Above: Kim skates well after not having done it for about thirty years.
We had another lazy day. It was Kim’s last full day in China whereas I had another seven to go. We spent part of the day in the room, this time making hotel bookings for August next year.
More importantly, I tried making travel plans for my travel to western Sichuan starting tomorrow. I had mixed success. I couldn’t get hold of the hotel in Kangding and Tagong by phone but managed to email and confirm a couple of nights for Tagong.
I was getting a bit anxious and down. It hasn’t been very often in recent years that I have to travel without accommodation pre-arranged. It felt like the 1990s again. Perhaps the uncertainty bothered me. It was only later I realised that the travel in Jiuzhaigou with the crowds had really drained me and I had temporarily lost that sense of adventure.
The weather was drizzly so we went out only briefly and most of that was in the big posh mall. After a lunch of Hong Kong style dumplings, he gave ice-skating a go, after not doing it for some 30 years. He did well, I thought.
Kim was having a good day. After many months of joint pains, he is feeling normal once again. He’s put it down to forgetting his high blood pressure medication. He emailed is GP who advised him to lay off the medication for now. I’ve always wondered if he needed them because he doesn’t have high (but only erratic) blood pressure.
While putting on my shoes to go out, I noticed one of the top eyelets (for the shoe lace) had broken. I need them for my Mulu hike, so Kim and I swapped shoes. Lucky we’re the same size. We had bought a pair of these fake North Face hiking boots from Sapa in Vietnam. They had been comfortable and durable apart from this identical problem, even though they were different models. But Kim had had his repaired.
Dinner was had a few doors away at a Hong Kong style diner, again to avoid the oil of Sichuan food. Two HK meals in one day! Kim ordered a HK style club sandwich (they give you plastic gloves to eat them with) and I went for the wonton noodle soup.