment, theres some bug going around Guangzhou. Back home we are under strict instructions to stay away from the doc if we just have a cold for obvious reasons but not here.
The end result is you get the drip in a packed small room, with no aircon full of people sniffling and coughing.
I knew I was going to get a cold, I was appalled that all these people didnt have face masks on as all they were doing doing was spreading their colds everywhere.
Sure enough a couple of days later we were having dinner with one of Sunny's friends and i noticed that my nose started to feel ticklish. I thought it was hay fever initially but it got rapidly worse and soon became obvious it was a cold. Sunny got it too but more mildly - she didn't have the runny nose and difficulty breathing I had, or maybe i just had the "man flu" version
Last couple of days have been spent with a pounding headache , leaking nose and horrible cough.  This morning finally it seems to be on the way out. We will take it easy though as Sunny's folks are moving apartment in a couple of days and we have to help with that.

We had been really looking forward to visiting Lotus Mountain with Dave and LingLing today but had to call that off as neither of us are up to to anything that energetic yet. Dave , hopefully we can catch up next new year and do it together then, I think we may have the start an annual New Year meetup in Guangzhou to look forward too

On Sunday we go back to Ireland and a new chapter begins..

[kenny]

Hope you both get feeling better. It has been good reading about your trip and I wish you good luck in your new chapter.

[shaun]

Sorry to hear you've been sick.  It sounds exactly like what Peggy has.  She is absolutely miserable.  So don't think it is the man-flu.  From listening to Peggy you would think there is an epidemic going on.  I don't understand why but it seems that for every ailment an IV drip is a part of the cure.  Can anyone explain it?  All I get from Peggy is that is what they do.

Funny thing I told Peggy last night that we do not have many IV drips for cures in America.  She said and this is after having 3 in the consecutive days, "I move to America and I never go back to China."   I wonder what she will say in 2 weeks when she is better?

[RobertBfrom aust]

Ronan sorry to hear that you have been a sickie and Shaun sorry to hear about Peggy to , and I hope everybody is now on the mend , Irish better watch it or they might think he has the Asian virus and will isolate him when he arrives in Ireland ha ha .

[Bee964]

We had been really looking forward to visiting Lotus Mountain with Dave and LingLing today but had to call that off as neither of us are up to to anything that energetic yet. Dave , hopefully we can catch up next new year and do it together then, I think we may have the start an annual New Year meetup in Guangzhou to look forward too

On Sunday we go back to Ireland and a new chapter begins..

Irishman,

I was really sorry to hear you and Sunny were not feeling well. Ling Ling has been asking about you so I let her read your post. She is sorry to hear you two do not feel well. I hope that you get better soon. If you need some fluids I have some really cold Tsingtao here. I will be praying for you two to have a speedy recovery.

I think that this may indeed become something of an annual event. If so I will be looking forward to seeing you next year, and bring plenty of ear plugs and RMB for an evening of firework fun! I know I will!

By the way, we really missed you two at Lotus mountain.

Dave C