Nov 2006

Village in the rice paddies

Cheesy snap!

Small village in the rice paddies

Hong Kong Street at night

View of Hong Kong from HK Island

View of HK Island

Wow! Longji was brilliant. We stayed two nights in guesthouses in the rice paddies and it was fantastic. the guesthouses were very basic and on our second night we had a blazing thunderstorm and a powercut - we ate our dinner by candlelight and had no heating!!!! Walking through the rice paddies was excellent, they were so beautiful and although we didn't have bright blue skies the scenery was still worth the climb up.

It really wasn't long before we were on our last train journey (only 16 hours this time) and we arrived in Hong Kong. Our Intrepid trip was over and the group seperated. We ended up stopping at a guesthouse which was awful!! Ants everywhere, not very clean urgh! We quicky organised another place to stay which is much better - phew!

We quite like Hong Kong but it's a lot more expensive than mainland China so it's a bit of a shock to the system! We caught the Star Ferry and went to Hong Kong Island yesterday. It was cloudy but we still took the trip up to Victoria peak by the furnicular railway and it was worth it - though very windy!!

Our time in China has been excellent, we've experienced so much in such a short space of time but it's all been great. We just can't wait for our next country now.....

There were cockroaches in this place!!!

Yangshou

The market where we found dog!

Cooking school!

Yangshou

Yangshou

After 30 hours of solid travel (taxi, train and bus) we eventually arrived in Yangshuo late Tuesday night. When we woke on Wednesday morning we were greeted with amazing scenery.

We like it here though the town is very much divided into Chinese and tourist areas. The tourist area is the same as any, full of bars serving Western Food and shops and stalls selling the same souvenirs. The Chinese area is fascinating. We accidently wandered through a market yesterday which was an experience in itself; chickens in baskets, rabbits (like from the pet store!) in cages, large shallow bowls full of squirming fish and eels! Meat and offal all laid out on the stalls, the market certainly had a smell all of its own. We grabbed a bite to eat here and had four dumplings stuffed with meat for Y1 (7p)!!!!!

Wednesday afternoon we went caving and had a mud bath - it was excellent fun, everyone was caked in the stuff and the welcomed the hot showers back at our hotel which is called Fawlty Towers! We also ate at a night market where we had one of the best dinners so far. The food was just gorgeous, topped off with a beer.

David's gone kayaking this morning whilst Nic had a Calligraphy lesson and this afternoon we're heading off to a cooking school. Over the next few days we will leave Yangshuo and head off to the rice paddies in Longji, the photos we've seen of this place look beautiful so hopefully we'll have clear weather. Fingers crossed!

The Pearl Tower

We arrived in shanghai after a 17 hour train journey. We've got a lovely 26 hour train journey coming up which starts Monday afternoon, we're getting better at organising ourselves for these trips and we've just stocked up with plenty of food.

Shanghai isn't our favourite place so far (though the Pearl Tower is impressive), in fact each time we visit a city we can't wait to get out into the countryside - we'll be off to Yangshuo next and then onto Longji where we'll walk up on the rice terraces amongst mountains.

We're getting particularly frustrated with Shanghai as there's lots of people constantly trying to sell you crap but, we're trying to be patient and remember they're just trying to make some money - some people must be buying it or they wouldn't be doing it!

We were hoping to upload a few photos soon but this will have to wait a little longer. David has learnt that it's not wise to play with the camera after he's had a few drinks and now knows that formatting the memory card wipes all the photos off. David was very very angry with himself, we're now asking round the group who shared similar experiences for their generic photos. Nic has a few snaps (all very good!!) and we've only lost 10 days worth.....sob....sob....

Next update: Hong Kong

The Great Wall at Sunrise

Well,we've been busy bees! We trekked 7 miles of the Great Wall the other day which was fantastic but very cold! However, it didn't put us off and we got up in the early hours of the following day to watch the sun rise on the Great Wall, it was just magical.

We then took a 14 hour train journey from Beijing to Xi-an which Nic thought was fantastic- the best night's sleep so far!! We like Xi-an a lot more than Beijing. We've visited the terracota warriers and cycled along the ancient city walls on a tandem. We also went out last night with our group and ended up doing karaoke! It's a lot different to karaoke at the local boozer in England but just as much fun, though we both woke up with sore throats this morning.

Anyway, all for now. We're off to do a spot of shopping before catching the next train to Shanghai.....

River along the Forbidden City walls

Inside the Forbidden City

The view from our hotel room!

Beijing is massive!

Each street is as wide as the M1 and just as dangerous, though you not only run the risk of being knocked down by a car but also by the crazy Chinese on their cycles!

The hotel is perfectly located, we're about 1/2 hour from Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City - both of which we've already visited.

We've done a lot of walking (the streets are very long here!) and Nic keeps getting stared at! We've been stopped once already in Tiananmen Square by some young Chinese men who asked to have their photo taken with us!?!

We're off to the Great Wall on Monday with our group and will then begin making our way to Xi-an over night via train - should be interesting! Everyone in the group seems very nice, we met them last night and there's a great mix of people. The group's mainly female including 4 Swedish girls (Nic's keeping an eye on David......)

Anyway, enough for now!