Shenzhen

strangely cool border city too hk, although city itself is a little grubby and apparently theyve had some problems withhe triads (awesome some people to drink with!) the suburbs are nice + im staying in a hostel right in the middle of the trendy upmarket art scene.

After a decent flight and by far the best service and plane food iv ever had, thanks air china, got to shenzhen slightly disheatend that i would be stuck in this place which all the book has to say is that it borders hk and is where the entire worlds ipods/mac books are made. the metro although a tadmore expensive than bejing is the best so far + i arrived at my hostel pritty easyly and its right in the middle o shenzhens art district and its hot! should be a good place to chill out then. i love thelittle supermarke aswelll you can get almost anything pick n mix style and you shovel your rice into a massive bag to take home (they actually had a shovel!) had to get some dragon fruit too, its the best filling tasty 50p and like 80% water or something.

most of the days here have been pritty uneventfull and all have started in starbucks which is the coolest i have seen but clearly for the very wealthy. had my first every expresso and im ashamed to say my first ever actual coffee at starbucks and well the entire day i was bouncing off the walls on a massive caffeine high as i havnt had a red bull or anythng of the sort in so long (its just not the same). went to some art galleries and shizz too which was priityy cool although i skipped on whats described as chinas version of disneyland...no thanks.

in the city itself the first thing upon leaving the tube i had some geezer follow me into mc ds toilets all the way trying to sell me a bloody iphone! i had already decided to get a tattoo despite the huuuge dent in the budget and im glad i did although the first place i went to hd shut down i had to sniff out another and to be fair although this geezer was rocking hair straighners he was good at his job.

oh got a memory card pritty cheap too as its kinda running low,iv taken 1500 photos already!! aparently people from hk come here to shop and its only really the rich, the foriegners and the people too poor to leave who do it in hk.

on a beautifull day i decided to see some green and get a tan soi headed to shenzhens park which is a bit of a let down but still its sunny and has a waterfall to dip your feet in cant complain. unfortunatly im stuck here for a couple more days because of hostels prices and all that lark but co the 7th i will have eventually made it to HONG KONG!

Before i go id like to say my thoughts and prayers go out to uncle gav & louise at such an awful time

much love, ash x

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