La vie décousue

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As a woman, I have a vested interest in the rights and role of women in our world. The New Woman is by no means a new concept, but women all over the world are still being discriminated against, and are unsure of their role in society. Many people in developed nations take their right to vote for granted, but the reality is that many people have given their lives for this right, and continue to fight for it today. The women’s movement was not about bra burning. It was about giving women basic human rights. It still amazes me how recently women in developed nations have been given the right to vote and earn money. Of course, women are still often underpaid compared to their male counterparts, but definite progress has been made. Anyway, this isn’t meant to be a lesson on women’s rights, but an announcement that I will be recording “Ann Veronica: A Modern Love Story” by HG Wells. It addresses many issues that still face women today. I hope you will enjoy it.

I didn’t have internet access over the last few days of my trip, so I’ll give a quick run down here:

Day 5: Didn’t do much. Met up with some friends of my parents for lunch and dinner, and picked up some clothes I had tailored.

Day 6: Began my journey home. I flew from Kunming to Guanzhou and got food poisoning from the airline food. This led to a most unpleasant flight from Guanzhou to Singapore.

Day 7: Had a 7 hour transit in Singapore, which gave me time to get a hotel room where I could throw up, shower, and rest in peace, to recover from the food poisoning, followed by my flight home to Sydney. Normally I have a really difficult time with customs when arriving in Sydney, but this time it was fine. They targeted a girl standing behind me, who fit the same demographics as myself. So for the first time in many years, I was not led to the “special” table, but had to line up with everyone else

Yesterday I flew to Kunming, the final destination of this trip. The roads here are big and smooth - I am really impressed! My parents took me to eat at a bone restaurant. It’s basically a steam boat, but with lots of big pig bones to munch on.

Today, we went to visit the famous Stone Forest. It was wonderful, though full of slippery steps without hand rails. Definitely not a place for disabled people to visit, unfortunately. I suppose there are parts that a person could see without climbing up the narrow passages, but you would miss out on a lot of the sights.

After the Stone Forest, we went to eat “Crossing the Bridge noodles”, a specialty of Kunming. They were great. (I don’t mean to come across as a glutton, but I can’t help but blog about all the yummy food that I get to eat :)) I have been taking heaps of photos with my new camera, but won’t know how they have turned out until I get home.

I arrived in Guanzhou today. The last time I was here was nearly 20 years ago, and boy has it changed! Everything is new and modern. The shopping area is spacious and colourful, and McDonald’s has a new spicy chicken burger which tastes fabulous… Is it terrible of me to travel around the world and eat at McDonald’s? They do have different menus in different places

Anyway, the trip was pretty uneventful. As my family and friends all know, for some reason I am always targeted by customs officials when I arrive in a country (any country), and China was no exception Thankfully my bags weren’t completely taken apart, and it all went relatively smoothly. No complaints from me!

I met up with my parents today, and tomorrow we’re flying off again. I guess I’m leaving a pretty big carbon footprint on this trip.