His Master’s Toys

…and halting for the night at Guilin. I had expected something totally horrid after reading the Lonely Planet’s review of the town, but I am pleasantly surprised. The town is big enough to not feel like an assault of western backpackers and tour groups (as some other destinations) and that itself makes it worth it.

Tomorrow I plan to test the mobile internet here, and then test the reach when traveling through more remote villages in central and northeast. I had initially planned to stay ‘offline’, but met two Australian travelers today morning who are on a 14 month bike trip through Asia (cutting across from SE Asia to India and then Middle East), and have a whole laptop + mobile internet setup with them and are blogging on the go.

On a different note — I re-read the facts of the Opium War. Its totally hilarious — (in simple terms) the Chinese begin with a winning import-export equation, and then the British dump massive amounts of Opium in the country leading to widespread addiction… and then when the King tries to stop the nonsense, they end up getting attacked and eventually losing Hong Kong.