Anguilla and China

I left Australia on the 2nd April and after a stop in LA, an overnight in New York and cab ride in St Maarten and a ferry ride I arrived in Anguilla on 3rd April.

Jusy and Tony picked me up and as soon as we were back at the house we hada dip in their new pool which is gorgeous.  Nick and Louise arrived the following day and ended up staying 3 weeks instead of 2 thanks to the Icelandic ash cloud, well definitely worse places to be trapped.

We spent our time kicking back either on the beach or by the pool, reading, playing cards, trivial pursuits, talking, eating and drinking.  On 10th April it was Judy's 60th and we had a party for about 40 round the swimming pool which was good fun and Judy put on an amazing spread of food as always.

We went over to St Maarten for the day in the second week and had a pootle round the market in Marigot (french side) and then over to Phillipsburg on the Dutch side of the island, before heading back to Marigot and Tropicana a fab french restaurant where we ate like kings and managed to polish off a bottle of banana rum between us.  Certianly made the ferry ride home interesting and the subsequent game of Trivial Pursuits.

Week 3 I sarted diving which were amazing its like spring underwater at that time of year so there were baby everythings down there it was fab, the viz was the best I've seen it, we sawm sharks, turtles, sting rays, moray eels, 12 cray fish in one cave, a lobster the size of an adult pig (it made me jump it was so big), spanish mackerel, peacock flounders, barracuda, remora and most magical of all we heard humpback whales singing underwater.  Managed to do my deepest dive to date at 39m and my longest dive of 1hr 30mins, Rob has started to call me cashew lung.

Wednesdays we went to Ferry Boat for Wings night and Sundays was Uncle Ernies followed by dancing at Gwen's which was good fun and I ended up with a regular dance partner in the form of Michael.  My last night in Anguilla Judy and Tony took me to Sand Bar in Sandy Ground as a treat for my birthday where we had some of the most amazing tapas food I have ever had.

Before Iknew it my 4.5 weeks in Anguilla were up and it was time to head to China.  First stop was an overnighter in Miami that was after I spent 2 hours in immigration thanks to my lost passport in Samoa, apparently this is going to happen everytime I go to the states ... ntoe to self no more trips to the states.  I then flew to LA the following day and then to Melbourne.  However our flight was delayed 5 hours in Melbourne due to a problem with the plane which then meant we had to make an unscheduled stop in Sydney because the crew had been in the air too long so all in all it took me 57 hours to get from Anguilla to Melbourne.  Once there I learnt that my bag was still in LA and would not be arriving until the following day.

So I had a couple of night with my lovely friend Carly who I used to work with at the Guardian and who is now working in Melbourne for Disney.  So lovely to catch up with her and have a few nice meals out, the weather in Melbourne was very autumnal which was nice.  Next stop was Singapore for 2 nights and there I met up with an old School friend Sarah who I hadn't seen for years.  We had alovely afternoon catching up over lunch and a bottle of iwne and then I managed to convince her to come and have a Singapore Sling with me at the Raffles Hotel which was sadly quite disappointing as cocktails go but at least I have done it and now can hang my Raffles Hotel picture in my flat justified.

Next I was headed via Guangzhou to Guilin in China where I was picked up by Dad and Fang at the airport.  I was already starting to realise that I was going to struggle in China as no one really speaks any English and all packaging and signs tend to be in Chinese.  Trying to be a firm toothbrush turned into a mission for the 3 weeks I was there and I never succeeded not to mention the fact that when I tried to get tablets for chronic indegestion I ended up with Ketamin but becasue it was all in Chinese I didn't realise until I'd already taken 2 tablets ... well it sorted the pain in my hip out ;-)

So yes I managed to pull something in my hip the night I arrived and spent most of my time in China hobbling, I then developed a rash on my neck and then this really bad indegestion all of which was followed by me taking to my bed for the last few days I was in China feeling sick, achey and tired.

Dad was also not well whilst I was there his leg and foot are still playing up badly which unfortunately put paid to our planned trip to Beijing and to see the terracotta warriors.  But we did manage an overnight trip to Yanshou about an hour and half away and very quaint.  Although a little tacky touristy I actually really liked it.  We were meant to see a light show on the lake but unfortunately due to heavy rain it was cancelled.  Instead the day we did the 4 hours Lijian River trip from Guilin to Yangshou we also booked to see the show that night, it was really lovely and my camera just could not do it justice.

The weather was also pretty awful whilst I was in Guilin it rained all bar 4 or 5 days and one of those days I was sick in bed.

We had some good meals out though, Fang taught me how to make dumplings (watch this space London crew dinner party fodder), I learnt a little bit of Chinese in particular how to say NO, I saw some very very funny things and learnt that I never ever want to have to drive in China (rule one of driving in China is there are no rules).

On one of the sunny days we drove up into the mountains and went to see the Dragon Back Mountains and padi fields which were great and I got a flavour of what rural China is like.

Fang also took me to various parks and I got to have a look insdie a buddhist temple, see pandas and some lovely if slightly luridly lit caves.  We also did a night cruise on the lakes which are also luridly lit.

Then again in a flash my 3 weeks were up and it was tim to head for Africa.