Enjoy your trip to Hainan my friend. What a great spot! I spent about six weeks there once, but unfortunately never made it to the Sanya side of the island. I love the Hainan people; generally so friendly and gentle.

No, I won't be returning to the great North West for awhile. (Can't pull the wool over your eyes with my assorted nom de plumes can I?) It seems that Yunnan, though I'm not living there right now, is my home away from home. So, I'll be heading back there in July and moving on to other ventures and hopefully a good deal of relaxation. (There's a fishing village I want to check out where I can hopefully make friends with some of the villagers so that I can go out in their skiffs with them and learn their ways of fishing.) In fact, my girlfriend and I have already leased a house in Yunnan. Sadly, in some ways, and happily in others, I'm moving out of the classroom after ten years of ESL and EFL teaching. I may do a little writing - working on a story right now for Asian learners of English, complete with illustrations (drawn by a Japanese artist friend) and CD, but even that won't be my main focus. If anything, I just want to concentrate on enjoying this beautiful country and its diverse population.

Again, enjoy your vacation Manchu and I'll catch ya on the flip side. And by the way, thanks so much for the kind words.