December 6, 2025
Hi Everyone!
Here we are in December already and it absolutely does not feel like it. "Cooler" weather here means somewhere around 20 degrees, there are no Christmas carols playing, fires crackling, and the only Christmas trees that we ever see are usually gigantic plastic or blow-up decorations in front of shopping malls.
Last weekend we had a wonderful trip to Yangshuo. It was our first long weekend since we got here, so it was a treat to take off on a Thursday evening. Despite the town being 450km from here, it takes less than 2 hours on the high-speed train to get from Guangzhou to the Yangshuo station. (Unfortunately it was an hour in a cab on either end to get to and from our ultimate destinations so it still took us about four hours to get there.)
We stayed in a lovely hotel called "The Giggling Tree" which is partly old farm structures repurposed as the restaurant and reception, and partly a modern building with spacious rooms, a swimming pool and beautiful views of the rice paddies and karst formations.
On our first morning Kieran went for a run along the river so I walked behind him. We then all went to a pharmacy with the hotel owner, Curry, because Kieran needed a dressing changed on a leg injury. (That was an interesting experience which involved Kieran holding his leg over a bucket as an old man poured some unknown solution over the wound). We then went bamboo rafting, which I loved. It was a beautiful sunny day and since the rafts only hold two people and one pole-man to push them along, the kids were on one raft and I had a lovely quiet ride all to myself. Every once in awhile we had to cross a small dam. The raft was pushed up onto metal rollers and then would tip and splash down to the lower water level. It was a little bit of excitement trying to keep our feet and legs dry.
After our lovely few hours of rafting, we walked up a road to some caves that ran through three mountains. Inside they were all lit with colourful lights and were really very spacious. There were staircases in some, and a small river where we were put into inflatable boats (and full plastic suits) to ride through part of it. Then we got to the mud... which was being touted as "very good for your skin" and we were encouraged to go mud bathing. In that it was kind of cool temperature-wise and the mud really did not look very appealing, I was not overly eager to jump in-- but Noémie reminded me that this was kind of one of those experiences that has to happen, so in we went. (Kieran did not have to even consider it because of the gash on his leg, for which I think he was quite thankful.) There was a slide and a rather large mud pool where we floated. Naturally, when we first went in there was no one there but as soon as we were slipping around on the slide and getting absolutely filthy, there were hoards of people watching us and taking photos of us. It was kind of embarrassing seeing all of the flashes and faces watching us like we were in a zoo.
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| Fortunately near the mud baths there was also a hot spring so we got to clean up a bit before hosing down! They are pretty cool caves. |
The Impression Sanjie Liu light show was phenomenal-- it happens every night and is put on by hundreds of locals with the river and karst formations as the natural backdrop. It is hard to describe just how huge it was-- literally hundreds of people in boats and on land, singing, dancing, and doing fascinating choreography to depict the history and culture of the area.
On Saturday Noémie was feeling the pressure of a lot of homework and studying, so she opted to stay in our hotel room while Kieran and I went out exploring. We went to the cable car which was HUGE... we had fantastic views of the mountains and rivers, and even once we made it to the top of the line we had hundreds of stairs to climb to get us to the very top of the highest karst in the area. There was a glass bridge and glass walkway to experience as well, so it took us a couple of hours to check it all out.
