Number 1 I can understand.. But Number 2?

So. I got food poisoning. Oh the humanity! After about 2 days, I had my first (pseudo) meal of broth and toast. I fought to keep it down. Lemme just say, for the record, that I hate barfing. It's just so funny that Hbf eats things like river snails and beer fish, but I'm the one who gets sick off of porridge and toast. The irony is so thick it chokes me (and makes me puke). Alright, enough of that talk.. Let me transition to something a bit different: Poop. Reader discretion is advised.. If you can't handle poo talk, maybe you should skip this entry. But it's not my poo I'm going to talk about, so don't worry. I saw the most disturbing thing the other day.. I think it was in Dali. Before I describe what I saw, let me give a little back story.

Before we even came to China, a friend who had already visited told us a vivid story in which the children of China don't wear diapers. They have slits in their pants and basically pop a squat (or have a parent holding them over a garbage can/grass patch/whatever) wherever they are at the moment. I couldn't believe this story. No diapers! I scoffed. But lo and behold, those Chinese children had slits in their pants and there were no diapers to be seen. Hbf and I have seen children going pee in the streets numerous times, and we leaughed and laughed. We even sought to take a picture of the event because we didn't think people back home would believe it. But this all changed one day when we were walking to a restaurant in Dali. Dali has canals running through the streets and you can see people washing dishes and vegetables in the canal. That's probably where they get their running water from. As we walked, I spotted a little girl, perhaps 4 years old (old enough to know better) assuming the position over the canal. I started to point her out to Hbf, when I realized she was going Number 2! In the street! a BUSY street! I just couldn't believe it.. She was waaaay too old and she was doing it in the canal! My mind flashed back to the woman washing her vegetables.. Suddenly, it doesn't surprise me at all that I got food poisoning.

Ok poo time over. I have mosquito bites on the tops of both my feet, which has really hindered my shoe wearing abilities. I walked up moon hill in bare feet, which is like a zillion stairs, but worth the climb. We also went to the mud caves yesterday and I don't think I have ever been that dirty in my life. Check out the pictures on Flickr :) We are staying in Yangshuo a couple of more days in order to really pack everything in we can.