November 7th “What a beautiful day” said one of us before looking down to the car park. Over the river the mountains were beautiful, down below we were blocked in.
There was a phone number on the dashboard of the car blocking us in and once the owner had, with our permission, cleaned his teeth and washed his face, we were on our way. Once I had my new (this year’s) medical book in my hand it was time for a drive. We were heading towards the beach but at the last minute I took a turning to鹿回头Lù huítóu scenic peak park. It is somewhere we haven’t been before so it was good for her, and it was good for me! The first photos however show that it also has other uses.
It is quite a touristy place but we were very much left to our own devices. It is free to visit if you don’t want to use the sightseeing buses. Once we had confirmed (just about) how long a walk it would be, we decided to set off on foot.
Entrance was by the use of Huan’s hukou card, here is the good lady herself and the portal.
The name of the park translates as deer looking back and as soon as we were inside deer started popping up everywhere, not real ones I hasten to add.
Although the walk was uphill, it was a very pleasant one. Our first stop was the ‘city view’ observation platform; that called for a panorama of course!
Just after that there is a lovely little hotel.
The rooms are container style nestled in among the trees, the bedrooms having floor to ceiling windows and facing the forest and the distant city. It is not cheap, ¥850.00 per night. No business cards were available neither was a website. To book, you need to install an app on your phone. I really don’t like doing that! Afterwards I had a chat with this fellow, I forgot to check his name and on which mission he had spacewalked.
Soon there were more deer and then a sign all about Sonya’s push for zero waste. I like the deer that look like deer and not the white geometrical one in the middle.
Earlier we had seen a sign warning us about the monkeys and telling us to basically give them a wide berth. I had taken a photo of that sign but I threw it in the bin when I saw this sign. It is so much more amusing. The English probably has very little to do with the Chinese but hey, who cares. It gets the message across and that is the most important use of a sign.
Needless to say we did not see, or hear any monkeys during our visit. We also didn’t hear many birds. I think they, and the monkeys, are probably scared off, not just by the tourists but also by the incessant sound of piped music.
Here is another view of the city and a sign showing the other thing the mountain is famous for. If you look closely you will see the vending machines installed as part of the sign. This park is very well serviced for refreshments. Apart from the vending machines there are many small cafés catering to all tastes, including ‘Chinese tea’ and ‘fresh coffee’.
Just around that spot, or maybe a little further up, we had the
This gate marks the entrance to the most famous part, just after which I posed Huan sat down. You can see that it says “Top! Sit Down!” It is actually “Stop! Sit Down” but I didn’t think of that while I was composing the photograph. All I was thinking of was the two fingered ‘V’ which I am most definitely not a fan of but everyone likes to do it.
The next observation platform was the ‘sea side’. We tried going home that way in the car afterwards, another dumb move. It is a peninsula!
There were two or three live deer near the summit but we are not
going to share those photos with you. They were fine but the deer didn’t look
too happy. Instead we will show you what it is all about, with an explanation
from Expedia: - “The statue is dedicated to a love story, popular with the Li
people of
Would you like to see some shiny deer now? I’m glad you said yes.
I had no choice I’m afraid, I just had to take this next photo. I wonder if “Road Runner” and “Wile E. Coyote” are around here somewhere. As youngsters we never realised that ‘acme’ actually had a meaning, it is the point at which something is at its best or most highly developed. "Physics is the acme of scientific knowledge". The photo is below, for the cartoon version, go here - https//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acme_Corporation
We may not have had coyotes or roadrunners we did have a squirrel. Unfortunately for the artistic director it was something else that was not real. It did have a loudspeaker installed in its stomach though, and it looked quite cute!
As in all Chinese tourist spots, and for all I know worldwide ones these days, you have to pass through the gift shop on the way out. Huan wouldn’t let me buy anything!
I was allowed to say goodbye to the deer outside the restrooms though before I went in myself for a quick look around, very nice they were too.
