Hi everyone!
Long time without news I’m currently in China and tought I should send you a little update. But first for those to who I didn’t talk in a long time I’ll make a quick recap of what happend since the last mail I sent.

Last time I was in Dahab, Egypt I spent a few months there and did my Divemaster certification. Between Xmas and New Year I started getting sick, lots of fever but strangely one day I had fever, the next one I was fine then the following day more fever than 2 days before. It went like that for about a week than I was so sick that my friend called the doctor during the night. He wanted to ship me to Elate (Israel) because he couldn’t do much in Dahab. I didn’t want to go to Israel because I knew if I had a stamp in my passport it would be impossible to go to Syria. So I went to Cairo where I spent a night in the hospital. They checked me, made some blood test to see if it was typhoid fever or malaria. It all came negative… So I was cured by the antibiotic of my unknowed disease but I didn’t feel very confortable because they didn’t really find what I had. So I started looking for a job in Montreal and I passed 2 interviews on the beach talking on the cell phone. I finally got the job and went back home. The day after I arrived I started to have fever again, went to the hospital and got tested… I had malaria! Even if they tested it in Egypt they didn’t find it… very strange. Anyway now I’m curred and back travelling!

I’ve been in China for a bit less than a month, and visited 3 cities so far. I landed in Hong Kong on the 5th of September. I spent a week there at a friend’s flat. It was good to have ppl to give me pointer in the city even if she was there only since 3 weeks. I went with her flatmate, Nicolas, to a Hot Pot restaurant. That was a great experience! There a boiling bowl of soup in front f you and you order food and you cook it yourself. The best part, it’s all you can eat and all you can drink, no needs to say I was really drunk when I got out of there. We had some strange stuff t eat, there’s one plate, as soon as I saw it I knew I wouldn’t eat it. Nicolas tried it and told me it tasted like a bit of sea. So I went to a table with the plate and asked some chinese what it was. After laughing for a least a minute non-stop they said : “You don’t want to eat this” “This is swim bladder”. After that we went out and Vanessa came t meet us. I also took some pretty good pictures of Hong Kong by night (they’re online now). One of the most disturbing thing I saw in HK was some pig face hanging on a hook (l got the pic too!). I don’t know why but I don’t really fancy eating a pig face!

I then took the train for Shanghai (24 hours) to meet my friend JF who’ve been there for more than a year now. We had quite a blast, lot’s of partying and clubbing. In one of the club we went to was pretty wild. No other lawai (white ppl) and in the table in front of us they had a plate of cocane! That was very strange. On the street I saw 2 women trying to burn a rat alive. The rat was in a cage and they set some paper and carton in fire and droped the cage in the little fire. The rat didn’t seem to enjoy the experience. I took some time also to update my website while I had free internet. As soon as I arrived in Shanghai I was confronted with the worst noise in the city (and possibly whole China) : electric bicycle breaks. It makes a squeek sound very high pitch, the only thing I know that irritate me like that in fingers on a blackboard. We went to Joline’s cncert, she’s a famous pop singner.. Let’s say the chinese Brithney. The music was absolutly not my style but I was very impress when I saw that everyone with glow stick shaking them and singning all the words of all the songs. As you know, asian are very keen on karaoke and the words of the song were displayed on the giant screen, very interesting. Another night we went in a North Korean restaurant and we had some funky food and drinks amoung them : Dog, sea urchin, and an alchool with had as an ingredient : Penis seal!

I’m now in Beijing and I’m enjoying it very much. Met some very cool south african, they were very impressed when I told them “Ah, you’re from South Africa!” They say I’m probably the first one to guess right the first time (Thanks for the trick Van :) We found a very cheap local restaurant near the hostel and we go eat there every day since. They have an english menu and even if they don’t speak english at all we always manage to understand each other. Tomorrow we’re going to the Great Wall and sunday there’s a Heavy Metal concert! I can’t wait to hear Chinese punk rock :)

I got my Mongolian visa today so I’m leaving on Thuesday, I’m very excited. I’ll be back in China in 1 month, I have to go there now before it gets to cold, but I’m sure that with my canadian winter jacket I’ll be fine!
That’s it for now. For those who read that far, I hope you’re all well

Take care,

Mat