Michelle Tells the Story...

Well – I hesitate to write this blog entry as I think PJ’s been doing such a great job - but after his begging and pleading...I give in....here goes:

We have just spent a wonderful weekend away in Fengning Bashang (Click here for a link to it's location on Google Earth, inc photos). An area only 200+km outside BJ but a journey that took 7 hrs by bus – the narrow mountain roads and crazy overtaking was very scary! Must mention though that the scenery most of the way was fantastic. Fengning Bashang is close to Inner Mongolia. Imagine rolling grass hills, sheep, horses, country folk, Mongolian huts.
We were invited by Nana and David (our lovely Chinese friends) to join them and their friends on this trip, 12 of us in all - those in this photo plus 2:

Saturday afternoon we hired horses and trotted off into the fields...literally. My trotting lasted only 30 mins when my horse decided to race off past the others. Me, not being the horse riding expert that I am, tried to stop the horse. Instead of the horse stopping as it SHOULD HAVE!!!, it did a 180 degree turn and I was left to hit the ground hard on my derriere... PAINFUL. After some rubbing of my buttocks...I slowly climbed on to the back of a 4 wheel motorbike with PJ, to follow the others through the fields and villages. Despite the pain, it was a gorgeous afternoon.

Dinner served - lamb on the spit. PJ tells me it was yum! (I was in bed for the next 13 hours trying to recover).

On Sunday morning we continued our adventures on 4 wheel motorbikes along the highway and then through the villages and fields. With trucks passing us, no helmets, no knee/elbow pads...I felt so safe (not)! Was v. fun though!

2 days later – am still in pain and can’t bend over properly. PJ is being a good ‘nurse’ though ... helping me pick things up off the floor, put my shoes on etc . Have just been to the doctor and had some X-rays taken. I’m told that I have some soft tissue damage that’ll repair itself in a couple of weeks.

This is China

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