Being the cheapskates we are, and checking the snack prices at the park, we decided to start our drive home. Luck was on our side, we found a Pala burger place where two wraps were on sale, Tuesday’s prices were ¥17.00 for the two. Back at the park it had been ¥29.00 for only one!
Well that was not a bad day; at least we did something different and enjoyed it. Back home of course I compared my medical book with the one from last year and while some things have definitely improved, (liver, kidneys, gallbladder, and pancreas) my heart still seems odd. One of the medical words relates to high blood pressure which, because of all the medication I am on, I never seem to have trouble with. Maybe we’ll do a local check, although the clinic in Sanya did say there was nothing to worry about. I’m due another test locally in March anyway.
November 8th We had very British weather this morning so rain stopped play. On both our parts, sheer bone idleness stopped play in the afternoon. In the evening we had no choice, Huan had to go back to the phone shop to try, once again, to remove 5G from her phone. Somehow, she keeps managing to upgrade from 4 to 5 without knowing how. Leaving her in the shop I walked around for a while looking at the local lovelies! It’s not yellow but I’ll take it anyway!
Once the good lady rejoined me we had a little walk around the town, just to get some exercise in. All we saw was the old fashioned tourist bus, one of these days we’ll go on it.
November 9th It wasn’t rain that stopped play this morning it was a very sleepy husband! I heard Huan get out of bed and in my mind I was wide awake and ready to follow her. A long walk had been proposed yesterday. My brain had other ideas and I went straight back to sleep. That’s how I stayed until Huan woke me up a little after nine.
After lunch I insisted that the new driver go out and have some more practice. Huan is thinking once a week is enough, I am telling her that she should be in the car at every chance she gets. Our first problem was reversing out of a parking space. They teach them to reverse in but not out. Another thing they don’t teach them, as I found out later, is three point turns. Anyway, here she is just before setting off for a little solo practice.
I left her to it and went off for a relaxing walk and a bit of shopping. Here is someone giving me a touch of the evil eye! If Huan had been with me you would also have seen a photo of me being pecked, not very viciously however.
This goose and associated goslings was at the side of the road with the farmer. He was selling the goslings at ¥35.00 each, shame we have no garden. I think the farmer and I may have had a communication breakdown, he told me that all the goslings you can see came from the same (mother), the bird above. Checking on brood sizes I wonder if he meant the same father!
I found another car with decals for your perusal; this one was an ORA, quite a handsome little electric car. It has the look of an old beetle about it but a bit wider, longer and flatter. We both quite like the look of it. However, we cannot tell you anything about these stickers at all; maybe you can enlighten us instead.
The shopping list only had baps on it, Baijiahui had been out of stock last night so I thought I would utilise the time to try again this afternoon. I was in luck, here said baps enjoying a rest with me having a coffee break before rejoining Huan.
Huan was having so much fun by herself that she managed to drive right past me standing at the side of the road with two handfuls of baps! Once home chef Bob was in the kitchen again, wonton soup was on the menu today. The wontons were store bought but the soup was down to me of course. It worked very well with added noodles for Huan. After dinner I dragged Huan out, told her she needed some exercise too! Down by the river I marvelled at the congregation having fun just standing on the Fodelai bridge looking at the river.
Almost home and we passed a little coffee shop called Mo Coffee. Huan always thought it was because it was Mocha, I had no idea. Tonight I spotted this inside the entrance.
Above the bike, on the wall, the name became more apparent.
The facing wall underlined the reason for the name. I couldn’t fit the whole wall in; the space was too small for me to go back far enough. Even creating a panorama was not very easy but I think I managed to get enough to show you the famous names.
Once home it was a last minute change of plans for tomorrow and into the bathroom for me to shave off a couple of week’s worth of beard.
November 10th We had another
of those alarming mornings today, we were on the road not long after six and on
the way to
Normally we have problems parking near the visa office so today we parked at the Mova shopping centre just across the main road. Arriving at the visa centre we found new entrance gates, a separation of government and visitor parking and many spare spaces. We’ll know next time! This was our view going back to the shopping centre.
