Yangshuo and Hong Kong

---

Hi,

So we left Xi'an and travelled on another overnight train to Shanghai, we
ended up having to run with our backpacks and flip flops on (not a good
combination) to make sure we caught the train. We spent 5 days in Shanghai
wondering around the city and the gardens, we wet up the Jinmao Tower for a
great view of the city and wondered around all the little back alleys of the
city.

Then it was on to Wuyi Shan on another train but through the day this time
so we just booked seats. Its weird here in China, people really stare at you
because your western looking and they are so interested in what you are
doing. On the train we had one doctor sat with us who could speak a little
English and as soon as we had told him about our trip we had hakf the
carriage sat around our seats taking pictures with us and speaking at us in
chinese! We even had people putting their mobile phones through the window
to take pictures the furthur we got into the country! We swapped photos and
said our goodbyes and headed off to our hotel which thankfully they had
remebered to pick us up because it was midnight.

Wuyi Shan was much smaller than all the cities we have been to and it was so
nice to be out in the country, we went on a bamboo raft trip down the nine
twists river through the mountains, had a lazy day then headed off to xiamen
our next stop. There were no sleeper beds available for the overnight train
so we decided to just go bottom class. When we got to the train luckily we
had seats booked because there were 80 seats and about 150 people, we were
crammed onto this filfthy train with people laying all over the floor and
rubbish everywhere. It seemed like they were all playing cards all night
long and cheering everytime someone one-it was a long night. Finally the
train pulled into Xiamen.

In Xiamen we walked around the markets with live chickens and all sorts of
seafood that they kill and cook in front of you, then we visited one of the
small islands to climb up these huge rocks for a view of the mainland.

Then it was to Hong Kong, we thought the bus we booked was expensive and
didnt realise until we got there it was like a business class bus which
including lunch so it wasnt too bad. Arriving in Hong Kong was like coming
home, everything written in English and most people speak English even the
taxi driver, which was great considering we had no idea where the bus
dropped us off!
We spent a week in Hong Kong and for someone whos not keen on big cities I
thought it was great, theres so much to do. We went to Ocean World, got the
tram up Victoria Peak for a view of Hong Kong, went to Lantau Island to see
the worlds biggest seated bronze buddha and go to our first beach of the
trip. We stayed on Hong Kong Island so we went across to Kowloon for a look
and to visit a fortune teller which was quite interesting, they seemed to
get things just right!

We also decided to go to Macau another country an hour away by boat and its
like a mini Las Vegas we had a budget of $200 each, i lost mine and Aaron
doubled his so he spent it on doing a skyjump 233m high off the Macau tower,
crazy fool-you can see a pic of his lovely suit on www.facebook.com.

We went on one night out but ended up buying our drinks in the 7 eleven shop
because you can drink in the streets outside the bars here. Someone in the
bar wanted to charge us 4 pound for a sprite!!

After Hong Kong we came here to Yangshuo, we had to get a train to the hong
kong border, walk with all our stuff to reach the chinese border and when we
got there they wouldnt believe Aaron was the person on his passport just
like a few of the other borders we have been to. This time they took a lot
longer about it though and they checked with a few other officials beofre
they finally let us through.

We got our sleeper bus to Yangshuo with a group of Americans studying in
Hong Kong, we had our borttle of wine to try and make us sleep throught he
night. It was a really spooky journey though, we were in the middle of
nowhere going up a very windy road through mountains with nothing but a
constant stream of what looked like army vehicles and our driver seemed to
think it was best to overtake on corners.

When I finally got to sleep it felt like 10 minutes and I was awake again
but the scenery had completely changed, we were surounded by tall thin
mountains with sheer rock faces and paddy fields all around them with little
men and their ox's.

Yangshuo is a lovely little town with a cobbled street full of little men in
point hats playing their flutes and little old ladies carrying huge baskets
of fruit. We are staying in a hotel 2 minutes from the huge river surrounded
by these weird looking mountains.

We went on a bike ride on a tandem round all the minority villages and went
caving to a mud bath 30 metres down. Yesterday Aaron had booked to go hot
air ballooning and seeing as I hate flying and im scared of heights I was a
bit scared to go but at the last minute I deciede to as it was such a lovely
day. It was really scary but the view was well worth it, we flew up to 500m
over the mountains and then when we started to come down it felt so fast we
thought we were going to break our legs when we landed but luckily he slowed
it right down just before we hit the ground. We bounced straight back up
again though and had to land twice. We landed in the middle of this group of
families- no idea where they came from but they were fascinated by the hot
air balloon and they gave us their oranges.

So we are leaving China tomorrow going to Hanoi in Vietnam to meet Dean who
is travelling with us through the country.

Our first of many malaria tablets was taken last night another 4 and a half
months worth left!

There are a few pics now on www.facebook.com

---