back in Guangzhou

I suppose there have been quite a few changes in the last week or so. I'll have to sum up in a stream of consciousness sort of way. I had some really good vegetarian fried chicken at this restaurant in Taipei right near the hostel. My stomach said "no" but the rest of me said "ohhh yeahhh" and thus as they say, it was on. Good dumpling soup too. My last few days in Taipei were generally uneventful. My stomach hadn't been feeling so good and that is an ongoing battle. Most people reading this know I have had chronic digestive problems since sometime in college which run in my family really, so that isn't too new. I'm gradually getting a handle on it but Taiwan in general was not smooth sailing. Could've certainly been worse and I didn't let it slow me down, but I'm hoping some time in one place will help that. I am taking Chinese medicine which is supposed to be good for the gut. The type I bought is apparently a more traditional packaging which consists of a box in which reside 8 yellow orbs which are slightly smaller than golf balls. The yellow orbs are made of wax. What I have been doing to open the sphere is crease it a bit with my fingermail and then squeeze in such a manner as to reveal the inner medicine, which is a smaller ball apparently made of dirt but actually made of herbs of some sort. For the curious, this medicine is called Bao He Wan. I then eat the herbs which don't taste as bad as I expected and I don't mind. Without jinxing it, it definitely seems to be doing something good, or it is a coincidence that things are improving. I'll keep taking it and see what happens. It has been used for thousands of years and according to the doctor in Hong Kong, worst case is that it tastes horrible but if it kills me I'd be the first.

Spent a bit of time in Hong Kong after Taipei, my transitional city between destinations but this time kept it to only 2-3 nights while I contemplated my next move. I had been considering southeast Asia for some time but decided given my gut being not completely functional and being kind of fatigued of moving around constantly for 3 months it would be a good time to stay in one place for a while. I stopped in Shenzhen for a few days, a border town just near Hong Kong and visited my friend Grace there for a few nights before coming here to Guangzhou where I've been for two nights I believe. Today I think I located a language school that I like and tomorrow I hope to locate somewhere I can rent for a monthly fee that will have a kitchen where I could actually prepare my own food again, something I really miss and would probably go a long way to improving my health. Once I settle in somewhere I plan to resume working on my website a little bit. I just want to take some time where waking up doesn't mean some kind of feeling like I need to go out and visit a museum or a park or rent a bike and go to some village or whatever it is. I can just live here for a while and soak in a real Chinese city.

Today I saw a guy walking three monkeys down the street. I was too startled to take out my camera. I made a mental note to identify what kind of primate they actually were later but I haven't done so. It's the kind that has a red butt.