Xiamen day 2

Day two in the peaceful seaside city of xiamen, home to a modest 3 million, making it rather small by Chinese standards.
Woke up feeling very happy and fresh in the comfy double bed in the gorgeous clean and well decorated room, the 4 poster bed with mosquiote net really gives ita nice style, it was a warm but not too hot day but so humid. It really is sub tropical now and the flora and fauna show this as well as the weather itself, palm trees and banana trees all around this province.

Showered and packed my stuff up and went down to meet Chris, as predicted he didn't sleep well on the hard mattress but as we moved our stuff over into the twin room the mattresses were much softer, but no gorgeous double bed,  our one night of accidental luxury over we walker down to the bus station to head into xiamen.
We didn't see the hotel staff so we couldn't ask about bus numbers so we just jumped on the first one that looked promising, number 29, and paid our 10p flat rate fare.
After a few diversions the bus dropped us right near the ferry port out to gualin island, perfect, our first stop for the day. Before trying to cross to the island we though we would indulge Chris 's longing for blueberry muffins and my lack of coffee by popping into a Starbucks, a western convenience that lingxi is missing unfortunately. We all spied that they sold ground coffee and so Chris bought me a bag to take home as a gift, or maybe just to stop it continual moaning! Which was very nice.

The weather today was supposed to rain but it held off in the morning, unfortunately the sea fog didn't and so our views were a little more misty than we would have liked!

After coffee we got the free ferry out to the island (you pay 8rmb pp to come back however) and explored this slice of colonial past. This island was an exclusively English island, a refuge in past times from
The smelly rabbit warren on the mainland for the distinguished English gentleman and so you can see some amazing buildings and I got some great pictures I hope.
All around the island were old pillboxes, some in better repair than others looking out over the bay.

We ended up avoiding the crowds around the ferry landing and walking the couple of miles right around the island perimeter, we found most of the north to be free of people and apart from the occasional electric tour car we walked alone.
Some girls asked us to be in a photo with them and I of course obliged and then near the ferry dock an old couple asked me to pose with the wife for a photo with the young foreigners, I don't mind!
Completing our circuit we got the ferry back to xiamen proper and walked away from the sea into the interior. We found a small resteraunt with no English menu and ended up randomly choosing a Chinese surf and turf piella type dish in a clay pot, Chris was very happy but since I am not a huge fan of piella I was not so pleased, but it was OK!

Afterwards we wandered around and Chris did a little shopping, buying himself some trendy new trainers and taking in the local beautiful sights or sights of beautiful locals.
In the late afternoon we got on the bus back towards our hotel but then got off at a random stop that looked busy and full of tour groups.
As we approached the entrance to this place we hit a wall of people being stopped from entering an just as we started to think of finding a way around there was an explosion from the other side of the 7ft wall we were next to. Turns out a demolion crew were tearing something down. Whatever it was it made the whole crowd jump!

The place turned out to be a temple complex which we explored and then a mountain behind which we obviously had to climb. All the way up were Chinese characters painted on the rocks and at the top a few more pillbox lookout points. Crazy!
On the way down we took a wrong turn and ended up coming out through the monks private quarters and dorms, with their robes hanging up to dry next to their civilian clothes. We walked past a bemused guard more used to stopping tourists wandering in than asking us how we got in as we left and made our way back to the bus.

The journey back to the hotel was pretty uneventful and once we arrived they said that an old couple was checking in and so they needed the twin room for them, would we mind staying on in the double rooms a bit longer? Of course not so we have another night in seperate rooms and I am happy with the comfy 4 poster beds again! Chris not so much....

We got a shower and rested our feet for half an hour then walked to the same local food shop as last night, this time we tried the local dishes of chicken and mushrooms and spicy liver and peppers, it was tasty and nicely cheap! A good recommendation by the hotel there.
After the meal we went back to the pearl milk tea shop from yesterday and spoke to the same friendly waitress, much to her male friends annoyance.

I wanted to take some photos on the beach so I took my tripod down and did some long exposure playing and messed around with some different effects.

Then a light rain started and I'm now lying in my bed in the dark with windows open, its nicely warm and I can head the light rain on the roof, very relaxing!

Tomorrow back to lingxi I suppose,  back to the madness and back to the frantic search for an idea for Monday.