And then there was one

Yesterday afternoon we decided to climb a hill following some China syndrome. The syndrome of which I speaking is one that involves being misled and made to jump through hoops in order to satisfy local bureacratic urges. When I bought my phone on Thursday they told me I had to go to "China Mobile" and have it enabled in order to make international calls. I checked whether that would involve any hassle or require further payment of money and was assured that it would not. Upon arriving at China mobile Iwas told I had to pay a 3000 yuan security deposit for the privilege of calling outside of China. I have been unable to discover why it's actually necessary because the phone is prepaid so there is no risk of me exceeding my income on international calls. Furthermore, I haven't been able to discover what could occur that could cause them to refuse to refund the 3000 once I leave China. If the phone is lost or stolen I apparently just call up the number and they will freeze the phone, not affecting said security deposit in the slightest. As far as I can tell it is just there so that China mobile can collect interest on the amount while I am here. At first I flatly refused to pay- I would expect to be informed in advance if a $500. AU security deposit was required, and wasn't sure I had it to spare. The guy who sold me the mobile phone helpfully suggested that I make calls using a public phone and use the mobile to receive calls, whereupon I explained to him for the fifth time that it isn't possible to make international calls from Yongning from a public phone and that was why I had bought the damn thing in the first place.

Anyway I caved in today and came up with the cash (could not be paid by credit card). Hopefully it will come back (as promised) when I go home to Aus.

Not a promising start to our day, yesterday, so we went and climbed Lijiang Hill and sat up there eating mandarins and snickers bars and enjoying the view.

We had bought a massive 1.5l bottle of Champagne from the supermarket so we tried to kick off New Years celebrations with that in the courtyard, late yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately it was disgustingly sweet (Scott compared to fruit juice that had gone off) so it ended up down the toilet.

Got dressed up and went out with a friend called March. Ate tea, walked around the shops and ended up in the French quarter playing drinking games with some of his mates. As they weren't very sociable and the games weren't particularly fun we made our escape and went down to the peasant cafe so Scott could have a last feed of his favourite mushrooms. Approaching midnight we were eating Mexican pizza on a sweet pizza base, and at midnight we kissed in the square and said 'xin nian kuai le'. Drank some cocktails, played cards and chatted quietly in the Budweiser Bar until 2am before going back and banging on the outer door of our inn to be let in.

Made our way to the airport uneventfully this morning, and watched Scott's plane fly away. I waved but you will have to ask him whether he saw me. Grandma back in Yongning will miss him, she liked the way he sawed wood in the backyard for her. Considering that the two of us have been joined at the hip ever since he got back from Wodonga over two years ago, being back in a long distance relationship is not going to be easy. For a start I am going to have to navigate the rabbit warren of Lijiang old town by myself instead of gazing into the shops and wandering aimlessly while Scott says 'go left here' etc. Feels a little strange at the moment wandering around by myself. Well, I am off to Lugu lake again tomorrow morning. Next blog likely to be posted from the Husi teahouse with a hot Yunnan coffee in hand.
bye for now