There were no plans for shopping today; we will have to go back in two or three weeks anyway to collect my visa. All we did was walk around what they call the ‘L’ floor while making our way down to B1, the car park. There is something there called Pococo, for kids I think. We have no idea, and being so early everything was closed, so here are a few photos for you.
A trip to
We made good time and stopped for lunch on the highway, at Tunchang rest stop. Both of us forgot to take pictorial records of said lunch, I can tell you it was cheap and cheerful. Fuel was a little worrying and we came off the highway at Maoyang to be sure we didn’t run dry. It did make a change to approach Wuzhishan via the mountain route and not the highway one; we haven’t done that for a while. Once home we both needed the infamous OAP nap.
Luckily we had both slept enough when Huan’s phone rang, it was the
police. The visa office had already called them to ask them to pay us a visit
and complete whatever paperwork they are required to forward to
Our food plan was to go out again this evening for a buffet style meal, take photos of it for you, and then enjoy if before stretching our legs a little. Rain stopped all that so we had sausage, egg and beans with baps. Sorry, we forgot the photos again!
November 11th I managed to sleep late again this morning,
life sure changes as you get older that’s for sure. Just a little drive up the
highway to
After buying our (winning) lottery tickets and arriving at the temporary market location we found that the stalls were very sparse indeed. In fact our duck man was nowhere to be seen. That meant we would have to go all the way to lizard market to buy from his permanent stall there. His wife told us that there is a government inspection today so the market has been postponed until tomorrow. Luckily she had plenty of ducks left.
From lizard market we headed home through a nice tree lined walkway where we have never seen a lizard, not once in over eight years. Huan found two today! For the second one I skipped the close-up so that you could see just how long its tail is, almost to the bottom of the photo.
Just after that we found our second spaceman of the week; this one has recently arrived from a remote galaxy and has incredibly long arms!
Some of our feathered friends are outside again, looking quite happy for it too. It has been a while since we have seen them out in the fresh air.
Last for the day, taken from the balcony, a show on Xiaodao, in the rain. We had been invited to sit with the local government officials. However, I do not consider myself an important person, certainly not important enough to be included with visiting government dignitaries so I declined. Looking at the weather it’s just as well I did.
November 12th Rain stopped play again this morning so I waited until it eased off and then took Huan out for some driving practice. The route was the back road to Nansheng and back along the main road again. Last time we did this, while Huan was not so good, she was also not so bad and I was quite pleased with how she did. Today, for some reason, she was far worse! At times she looked as if she was trying to plait her arms, and even seemed terrified herself. Once the circle was done, we went round again with me driving and giving lessons on the way. The sooner we can get her out on her own the better it will be.
After lunch, when Huan had planned a walk, the heavens really opened up again. I was happy; it meant we got a nice nap! We did get out after dinner and the rain stayed away long enough for us to do over nine kilometres. The effects of the rain were very obvious though.
Passing the pet shop Huan insisted on taking photos of turtles so I did what I usually do and acquiesced. Never argue too much with the Queen.
You may remember the phone box I showed you last week. Today we noticed another addition and realised that these are not going to be functional, just decorative. The one we saw today was supposed to be British, I think. It was the wrong colour, the wrong materials, the wrong size and probably the wrong crown but I asked the Queen to try it out anyway. The more observant among you will notice that Her Maj is actually holding her own phone; there is no telephonic hardware in this kiosk. In fact we checked the other booth again tonight and while it does possess the hardware it is not powered up at all.
November 13th Rain stopped play this morning, but it didn’t matter, it was a shopping morning. After lunch we hummed and hawed for far too long and ended up going nowhere. We have no excuse for after dinner, just sheer laziness. Doesn’t everyone enjoy a day doing absolutely nothing now and then? We certainly do. Let’s see if we do anything more next week. If we do the record will be posted here. Don’t forget to click to enlarge, to subscribe, and to comment.
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