Photo opportunity.

I'm still in Europe, enjoying good food and kicking boyfriend's ass. He's writing thesis a lot of the time, but the progress is still slow. I changed my return flight to Hong Kong for 24th Nov, so one more week until I return travelling. I have planned a week-long tour in Southern China: a day in Guangzhou, a weekend in Guilin, a day in Nanning and then three days in Kunming. I really wanted to go to northern parts of Yunnan, but the weather forecast already promises snow for the area, so I stick to the warmer climates! From Kunming I will be flying to Bangkok and I will meet my darling parents in Hua Hin! They will be there for two weeks to enjoy the sunshine in the middle of miserable winter!

As people have been requesting photos, I finally found a cable to get the low-quality pics out of my mobile phone.

A street in Shanghai near the conference venue.

Emperor's shopping street around the Suzhou canals at the Summer Palace.

View from the roof of the Templeside Hostel - The white pagoda temple.

One of the 1500-year old Buddha statues at Yungang grottoes.

The hanging monastery of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism near mount Hengshan.

A Taoist temple in the morning mist on the holy mountain of Hengshan.

The ancient walled city of Pingyao from the city walls.

The twin pagodas of Taiyuan.

My travelling companion, the lil Tigur, in his new hotpink silk gown and with matching orchid at the Beijing Botanical Gardens.

The very tall Beijing TV tower.

The view over Beijing from the TV tower.

Rice fields in the Philippines.

On the boat to Puerto Galera.

On a lovely sandy beach in Puerto Galera after a snorkelling trip.

View from Our Melting Pot window, a lovely hostel in the 18th floor in Manila.

View from the Victoria Peak, Hong Kong.

The tallest sitting outdoors copper Buddha statue (35m) in Lantau island, Hong Kong.

View from the 15th floor Casino whiskey bar in Macao.

On a break from the travels

Having some time off from travelling has been a bit weird. I've been mainly doing nothing; watching telly, reading books, cooking, knitting, a little housework, playing old computer games, New York Times crosswords, mainly just wasting time and try to make sure my boyfriend is writing his thesis and not slacking off. And it hasn't been a wasted effort! He's been working hard but his perfectionism tends to take over, making the progress slow. But it has been great to be near him!

The autumn has been beautiful; warm sunny days and lovely colours of yellow, orange and red in the trees. In Asia often I ended up walking the whole day; here I tend to stay in and venture out only for short walks. We've been out to see some films, met up some friends for a pint or three, as well attended a middle of night street party / protest, but as the thesis writing tends to get better towards the night, the evenings have mainly been quiet.

I'm due to fly back to Asia on Sunday, but I might change the flights to slightly later date. The news about floods in Thailand and Vietnam might change the direction of travel slightly. The display of forces of nature in Indonesia have also scared me a little. I can't obviously prevent something from like that happening when I'm in Asia, but I really need to read the news carefully and check which areas are affected.

Finally, I've been surprised how many of my friends and family have mentioned that they read this blog! Thank you for reading and all the kind words!