Friday June 26 - Chengde - Free Time!

Today was free to do as we wished, so we were up at 8:00 am and off down to KFC for breakfast - a bacon and egg crispy sesame bun and coffee and tea! After that we strolled back along the street looking for a hairdresser's. We found one, in a back street and much to the amusement of the hairdressers went in. Ray wanted a hair cut, and I, bravely, wanted to have my hair coloured and cut. So, without the ability of any Chinese or English, we managed it. There must have been about 15 people around us in the shop, all helping us explain what it was we wanted. Ray's was quite easy. Mine was a little harder. I wanted a cut, an overall colour, and highlights. I walked up to their storage cupboards, opened them, and looked around until I found a tube of colour! Then the light went on, and one of the girls brought a colour chart. We picked out two colours, then I had to try and explain that I wanted an overall colour with the darker one, and highlights with the lighter one. A hoot!! Great laughs all around. But I have been reasonably successful. My hair is a little darker than I would have chosen, but with my tan, it doesn't look too bad; and the highlights are not as light or as many as I would have done at home. The "cut" has a slight "Chinese" flair, a little wispy, not too much though. But its OK. Ray is still happy to have me along side him; and Rachel, who just sat down beside me still recognized me! So, no doubt the colour will wash out fairly quickly. We paid Y210 for both; about $25/30! At home in Canada I would pay at least $150 to have it done. After that we came to the Internet, and finally, I have been able to catch up with my blog. Still no pictures. If you can believe it, there must be about 200 computers in the room and they don't have one that reads a DVD - which is where our pictures are. In the alternative, I can access my camera pictures, 1300 on one flash card, but the pics are so small I can't really make them out and am too nervous to leave the camera hooked up for too long in case anything happens to the flash card! Such has been our problem all along. We are hoping that when we get to Beijing, we will be able to find somewhere that reads DVDs. This evening we are going for a beer in the square, then to dinner. Hopefully, it will be an early night. The last two were a little late! Tomorrow we leave Chengde for Huairou and a 4 hour hike on The Great Wall. We have seen it already in the distance, and it looks just like all the photos you see. I can't wait to do the hike, hot as it might be! The temperature is around 35C. The following day we drive to Qingdongling and then on the 29th into Beijing. Our next tour starts on the 4th and we leave Beijing on the morning of the 7th July. Doubt we will have any acess to Internet while on the 21 day train trip. Then we are home on July 29!! Looking forward to seeing you again then. It has been a long, but mind-stretching time!!