My visit to China

[Martin]

And what's wrong with balut???  Hahaha. If I remember right, I ate wild mouse on my first trip to China, and ate dog on my second.

[shaun]

On previous trips to China I have suggested to Peggy that we should try balut (I meant to say durian.) She scrunches up her nose and says no.  Not good.  So I guess I am safe from eating it.

[john1964]

durian, the smell makes me want to vomit

[shaun]

I never noticed the smell in the store.  My nose is pretty sensitive.  Hmmm.....

I think I'll trust my wife on this one considering all the others have said.

Martin is a different story.  He is like Mikey, he'll eat anything.  But then again he is from Canada.

[Willy The Londoner]

I never noticed the smell in the store.  My nose is pretty sensitive.  Hmmm.....

If you could not smell them I would suggest that either they had deep frozen them or more likely what you saw was plastic ones and the real Durian were locked in an air tight cupboard.

 Once ingested into your nasal system it will be there in your brain for ever and many things will bring it back to mind time and time again.

Willy

[Arnold]

I was brave enough ones (ones mind you) to try Durian Ice Cream. IT didn't smell, but the taste still mkaes my hair stand up on my back. Wait a minute, I don't even have hair there!

[Martin]

You guys are all a bunch of wimps. Here, I thought I was amongst brave men, who go where few have dared to travel, to face the challenge of a long distance/cross cultural relationship, and none of you can handle durian?  What kind of men have I surrounded myself with here?  Heehee

[shaun]

In case you haven't figured this one out Martin; many wise men.

[Willy The Londoner]

A friend of mine once took a Durian on the plane back to California. 

On arrival at Los Angeles he went to collect his baggage from the carousel and found the entire LA Swat team surrounding it with gas masks on faces and with heavy artillery and half of LAPD outside the terminal and they had made a 5 block exclusion zone.

They thought that they were under some sort of gas attack!

They did of course deny access to the item in question and the exclusion zone was only lifted after the 'suspicious item' was blown to pieces in the middle of the airfield.   That was a big mistake as it took 3 months for the air over LA to clear!

Willy

[IrishGuy65]

Durian is not on my itinerary any longer. Got the smell and that was enough.

In Lijiang now. First day was great. Walked around old city all day. Near the end of the day the rain came and it never stopped. I like to walk in the rain but Hongping is not used to the cooler weather and that, plus the rain, is too much for her.

I have read so many things about Chinese women on these forums. Hongping is no different I suppose.  The funniest thing about her is that she is worried that she is too small. She thinks I like bigger Western women. She doesn't understand, I guess, that one of the reasons I was interested in Chinese women is just that.

Anyway, having a great time. She is a phenomenal woman. Truly special and I am very happy that I decided to make the trip here. Now all I need to do is learn Chinese and find a job here so I don't have to leave next week!

[Willy The Londoner]

Glad to hear that things are going well. Trouble is time goes by so fast. You need to be using the language on a daily basis I find.

My wife and I spoke Chinglish more and more until I taught her more English. But after more than 4 years here I decided that the time was right to learn Mandarin.  They have different dialects in various parts of the country but most will understand basic Mandarin.  So for my birthday I arranged a years lessons.
 
So I have now completed my first month of lessons.  I have a teacher come to me every day for one hour. (I do get the weekends off.)
She is very good and has perfect English having gone to Uni in New Zealand.  She even understands many of the slang expressions.

The first three weeks were hard going. But suddenly in the fourth week everything started to come together.  I cannot wait for the the six months to pass to see if I can converse freely or not.  Already my wife and I have dropped the Chinglish and English and I have to talk with her in Chinese.

Willy

[David E]

Try "stinky tofu"....If you can manage to keep that down, Durian will taste like the finest Ambrosia ..........

ps...I love Durian, grew up eating the stuff...just forget the smell, enjoy the taste !!!!

[Martin]

I forgot about stinky tofu...now there was something I did not like!

It's great to hear that you are enjoying your trip. Keep the updates coming. I am enjoying your story.

[Arnold]

IG... it's great to see some "New" life come to this forum with your arrival in the promise land. BTW.. I like small too, but tall .  Does that make any sense?

Great to see your out of the starting gate with your Gal by your side.

[IrishGuy65]

Today we visited Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. We decided on using a travel agency and booked a tour.  The first stop on the tour was a mountain lake... I already forget the name.. Very nice and picturesque.  I'll have pictures once I'm home.  Then we go to yak country. You walk around, mostly, on an old boardwalk. Now, it is raining heavily and regularly in this part of China.  So we are done our viewing, and heading back to the bus area when my adventurous little girl finds a side track. She wants to check it out, but I'm tired from the thin air at 3000 meters, so I say "Make a quick trip and I'll wait here."  Well she is skipping along enjoying the views when she takes a hard fall. She ripped the knee out of her jeans, and is scratched up on knee and hip. I feel so guilty that I didn't go with her. Anyway, I run over to her but she says she is fine and we make it back to the bus no problem.  The mountain is the next stop and when we get off the bus, her knee is stiff and sore.

She tries to do to much, and now t s swollen and painful. She won't let me take her to the hospital to get it checked out. She won't take anti-inflammatory meds (I have some Aleve).  So I have her in bed with her feet up and a cold compress on her knee.  Tomorrow is our last day in Lijiang and she thinks she s going to be fine. Even if she is, I think she s going to be resting LOL.

So far, except for this least incident, it has been good.   We have had a lot of fun together and had some good conversations (serious and otherwise).  It has been a great trip and I just want to thank everyone who helped me to this point.