Shortly after my last postcard, I walked out into the market and saw a stall where they were selling puppies on leashes. The puppies were small little balls of fur doing puppy things - tying the leashes in knots and generally getting into scrapes. There was a girl there with her father, and they were deciding which puppy to buy. It was a heart-warming scene - right up to the moment when they chose, and the stall-holder picked up the puppy and put it on a weighing scales before handing it to the father with a few words in Mandarin, which I assume were the equivalent of "...remember that a puppy isn't just for Christmas, with a few imaginative recipes you should be able to make it last well into the new year". Apparently puppy is to dog what veal is to beef. Anyway... to other news. One of our number is called Derrick, but he prefers to go by the name "Del Boy". Wherever we go, he is a hit with the local children. A couple of days back, we stopped in a village just as school broke up and Del was mobbed. So he stood there and introduced himself. He pointed to himself and said "Del Boy". "Del Boy" came the chorus from the children. They liked the sound, so they said it again and again. "Del Boy. Del Boy." This planted the seed of an idea. When we next stopped in a village, the same sort of thing happened, except we took the opportunity to teach them a few more words. So, if you're ever chased through a village in Guizhou by a pack of children calling out "mange tout Rodney, mange tout", you'll know that we were there first. We are now in a little town called Yangshuo on the Li River, about two days drive north of Hong Kong. We had a long drive yesterday (17 hours) along some of the worst roads of the entire journey, but it was worth it as the scenery here is spectacular. Tomorrow we are going to cruise down the river, then we will go out for a bike ride before finishing up with some comorant fishing. Three more days until we reach Hong Kong!