Feb 09, 2006 20:17
to mark the end of the spring festival, our digestive tracts have decided to completely clean house.
it all started in dali when kevin and i both had vegetable curry and rice. later that night we were both paying for it. especially kevin, who had polished off his dinner. unfortunately, we were staying at a hostel with a shared chinese squatter toilet, so kevin did not enjoy exploding from both ends into it. i could hear his agony 3 rooms down from the bathroom. he managed to break blood vessels under his eyes from the effort.
i managed to get by with merely a stomach ache. then. so we bought our bus tickets to Lijiang and prepared to leave Dali once kevin felt better. because i was feeling a bit crappy due to a cold and sore back from our horse back riding up the mountain a few days earlier, i decided to get a medicinal chinese massage. all was going well until the guy pulled out tiger balm and an old coin. he was mute, so he motioned to them both to which i nodded. the tiger balm should be good for my cold. but after that the massage became very painful as the guy rubbed my back, neck and scalp over and over again with the stupid coin. this resulted in hickey-like bruises all over by back and everywhere else he rubbed. and it did not get rid of the cold. kevin took a picture which we will upload eventually.
so after a 4 hour bus ride north we are in Lijiang, which is at a pretty high altitude and close to the Tibet border. we even tried tibet dumplings and soup today!
anyway, the night we arrived here it was my turn to be sick, and my turn to break blood vessels above MY eyes from the force. and basically we've been taking turns in the shitter for the past 3 days. i ate a chicken sandwhich from KFC for 3 consecutive meals because i could not fathom eating anything chinese. grooossssss.
but today we both feel pretty good and have been walking around and really enjoying this town. it's very pretty. it's an ancient chinese town founded in the time of Kublais Khan and was on the ancient horse tea trading route.
we've booked a tour tomorrow to check out the Tiger Leaping Gorge on the Yangzi River, which is the reason kevin and i came here. we were going to attempt the trek, which is a dangerous one where people have actually died, but decided against it. mostly because our horrid past week of being sick has soured our confidence in doing it. but at least we'll get to see it on the tour.
we were all set to upload more pics, but this computer is super slow. so sorry, next time we will (hopefully).
thanks for the note jeff! and say hi to everyone at Wonder (formerly know as Ambush!). that's all such great news! are you still in the same office, or have you moved locations? i have been checking regularly on the kicking horse sight and it looks great. i've also been checking if Ambush had gotten a web site, but i can see why it hadn't! does wonder? let me know your new email addresses so i can drop you guys an email!
leanne, you are looking great. and great big! and kevin and i also noticed how awesome the basement looks in the back of that last photo you sent.
sheri, how are you doing? are you still feeling ill? what's new with you and corey? i'm always looking at baby stuff here now. you should see what the babies here wear - they don't have diapers, they have a hole in their pants where everything hangs out and their moms just hold them out to pee or poo over the street. maybe i should buy you and leanne a pair of those for your babies!
kristina and justin, how is gp going? and your job situations? nemesis looked huge in the pics mom sent!
kevin and i are getting a little excited about returning home. probably because this last week has been a bit crap. and a whole lotta puke. but also because we are beginning to miss everyone.
just another month to go! yet we still have big plans for our last leg: giant pandas, terracotta warriors, shaolin temple kung-fu, the forbidden and summer palaces, the great wall and of course, once again, shanghai!
later!