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| Those are actual mountains and the actors on their rafts are carrying torches. |
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| This rice paddy was right behind our hotel and smelled so strongly of rice! |
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| Noémie made a little friend in a local bakery when we were grabbing a coffee. |
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| "Slip Carefully" was taped over, but I still love "Ban Frolic" :) |
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| We were all given shoe covers to wear on the glass. I suppose they don't want any chips happening... |
After our cable car experience, we had to get to a location that the friendly hotel staff had sent to me because they arranged a rock climbing session for Kieran. Problem was, they only had a pin dropped on a map for me to follow and no name of the climbing organization. So Kieran and I hopped into a DiDi and were dropped off at the end of what appeared to be a residential street, and we had not yet eaten lunch. We were half an hour early, so we quickly backtracked a couple of blocks until we found a local restaurant and ordered as quickly as we could via my translation app. We decided that "greens with garlic" "chicken with bamboo" and rice sounded like it would be OK. Then we sat down in the completely empty restaurant (I think it was actually closed, but the lady was happy enough to show us the menu and go cook for us anyway) and waited. And waited. twenty minutes later I was getting antsy, not only because Kieran would only have 7 minutes to shovel his food in (if it were to arrive), but because we still had no idea where this rock climbing outfit was. His climbing spot was at 2:30 and the lady from the restaurant brought out our food at 2:27. Kieran wolfed down some greens and rice, but unfortunately the "chicken with bamboo shoots" was a sizzling cast iron pan full of chicken pieces (all full of bones and gristle, including feet, neck, and everything else), snails in the shell and a variety of other delicious-smelling bits and pieces that I could not quite identify. It was too hot to eat quickly, and too full of bones and shells to eat without making a HUGE mess, so he got up and left me sitting at this big table by myself with a steaming dish large enough for 10 people to share. I then tried to politely pick at as much food as I could, while also watching the texts from Kieran come in: "Mom, I can't find it." "I think I'm on someone's driveway" "There's a chicken and an old car" "I'm going back to where we were dropped off"...
Ugh.
So I pulled out my translator and asked the lovely restaurant lady if she could please pack up our food, and I headed out to find Kieran.
By the time I found him, he had found the climbing spot, which was indeed tucked in behind some houses with chickens and up what felt very much like an alleyway/driveway.
Fortunately the climbers were great; very encouraging, spoke good English, and got Kieran on the wall quite quickly. He climbed for about 2 hours and loved it.
Although the climbers were happy to have him continue on, it was starting to get later in the day and I wanted to make sure that Noémie got outside at least a little bit before it got dark. So we headed back to the hotel where we...
Rented scooters!
OMG did we have fun.
We rented 2 for the three of us, and the kids bickered about who was the better driver, the worse passenger, and when I was not driving it did indeed feel like I was taking my life in my hands as a passenger to the kids. But we zoomed along between the rice fields and the river and had a very good laugh. At one point we stopped to buy a mango from a lady who had a cart full. She cut it up for us and put it into a bag with bamboo skewers.
Unfortunately the next morning we had to leave super early as the only train tickets I could get were for an early train, so we were actually back at our apartment by noon. This was good, as the kids both had laundry and homework to do-- but man did I love our weekend away!
This past week was relatively uneventful. Lots of assessments, reports, and prep for the International Festival of Light which happens next weekend (the date was changed 3 times at the last minute so it has been a sore talking point amongst the staff. We are all looking forward to it just being over. Apparently it's the "Biggest event of the year" at school). Yesterday I was supposed to sing with the International Choir in a concert, but I had a sore throat so stayed home.
Today I went down to Shamian Island and attended a Christmas brunch hosted by the Conseil Francaise. It was lovely getting out (and eating real French bread, cheese, sausages and tappenades!) and chatting with people, but always somewhat daunting going alone to an event in a foreign country where I knew very few people. Fortunately the French community here is very large and welcoming. After I left I had a good long walk down the Pearl River before hopping onto the subway and making my way back home.
Noémie went to Shenzhen with a school group to attend and participate in the World Scholar's Cup. I do not know very much about it at this point, and as I write this it is Sunday night at 10pm and Noémie is not home. What I DO know, though, is that Noémie's team placed #2 out of about 500 overall, and she has a pile of medals, and is crazy-excited because they have qualified for the Global World Scholars! I know that she did very well in the writing and the debate portion of it... really don't know much else.
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| Noémie's teachers are great about sending minute-by-minute photos, so I followed along vicariously! |
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| I had to add this one in. It is simply my bank statement, but I love the translation of my employer's name. |
I saw this statue today and the violin bow and lack of strings had me really bothered!
Passed bags and bags of dried morel mushrooms! Never seen so many!
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| I ordered dinner tonight (From "Taste of Foil") and it was actually pretty good. Oil did spill on the face. |
Our very excited World Scholars. Noémie is very back centre holding up her team's trophy.
