nee hao from dali, yunnan. firstly, love the mcgroin family website, but

still no results when i google myself...might try another search

engine...I'm out there in cyber space somewhere, somewhere.

having a great time here, sitting in a bar, typing away, got a tsing tao

beer in front of me - it's well needed. Greg and i are winding down after a

vigorous massage performed by a deaf lady from one of the minority tribes

here in Yunnan province. She kneaded my calves as though i'd working the

buffalo in the rice paddies all day... sore & bruised now. so I gave her a

healthy tip, two thumbs up and signed to return again soon.

The past 3 weeks have flown by, Greg and I have comfortably slipped back

into being crusty backpackers. Did we really go back to work for a year?

Greg's unshaven and I've worn the same tanktop every day so far, yup, just

like old times. we smell again. After my last mail from Yangshou we (Greg,

I and Mad Phil the fisherman from Perth) took off to the 'The Dragon's

Backbones' (so oriental sounding loike) which is an mountainous area in the

north of guangxi province habited by several minority tribes. The different

tribes have transformed their steep mountains into trillions of rice

terraces and as far a scenery goes, the result is spectacular...so intricate

and almost like a piece of art (will send pics). On the first night, we

arrived late and we were unable to get to our village of choice, so when we

were accosted at the bus station, by a smiley bloke promising the world (a

bed in his village). Off we went. The village was far-flung and gorgeous and

the locals were wrapped to have us there. We were celebs, shortly after

arrival, sitting down to our first 'well-earned' tsingtao beer we were

surrounded by the villagers, smiling and chatting away to us in their local

dialect. uh oh, confusion, no comprehendo, conversation's not going places,

doesn't matter- you can show us your babies, everyone loves babies, big

smiles, tickle tickle. opps baby's crying, sorry i'm not great with kids

...show us your wares then...Mad Phil bought a embroidered fish purse, took

a blow because we upset the kid, the-old-crying-baby-trick, what a sucker.

They were wrapped to have us there.

The language barrier has been an issue a couple of times, though greg, whose

permanently got his nose stuck in a Mandarin phrase book, is trying to

rectify that. he's got a couple of useful phrases under his belt, but

perhaps his most impressive bilingual achievement yet, would be "my wife is

thirsty, she wants beer". It appears he's taking his marriage vows very

seriously indeed, thinking of me 'first and foremost' and all that. I was

stoked. He's also diligently studied the mandarin for all the body-parts

fundamental to a good chinese-moon...elbow, knee, eardrum..etc. still yet to

master how to order two train tickets but you have to prioritise you know...

The younger generation here, particularly the uni students are

super-friendly.We are constantly being approached to pose in photos with

them, which on development will show several dead-pan chinese teens and two

grinning foreign devils, after shots are taken- they're back smiling again,

we swap english phrases and names. Every young english student here has

taken a english name, some are a bit dated: debbie, linda, carol and some

were just poorly thought through, like the shy young lass who goes by the

name, zero. an inferiority complex perhaps? who knows.. Anyway given the

locals had taken english names for our benefit, mandarin-greg thought it

only proper to adopt a chinese name himself. Waking up on a sleeper train a

week or so ago, i peer down from the middle bunk to a compartment full of

eager-young english students practicing their lingo out on greg. He

announces that he'll now be known as: "insert chinese name here", which he

informed- loosely translates to ' I love China'. Apparently he had

bequeathed the name from an eager young english student, who suggested that

given that greg was so fond of china - it was more then suitable. I had a

giggle but later mentioned to greg that the Great & All Powerful Motherland

of China is chokkas with 1.3 billion people pumped with patriotic fervor and

perhaps being Astraylian-mayte, it was his duty to chop down the tall poppy?

Had he considered the name "china, yeah not bad mayte" ? or what about

"china, she'll do i spose.. but the locals don't know how to drop-kick a

sherrin' ? both good alternatives. Us Astraylians don't like to bestow too

much encouragement...

A source of more amusement are the chinglish signs spotted around, which are

the english translation from mandarin. Cruising through black dragon park

today, construction was under-way at the north end, sighted next to a dam

and a building site was the chinglish sign "careful! fall in water

carefully!" chuckle chuckle. Some of the hotels we've stayed in have a

adopted the government stance on educating the mob about the population

crisis, they supply a couple of condoms beside the bed -for a small fee

of-course, and at the last joint we stayed they implore the guest to "please

use condom - 1 entries- 5 yuan." giggle, giggle. oh! and what about the sign

above that loo in kunming, which ask the user to 'please sit with

ease'...well, that all depended on the quality of the street kebabs i'd

eaten the night before really...snicker.

Now in the ancient old city of Lijiang, which is a gorgeous cobble-stoned

town with a network of canals flowing past the old chinese houses... really

unique. we were headed up to the leaping tiger gorge for a spot of trekking

but have been advised that the summer rains have caused landslides and the

death of two trekkers last week..soo, the beach in thailand beckons instead.

we're headed there on monday.

much love to you - wishing you one thousand good lucks & long life with

prosperities to everybodies.

xxxx cara xxx