seen on a t-shirt stall in Hong Kong
hotel sign - 3 hour stay
in the bird market, Hong Kong
the South African element, Pam, Eileen, Eunice, Ina and Paula in front
Zhaoqing hotel dining room
senior citizens excercise time at Zhaoqing race venue
Pam and a photographer, even the cops wanted their pictures taken with us!
The top ladies team
Aussies causing chaos!
the winning mens team at Zhaoqing
Denise, Bev, Sue, Rosemary
Sandy, in the "First Waiting Room"
Eunice and Eileen on the train, if you can't beat em, join them
Sue and Bev
Heidi, weaving her way past Italians, Aussies, Americans, Canadians, South Africans etc etc all going party party on the train
Zhanjiang on the South China Sea
Zhanjiang
Italians!! They are lucky no officials saw!
A great relaxation of formality, a cop joins in a game of volleyball
team interactions
Paula signing postcards, a huge hit!
Zhanjiang opening ceremony
Zhanjiang crowds
beating the heat and the rain
filmstar Catlin
Zhanjiang celebration dinner
Chumba
standing to paddle
Linda (JinLing) and Moon
the bus convoy,
with 11 gone awol, a very reduced team had the bus to themselves for the 13 hour trip to Shauguan
there were beautiful mountains up in the north of Guangdong too ....
the girls invade Lennies room to work out something to do at the celebration dinner
the inner room at a smart pharmacy, dried everything that once moved
a wine shop ... reminded me of when I worked at the KwazuluNatal museum!
wine with poisonous snake must be left for 3 days before drinking ... Angela opted not to buy..
Shauguan. Here we got in our designated boat and stayed there. You want to wee, use a bailer!!
With 11 missing, we had to borrow some little Hong Kong girls. They didn't have much stamina so I soon moved them to the back
Shauguan Celebration dinner
Shauguan Celebration dinner- Lennie doing the fish
Eunice
Golden statuettes of mao in every jeweler
Mao memoriblia...
Shanguan night market
Temple of Zhaoguan nai wah
YaYoi rolling the dragon's ball for luck
a turtle-dragon with Buddah
Old farm villages are vanishing and high-rise blocks of flats take their place
Two Aussies working out a paddles version of the Twelve days of China to the tune of the 12 days of Christmas
more beautiful mountains
after all that travelling by bus, what a hotel!! The White Palace Hotel, Guangzhou
Sue and Eileen
White Palace Hotel
Catlin, Chumba, Tania, Chrystal and YaYoi
Eunice and Eileen
in the tea market
Eileen, Paula and Sandy
90+ paddlers in one dragonboat ... amazing
this is ONE dragonboat !!! Two drummers in the middle and a sweep at either end.
100-man dragonboats
there were said to be over 6000 paddlers on the water at once, 50 of these magnificent 100-man boats, plus 50 of the more standard 22-man boats; gongs, drums, paddlers .. this made me think the collective term should be A CACOPHONY OF DRAGON BOATS
the Dutch kidnap the Aussie's croc
Jody, Catlin, Yaya & Chumba, the Canadian & Japanese component of our squad. We discovered Canadians could teach the Welsh a thing or two about partying
Lenny went back to China and married Moon. It took a long wait but now at last they are together in New York.
Paula take Eileen for a waltz
ginger roots, dried mushrooms, dried penises, shrimps, you name it .....
neatly parcelled bundles of dried centipedes, sacks of dried scorpions. snake skins and turtles .....
YaYoi and the kitten (sleeping on a sack of baby tortoises), sack-loads of dried sea horses in the foreground.
a hot steamy day, a long time on our feet, amazing things to see... and then the charming friendliness and ceremony this tea shop. It got me actually enjoying tea the Chinese way (weak with no milk or sugar) and I still do!
Wait till I show this to my son! ATHLETE
Sandy and Eunice, too much shopping in Stanley market. Okay, I had to buy an extra suitcase too....
Eunice, Pam and Eileen, all with extra bags for all the shopping. We forgot about the weight and the excess baggage charges on SAA !!
This was awesome, exquisite carvings in mammoth tusks!! Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take a picture of the enormous pair that were each over 7 feet long.
Eunice, Helen, Eileen, Paula, Pam and Moon
