mmm, just received a ransom note for my Sharky. Sharky has travelled with me to every country I have been ... this weeked some guys from work broke into my room and is demanding a ransom of Sweets .... mmm

Beijing - China; Feb 2005 

And finally - me chilling in the Cathay Business Lounge in Hong Kong ... Cheers to China! 

Peking Opera. This was ... erm ... interesting. Its very strange to see what they consider opera. Dancing and jumping is one thing, but the shouting and screaming that sounds something like german yodelling and arabic singing mixed, is another. OK, maybe I need to develop a cultural palette for this one, but it was cracking me up to see how people would get more and more excited the more false they guy would sing ... 

Thousands of people flock to this one specific restuarant in Beijing of the Peking Duck served here. It is exquisite! A real feast - with a myocardial infarcion waiting to happen 

Me on the Great Wall new Don Yuan Pass. There is a saying in China: You cannot be a hero until you have walked on the great wall of China. Just call me super-Xen ;) 

Some things never change :D ... My ever continuing quest to drink Starbucks in every country in the world. MUHAHHAHA! 

On the roof of a Chinese house/temple you can see little mythical creatures on the rims. The number of creatures indicate how sacred the building is with 11 being the max ... cool huh! 

At average maximums of -12 Celcius I needed to upgade my South African Winters clothes a few notches ...  

I call this one: "Snow". It was freezing. Never having seen snow before in my life, I was like a kid playing in the snow! My first snowman!! I quickly learnt that snow is very very very cold.  

Aaah cute :P China has about 1000 of these little guys left and populations are declining. Here is one sitting! and chomping away at Bamboo. They have a lifespan of a about 30 years and really bad digestion...  

The first night we arrived in China we had "Hot Pot". A funny yin-yan deep frying style. Tip: Stay away from the red side... It was hilarious to see all these Chinese guys laughing at us - no clue how to use the HotPot and no clue what the red side holds ... We found out soon 

This was our Valentines dinner at Kai's. A few minutes earlier bombs had just gone off outside our hotel - but these lonely expats would not let that stop a nice dinner on Vday ... 

Just a weekend of fun in the sun; we did some jetski'ing after this ... 

For 500pesos a 150cc Motorcycle is all yours for 5 hours. I learnt that not having driven a motorcylce ever, it is not advised to jump to these puppies. I really bust up my hand badly ... when i flipped from 3rd to 2nd and sped into a truck 

This is how u would get between the islands; bonca style baby! 

We wanted a fresh Coconut (buko) drink - and he took us too literally; Sonny's worker grabs us some coco's 

Chrystal mountain - after much persisting and 75 pesos our boatman took us; the underground caves are amazing! 

4 trekking souls having their supper on the beach 

The famous white sand beaches of Boracay ... 

The lady said I bargain like a Filipino... behold the fruits of my asian labour ... A suunto dive computer with Laptop Interface. Can't wait to play with all the funky matlab integration features *geek*