Guangzhou was mainly spent doing the tourist visit thing and noshing on at various food stalls. There was a 3 lane road around the corner from our hostel which at night turns into an arcade of alfresco dining, while still trying to masquerade as a road. We found a clay pot specialist that is so cheap that it is ridiculous. One night I had a noodle and dumpling soup followed by a clay pot of pork, rice and veg, while Jill had 2 bowls of noodle and dumpling soup (it is really good) all washed down with 2 x 600ml bottles of Pearl River Lager and when the bill came we had to fork out a total of 45 yuan ($8.06).

My wife has taken to muttering to herself. She spends large portions of her time with her face buried in a computer screen asking herself bizarre questions. Now being a good husband, on occasion when she articulates the question rather than muttering it, I offer answers to her queries. Now she seems to think that I am not contributing to the planning phases by offering such advice and i on the other hand believe I am providing the answers to vital questions that she clearly needs help with. By way of example this afternoon she was staring at a map of Chennai and asked where is the airport…I promptly responded that it was the place where all the planes land. Apparently this was not helpful to her majesty.

Our last day before leaving China saw a huge cold snap. Temperatures plummeted, it was wet, windy and cold. We hid out in our hostel and made preparations for that which was to follow. We did our last street food hit (back to our clay pot man) who likes us so much he is now giving us the locals discount. He must be. We paid 25 yuan for 3 mains and a beer. On a little side note…we ran into a Sri Lankan couple while in Guilin and were talking about my love for the street food. Their answer to me was…and I quote…”we are from Sri Lanka… we have many germs in our stomachs…we did not even eat the Indian street food”.

I may need to rethink my dietary approaches.