New tour leader, Mark, and a few new travellers joined. - Kaili.

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I forgot to mention in the last blog that in hong kong we had a new tour leader- mark who took over from Lucy.. The time had also come for a few travelers to leave the group, this is where Matt, Sam and Julia left us and we were joined by 3 Geordie girls, Alex, Louise, and Colette, we also had an Aussie girl, Gabi join us.

Up very early and then off the train in Kaili, we dropped our bags in a hotel and had noodle soup for brekkie, strange so i didn't eat much of it and went to the bakery instead. It was much warmer now and the sun was shining which was again a nice change!

We got a bus to the start of the trek, and then walked started with a walk around a village- very basic! We walked a bit further- all on road- and then we were all so hot we got rid of a few layers, well as many as possible in the middle of the road. Silly me, i had thermals, leggings and jeans on coz we thought it was gonna be cold, but i was unable to take there off so just had to grin a bear it!

About an hour in and we had a break, ate some snacks and then off again promptly. We strarted to walk again, but all on roads which was hot and disappointing coz we were nt seeing much and it was incredibly hard work! Also needed a wee but kept being told just a bit further, all empty promises, until we found one, but it was the worst thing i have ever seen and smelt! It was a large bucket, to collect for fertilizer and two planks of wood on top! But it hadnt been cleaned out in about a yr and was full of you know what! 5 hours later it was dark but we found a sweet shop in a tiny village. We had all had enough so got some sweets to perk up and after a while of negotiaing and hard talking we got transport to the village we were staying. It was supposed to be a 20 min walk to the village, but it was a good 1/2 hour in the bus so god knows how long a walk it would've been.

Got to our guesthouse run by Mr lei by late evening and sat and had a minuscule dinner. to bed and we had electric blankets- BONUS!
the next morning we had a village walk and then a traditional show from the locals with rice wine given to us, or forced on us, too early in the morning for me , but had no choice! The locals danced for us and sang, then we had to sing for them so we thought them the YMCA, head shoulders knees and toes and sang happy birthday to Joe : )

Went back to the guesthouse and dropped the others off for their second trek, me, Emma and Leonie decided to give this one a miss. we spent the day in the village, enjoying the scenery and had lunch with some locals we bumped into. BEST meal since leaving home and it was again so cheap! This was a funny place though as the toilet was with a pig.....separate pens but when you shut the door you could see the pig eating his lunch too!

After lunch we went out and said goodbye to our new friends, swapped emails and had a look around the village. Everyone is still not used to seeing westerners but they are very good at English. Foe example one boy who looked about 12 started to talk to us and was asking what type of films we liked, and continued to tell us how he likes harry potter....this was amazing, a village in the middle of nowhere- houses built from wood and hardly any amenities and there was a Chinese lad who liked harry potter, im guessing that is how JK Rowling is so minted- it gets everywhere!

There wasnt must left of the day so we got a beer for 2Yuan = 20p, had a nap, played some cards and then bed.

In the morning we got a lift to the bus station where we re-joined the group and set off on another bus. This bus was a few hours long, and the group was split between 2 buses.... we had booked seats but there was no queing system, and somehow there was not enought seats on one bus so in a mad panic we got on seperate buses. When we got off the bus, it was not in a station, but in the middle of a road under a motorway....CRAZY! We figured out that the bus station was down the road, so went and met mark there. This day had been a long day and we still had to walk with our backpacks to the train station, and got on the 8pm night train to Kunming.

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