Hi All

Ok I am a bit delayed and am trying to write this from a taxi going to Lungbau..where the elephants are....not sure bout the spelling but the pronunciation is okay after the 30th try (oh and its being posted delayed as no net connection in Chang Thai and was too tired in Chiang Mai).

When we last left y'all Dave had bailed on me and I was going shopping with Darla and Shauna to Shenzhen. Shenzhen is really about shopping that is it. For those who don't know it is on mainland China...so....gotta cross the border into actual China...this is a good part of the story. Now to get there Darla like the efficient tour guide that she is she set it all up....got a bus to a taxi waiting for us as it's a bit of a drive thru really neat terrain. Then he dumps us near the border and then we catch a train to the border crossing Even crossed the big bridge most might have seen on MegaStructures on discovery channel....it's really long.....took them like a year or so...we can't even build a bridge over Anthony Henday in like 10 years....hmmmmm.

So all is going great kind of like a swiss watch....we get to the border and go thru the first check....no prob....so fine Darla has us filling all the forms in and all that then we go to the next step and we have to fill in the Swine flu form...we do this and stand in line to go thru...kinda stupid actually as it asks you are you sick...yes or no....feel like you have the flu....yes or no....etc etc...oh and before this we went thru thermal imaging cameras. So answered all the questions with no's and gave the forms to the guy......he looks.....then he must have seen pig doo doo on mine or Shauna's shoes cause he scooped me and Shauna up quicker than I could blink....you come with me, soon as he saw we were from Canada....the land of plagues and pestilence....oh man that is so funny specially coming from the Chinese....I am giggling writing this.

So Darla is not one of us now as she is a Hong Kong resident...so she tags along as this guys takes us to a special room full of people with surgical masks...they shove masks in our face and we got the jest that we had to put them on. The took us inside and Darla had to wait outside....but she could see us. The sphincter muscles are starting to pulse a bit.   Right about here Shauna is thinking this is stupid and about to tell em so and I kinda let here know that ya we should just nod and grin at whatever....they did not look like the joking types at all. They sit us down and stick thermometers in our arm pits and start babbling in the local language...only cause not one of them could say "Hi how are you...you got the flu?" in english...took a bit then they pulled thermometers out and started babblin agin...then the boss of the bunch started to ask questions Kinda like "You long many Canda how time days?"  About the Fifth time my universal translator kicks in and I spit out "3 days", then they had a hard time with where we were staying so we got Darla in and we all waved hands and babbled and they got the jest. He started filling in forms and poof...gave me a form after they figured out we were not sick...note they didn't give a form to Shauna...so off went while the gettin was good.  

So we go upstairs and get our visa's....no prob...takes a bit of time and 140 chinese dollars...note not Hong Kong dollars....not good here...figure that one out we can't cause case you didn't know China owns Hong Kong. So that was a big challenge as don't know how much money to convert.  

Did I mention everybody here is like really official....they do not joke at all.

Off we go thinking we just need to get the final customs stamp and cross....turn a corner and another swine flu check....long story short...we had to fill in the same forms again for Shauna cause she didn't get the other form and the guy looked like he was going to crap his pants by letting us go...,.but he did....off to the customs agent and then we made it thru....that was easy...not. Wow standing in communist China to go shopping of all things...bizarre....

NOw its only a short walk to the Mall......holy crap its huge....easy to really get lost in there. Lost count of how many times they say "Missy Missy!"  or "Mister Mister"   But man you can buy anything from iphones to golg clubs and everyone is a knockoff. Once you walk in you are instantly hit with "MISSY MISSY" or "MISTER MISTER" or "YOU COME LOOK MY STUFFFFF!!!! (they kind of sing that one and drag the stuffff out while changing pitch).  

So soon as we walk in a really nice Chinese girl offers to show us her stuff...or take us where we need to go. Darla has a list of good shops so she leads us on to shop number one....clothes store...nice stuff. So going back to how much to money to exchange...well we lasted one shop....yup one shop!! We were like outta chinese bucks.....crap....not using the credit card here (rough area actually). So we get talked into checking out our escorts shop she and her husband have a watch and bag shop...she figured while times were hard she would just try to help customers and become friends and she was on to a good thing cause we almost ended up buying some of her stuff too. Only saving grace was we were low on chinese bucks. So if you are ever there look for Q Q (yup that is spelt right too).

We actually saw one of the shops getting busted by the police...they hauled everything away...seems they were selling knock offs....can you believe that....thousands of shops and all of them selling knockoffs and they busted that one....very weird. Had some lunch in there at some point was not bad...awesome fresh cooked bun served with the soup and very nice service. So we wandered around for a bit and made the call for our ride to meet us across the border and off we went. No issues getting into Hong Kong at least.  

Darla whipped up some supper and we chilled till time to hit the hay...so packed up to get ready for Chiang Main and the elephants its and early flight...

Interesting...I am finishing this in our cabin deck in Chang Thai Resort....the buzz saw bugs are going crazy...between strange things howling and these bugs buzzing its really bizarre..can barely hear the tunes on the iphone....nice view though....