Off Again Soon

Looks like I will be leaving Dalian soon, off on my travels. I got a phone call from a guy who I went to college with and he and his girlfriend (sorry Seamus, fiancée (or financée as one guy put it!)) are arriving in China today. They fly into Guangzhou and then plan to head to Hong Kong for a couple of days. I want to meet them somewhere after that, so it looks like I will go to Shanghai this weekend and meet them there!

We’ll then do a bit of travelling. It would be cool to go to some new places, but we’ll see how time goes. Maybe we could go to Putuo Shan in Zhejiang province and there is also old reliable (and quite pleasant and not so crowded at this time) Hangzhou and Suzhou to see. I’d love to see more remote places like Sichuan and Guizhou, which are supposed to have some spectacular scenery and different ethnic cultures. I can do that myself another time. I was recommended the China Backpacker website for travel to places a little bit more off the beaten Lonely Planet track. I’m not dissing Lonely Planet. Often there is very useful stuff in it that would be difficult to find otherwise. I mainly use it for an overview of areas and usually find accommodation and eating places myself. In China, however, all the “scenic spots” as described in touristy folklore are all mobbed. It’s nice to find a quieter place!

Dalian’s internet is still slow. I read yesterday that it will take another two weeks to fix the undersea cables. To be honest, I don’t think they actually know. They are using grappling hooks to scour the seabed in search of the cables, since it is too deep for even unmanned submarine to operate. So, who knows how long it will take! I hear the internet in Shanghai works fine. Thank God for that! Maybe I will be able to upload some pics when I get there.