Sunday 3rd August, 2014

Today was a full schedule. Leslie took me to the one thing I was determined to see while I was here - the piano house. Anywhere but in China it would be called a folly and indeed it is an extraordinary structure as you will see from the photos.

After that (we didn’t stay long as there’s not a lot to do other than take a photo) he took me to Bagong mountain. Atop the mountain there is an impressive and large temple, unfortunately the air was too polluted for the pictures to be very clear from the viewpoint on the ascent road. Once at the entrance to the attraction there are three choices: explore on foot, pay to take the guided tour on an electric bus or take your own car in. All three nonetheless involve walking and worse, climbing steps in order to view the various statues. Leslie very kindly related the myths behind the legends as the inscriptions are unhelpfully only in Chinese. In the process of trying to kill me with precipitous stairways he also managed to get us completely and utterly lost. His remedy was to try to follow voices of people we could hear but not see. My legs protested greatly and eventually I took command. Thank God my sense of direction  never failed me (as it often does normally) and I was rather glad when he went ahead and exclaimed he could see the car.

In the evening it was time to collect Air and meet Leslie’s folks at a restaurant near their home. They not only pushed the boat out for me but selected dishes that weren’t hot, which made me feel guilty because I see nothing wrong in them ordering things they enjoy, it’s my problem if I can’t eat them. I particularly enjoyed the prawns, steamed buns into which we put beef and veg and some slightly spicy deep fried chicken on sticks. There was also a form of Chinese soup consisting of minced meat and rice in water, it doesn’t look very appetising but when it has Japanese tofu in it, it is actually rather nice. Their hospitality was most welcome. Then it was back to increase my lead at pool.