Lovely lazy sleepy morning. Coffee. Chatting. Reading. Lazy. Cooked up some travel plans and Sam booked our Yongding guest house. Eventually we got dressed and got the 58 bus to go shopping. Our fellow passengers stared so long and hard at us, I began to wonder if I had accidentally put my bra
on over my t-shirt.
Lunch was Wasabi squid and Japanese noodles (yum yum) before the Mission to Get The Train Tickets. We walked to a ticket booth, where the Mission involved an inordinate amount of slightly raised voices and frenetic telephone calls to Sam's Chinese friend. We were informed via our phone translator that Ange and I could get a ticket to Yongding on Wednesday.... but could not get a return (because of the Spring festival). We decided to take a wild risk and purchase said ticket in the hope that we will manage to find our way back!!
We wandered back through busy market stalls and shops listening to blaring dance tunes, hollering on megaphones and 'savouring' the aroma from the river. As a random treat, we all bought ourselves watches for under £2.50.
I then went for a facial with Sam. The staff pointed disapprovingly at the Chinese products and smilingly showed us the more expensive cosmetics which she informed us were 'L'oreal'; unfortunately the bottles were labelled 'Leonreal' which rather undermined her claims! Possibly the best facial I have ever had in terms of the effect on my skin, but the atmosphere was not the most relaxing. In the UK, or elsewhere, most treatments I have ever had involve calming, meditative music. This particular treatment was accompanied by the blaring competing sounds of what sounded like Indian/Chinese line dancing music and bad Europop. The atmosphere got no more relaxing when Ange came back from her manicure and kept up a running commentary of what they were slapping on our faces. Matters reached a crescendo when the girl doing my facial started shaving my eyebrows with a cut throat razor!
We then braved Carrefour supermarket before getting a rickshaw back to the English school - a little hairy as rickshaw drivers don't seem to bother with any conventions such as traffic lights or driving on the right...
Dinner tonight was at Sam's favourite rstaurant - Hui Hiang. Half the restaurant was comprised of tanks where our dinner was merrily swimming about. Sam and Ange went off to select our food and returned having chosen us prawns, white fish and scallops. All washed down with Kirin beer. Another amusing moment when we tried to leave a small tip for the waiting staff who had been so kind and patient; one of the young waitresses ran after us with the money, thinking we had left it behind!!