The rainy season certainly lived up to its name in Eungella - it rained and it rained and it rained some more. The good news is that duck-billed platypuses are more likely to come out on grey days, so we did see one of the elusive creatures in the wild, along with some rather less elusive bush turkeys. And then we got back in the car, drove back to Mackay, and went to the cinema (Philomena — pretty good, 4 stars).
Because we are crazy, we decided to go from Fenghuang to Hong Kong in a single day. A précis: 0720: depart deserted guest house and walk through deserted streets to the spot by the bridge on the side of the road where allegedly someone will pick us up. 0728: start to panic when no car has appeared 0732: get into car and mentally apologize for doubting the guest house staff. 0749: arrive at bus station, having miraculously survived perilous drive 0753: board bus to Changsha 0759: bus departs Fenghuang bus station. Wonder if the intermittent high-pitched beeping
Well, it was inevitable that one of us would lose at least one day to sickness somewhere on the trip. Not sure if it was the 3000+ steps or some bug I picked up in the slightly filthy dorm room at the summit, but I was violently ill the night after we hiked Huangshan. (It likely wasn’t something I ate since Sam was unaffected and we were eating all of the same dishes.) Anyway, it was as good a place as any to get sick, especially since the hotelier lived for many years in North York (i.e. suburban Toronto) —
View from our window: New Osaka Hotel, Osaka. 8:15 am, 18 October 2013. As a public service announcement to readers, there are in fact two New Osaka Hotels, about 7 km apart. Care should be taken to arrive at the correct one, especially when travelling late at night.
Hiroshima is famous for its oysters, but here’s a pro tip: If you have ¥15000, and you spend ¥3800 on ferry rides and another ¥3800 on cable car fares, you shouldn’t *also* splurge on an ¥8000 oysters-and-champagne lunch at a cash-only restaurant. This is especially true if you have taken the ferry to a small island without ATMs. (But the oysters were totally worth it, and we managed to scare up enough loose coins to not be completely embarrassed.)
To begin with, Susan has a cold. Nothing dramatic; just standard upper respiratory stuff, and probably to be expected after changing twelve hours of time zone in the space of a week. So we decided not to set an alarm to go to the fish market at 5am, but thought we might go if we woke up at the right hour. We did wake up shortly after four, but by the time we got down to the waterfront at 5:15, all of the tickets to observe the tuna auction were gone. Allegedly, the rest of the fish market