Today, I'm going to Shanghai. Yippeee!

It's going to be quite an adventure to get there. I need to take a bus from Yangshuo to Guilin and I need to make sure I step into the bus that doesn't stop at every station, otherwise it'll take far longer than the expected 1 hour. The people at the Yangshuo bus station only speak Chinese, so that's going to be a challenge... Long live the Point-It book!

At the bus station in Guilin, I need to take a taxi to the Min Hang hotel and from there, I need to take the shuttle bus to Guilin airport. My plane leaves at 6.10 pm and I'm expected to arrive in Shanghai at 8 pm. But then I'm only at Pudong airport and that isn't my final destination...

When I'm at Shanghai Pudong airport, I need to take the Maglev train into Shanghai city. The Maglev train is super fast: it goes 431 km/hr. Unbelievable! After a 7-minute train ride, I'll have to take subway line 2 to Nanjing East Rd station. From there, I can walk to the place where I'll be staying.

So, I'll have to leave Yangshuo between 1.30 and 2 pm and I hope to reach my final destination around 9 pm. Pfff! I'll have to do everything again on Monday, when I go back to Yangshuo - but then in reserved order, of course. ..

I don't have much to tell you about the last couple of days, other than that the weather has changed quite a bit. On Sunday, I was still wearing flip-flops, shorts, a T-shirt and a pair of sunglasses, but on Monday, my outfit consisted of sneakers, socks, (long) pants, a long-sleeved T-shirt, a zipped sweater and a jacket. The temperature has dropped a lot! On Tuesday, it rained cats and dogs all day long. My students couldn't get over the absurdity of the expression 'it rains cats and dogs.' They didn't see any pets falling from the sky, no matter how long they stared out of the window! Although, pets? When you talk about cats and dogs, the average Chinese thinks about a delicious lunch or dinner....

The rain on Tuesday seemed to disrupt the daily life of the Chinese. They were all covered in colourful plastic and when I looked out of the window, I saw umbrellas rather than people. The rain didn't stop me from going to the pubquiz. There were enough teams to play the quiz, but the teams were a lot smaller than last week. 'My' team only consisted of Ronald and me. We didn't win, but we had a lot of fun and we learned a few things as well (the English word for 'poolstokhoogspringen' is pole vault, for example) .

Last night, Kelly, the Chinese owner of the restaurant Kelly's Place, had organized a farewell dinner for Barry. Barry will be going back to Australia on Monday. Barry's son, who lives in China, was there as well, together with Jim & Laura from Alaska; Paulien & Karst with their 2-year old son Pelle from Holland; Nadine (from Switzerland) & Michael (from England) with their two sons; a Taiwanese/American guy who didn't tell anyone his name (!); and Kelly herself. Nadine and Michael run a guesthouse in Yangshuo, called the Outside Inn. Paulien and Karst are the owners of The Giggling Tree, a hotel just outside of Yangshuo. It was nice to meet all these new people and to speak Dutch with Paulien, Karst and Pelle. Little Pelle spent the evening flirting with me, so I think I've got a new friend!