Considering that it’s been over three weeks since we returned from China, and we are already deep, deep into the regular routine, and friends are starting to comment on this lack of closure….here we go on a whirlwind recap of our last few days in China and our trip back.

On January 3rd, while Aaron went off to work, David and I went back to Vide Lu to stock up on some good Chinese souvenirs. A couple of hours later, we made our way to Aaron’s school, laden with candles, a couple of Chinese jackets, and various other knick-knacks. We met up with a bunch of Aaron’s friends for dinner at an Irish-style Pub. David and Aaron enjoyed real steak, and we had a great time hanging out with Aaron’s friends. We took a squishy cab ride back home, and that was about all we did that day! (or we did more but I can’t remember it! I suppose this is what I get for not blogging for three weeks!)

January 4th had us all up bright and early (11:00 hee hee) to go to the Zoo before Aaron had to go to work at 5:00. You wouldn’t believe the zoo there, it was incredible. Having seen Zoos in India, this one looked like a safari. There was so much space and it was beautifully landscaped. We enjoyed a “safari” ride on a little bus/train through the open area where the animals are relatively free to roam (except for the lions, tigers and such). Here are a couple of great shots we took on our 45 minute ride.

This camel was clearly enjoying the attention of the twenty or so travelers on our little train/bus ride, smiling oh-so-nicely for our cameras.

You can just see the end of our train at the left of the photo.

We’re not exactly sure what kind of animal the Chinese think this is…. maybe they put it there to complete the “safari” feel, or it was what they used to transport the black bear we saw just on the other side of the pond? Either way, it looks like it made for some good stress relief for the bears!

Although we took about 100 photos during our safari, for times sake, let’s move on to the next part of our Zoo Adventure….the white tiger show! Seated in a huge outdoor theatre with a circular cage in the middle, up to twenty white tigers performed a magnificent show. Most of our photos didn’t turn out too well, but there are some images which will be burned in our minds for a loooong time. Let’s just say it didn’t turn out so well for the people who chose to sit in the first few rows when the tigers were backed up against the cage, back paws about 5 feet or so up the cage, and obviously feeling some pressure on their bladders! Here’s one shot of a tiger jumping through a hoop of fire.

After the tiger show, we shelled out about $4 to be able to hold and take pictures of a baby white tiger. How could I resist? The little one I got to hold was a tad wriggly, but so cute. Did you know that white tigers have blue eyes?

We then headed to the “Animal Kindergarten” to see more cute little animals. There were lots of tigers and a baby cheetah, but the ones who stole our hearts were two little chimpanzees who were dressed up and clearly enjoying all the attention!

We finished our time at the Zoo with another animal show, this time it was the elephants turn to show off! The first act with a baby elephant involved a clown and was really funny. Then they went on to do the usual balancing and playing football. Here is the final pose of the elephants.

After being in China for over a week, we finally did what all tourists do in China… go see the temples. With a map, a metro guide and a good sense of adventure we set off. The first one we found was a huge complex with at least 8 different buildings connected with a courtyard. There were lots of people there, burning incense to many different idols. With David’s freshly shaved head, and his newly acquired Chinese shirt, some of the monks mistook him for a new convert! All he needed was a set of beads! With one temple sighting under our belt, we headed out to find another one which was supposedly in the same area. As we meandered through the small streets trying to head in the general direction, we experienced a part of China we hadn’t seen yet. It seemed to feel more like real China than the malls and fancy housing developments we’d seen. Winding through alleyways, finding our way I thought of something my Dad would say when out exploring a new place, “Why take the same road twice?” We did find our next spot, paid our entrance and walked around the courtyard. Here are some photos…

Aaron is standing by a wall that has engraved blue-prints and plans for the Pagoda on the left. At this temple, while David and Aaron were off taking photos I went into the large “sanctuary” and witnessed a monk praying for someone, chanting and playing a type of percussion instrument. It was really interesting.

We rode back into downtown on the metro and ate lunch at the Brazilian Restaurant that David liked so much. Aaron went back to work, and David and I spent some time wandering around the mall. When we found a Canadian candy store I stocked up! I only bought about 3 pounds worth! (I am addicted to candy.) Here is a photo of David and I at the restaurant, followed by our daily digest of “Mock the Bad Use of English”.

Unfortunately, we had some sad business to conduct in the last couple of days in China. One night after gallivanting around Guangzhou, we returned home to find that David’s hard drive on his MacBook had died. Just up and died. So we had to buy another hard drive, and get someone to try and recover some of his files. Considering that all of David’s work is stored on his MacBook, this was pretty devastating. The silver lining in this situation is that it was easier and cheaper to buy a new hard drive in China than it would have been in Dhaka. So while some of our time and money was unexpectedly spent, we managed to get things sorted before coming back to Dhaka.

On January 6th, I woke up early to say good bye to Aaron, since he had to be off to work at 7:00. David and I packed up and left around 10:00 to catch a taxi to the airport. The only problem we encountered was being slightly overweight at check-in. Fortunately, they didn’t charge us too much for the excess baggage and we made it safely to Kunming. We had read (in the Lonely Planet Guide) that the hotel we were going to stay at had a complimentary shuttle between the airport and hotel. Wandering around trying to find it was tiring, and utterly useless, so we settled for a taxi….well, what we thought was a taxi. As we waited for the taxi to pull up, I was reminded of a sign I’d seen as we exited the airport, “For your safety, do not use illegal taxi”. As a grungy van pulled up in front of us, we realised we’d been had. Nevertheless, we got in the van, and as our driver took us farther and farther away from the airport, it was clear she (or the man beside her) didn’t have any clue how to get to the hotel. Eventually we made it and were whisked away to a wonderful room with its own thermostat (Kunming was FREEZING). We enjoyed a buffet dinner in the hotel’s revolving restaurant before retiring.

In the morning we again had breakfast at the restaurant before heading back to the airport. (This time we took a real taxi) Afraid we were going to have to pay more overweight we had kept quite a lot of Yuan. The lady who checked us in had pity on us and didn’t charge us anything! We made it through immigration with no problem and spent all the rest of our Yuan in the duty free! I got a great purse and a place-mat/chopstick/napkin set. Finally settled in the plane, we were dismayed to hear that our plane was going to be delayed….for nine passengers who were late. We couldn’t believe it! Since we were flying a low cost airline, our plane was parked way out away from the terminal, and so we waited, and read our books; and they served lunch on the ground, and FINALLY the nine other passengers showed up over an hour later! At least we didn’t have a connection to make, but one of the school bus drivers was waiting to pick us up! The flight itself was fine, and it was great to land in Dhaka to hear that the temperature was 25 degrees! The customs officials gave us a hard time because our re-entry visa expired on the very day we landed, but we assured them we would go that evening to extend our visa. (It’s a long story!)

Well, this didn’t really turn out to be the shortest re-cap, but I hope you enjoyed reading about our trip. It was great to see Aaron, spend time with him and experience a new country. I got four more signatures in my flight log book, and now we are planning a trip to India in April! Stay tuned for more adventures!