Birthday Post

Hey gang. I realize it's been quite awhile since I last posted. Sorry for that. I'm still alive and well and more or less in one piece. Maybe if you all would comment more I'd have more initiative ;). Heh. Ok, what to write about...? Strange thing about being abroad is that so much is always happening that it becomes routine. While I'm sure there are many things I could tell you about, there's nothing that really stands out in my mind. If you have any queries, just send them my way and I can answer them in my blog. As it is, I'll try to fill this blog with content and not ramblings of a madman.

Since I last posted, I did a bit of traveling. I spent about 5 days on the beautiful island of Hainan, "the asian hawaii". It was quite beautiful. I also didn't realize how massive the island itself was. It's bigger than Taiwan! Much to the dismay of my parents, I was going there at the same time a massive typhoon was creeping across the island. Fortunately for me, I was there right after the typhoon hit. I was also in the most southern city of Sanya while the typhoon only hit up north. The weather was gorgeous. With the exception of a torrential downpour for about 2hrs on a random day, the sun was hot and the sky was just a shade bluer than the sea. I traveled with another tpa friend named ruthie. We felt like we needed some time out of Shangers. Some time to kick back and relax; detox if you will. Aside from the fact that she's a fun girl, Ruthie's family has accumulated a rediculous amount of credit at the Marriot because of her father's job. Through the immense generosity of her parents, we basically ate, drank and slept at the Marriot Resort for free. It was quite possibly the nicest hotel I've ever been to. This picture on the left is the view from our balcony. The structure on the right is part of the hotel where on the first floor all the restaurants are located an on the third floor is a big open ballroom area where live music is played each night. The odd thing about this beautiful locale was that there was nothing else there. NOTHING. There were a handful of other resorts in area, but no restaurants, no bars, no small shops even. We had to take a bus about 40minutes to get into town to buy anything. The town itself was large enough I suppose, but horribly underdeveloped and not meant to cater to tourists whatsoever. So we stayed at the resort for the entirety of our stay, which was just fine with us. We spent our days laying on the beach or sitting at the outdoor bar relaxing and have pleasant talks. I occasionally joined the staff in playing some beach soccer at which point I got quite burnt, but it was more than worth it. We actually became quite friendly with the staff. Everyone was wonderfully pleasant, always willing to talk and ready with a quick smile. Not all spoke english, but after being in Shanghai where nobody even tried to speak english, it was a nice change. It had been awhile since I was treated cordially by a chinese person so my faith was reaffirmed that only the Shanghainese were rude and pushy. We also befriended one of the bands that traveled from restaurant to restaurant within the hotel played acoustic chilled out music. They were all brothers (and a cousin) from Bahli. The one which spoke the best English, Benny, would come over and talk to us frequently and our discussions would often drift into southeast asian economics and politics. A fascinating fellow. He also took us into town and showed us what little there was to see. We also befriended another band that did evening shows. It was three girls singing and dancing and one guy accompanying them on the piano, all filipino. They did a range of music from Hotel California to Scrubs by TLC. It was quite entertaining. After some sad farewells to the wonderful people of Sanya we hitched a plane to Guilin. Well, we were supposed to have a direct flight, but had our flight cancelled and diverted to another city whose name I can't evening remember. We had a 7hr layover in the airport before we got a connecting flight to Guilin. We were picked up in Guilin by a taxi organized by our hotel in Yangshuo which is about 2 hrs away. Later that evening we met up with other friends that had come from Hong Kong and all had a much needed sleep. This photo is the view from our window in the little hotel where we stayed. It was called the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat and was filled with the most wonderful people. The main girl that checks people in was named Angel and was born with brittle bone disease and had extreme stunted growth because of it. She was not formally educated but taught herself english and hotel management skills. an impressive girl to say the least. She was always willing to organize our transportation, get us cheap tickets to certain surrounding events and advise us as to what was a good way to pass the hours. We spent one day taking a river cruise. Angel's brother came with us and spent the whole day showing us around. He took us to an acient fishing village, where he was from and took us to his house. He never asked for money (although we gave him some), only that we help him improve his english. We spent another day taking a 4 hour van to Longshan which was a village in the mountains surrounded by terraced rice fields. It was absolutely amazing. It was a wonderful week and hard to come back to shanghai. It was also difficult coming back to Shanghai because all the people I was traveling with had only a few days before they went home. Since returning it's been the regular shanghai life. Saying hello and goodbye, eating out, drinking out, playing some pool, etc. It's been good. These last few weeks will cruise on by. I have more I could write, but the evening is wearing on and I'll be going out for a birthday dinner here soon. Take care everyone. I'll write again soon.... hopefully. Heh. Stay in touch.