At long last after many months we are leaving South East Asia. Don't get me wrong it's a fabulous place, but I really need a change of food and culture and China's the place.

Not wanting to spend any more time in Laos, despite the fact that we still have 4 days left on our visa, we took a bus to Mengla in China from Luang Nam Tha in Laos. The journey started at 8am, but we arrived at 7am to secure a good seat for the 4 hour journey.

Apart from the locals, both Lao & Chinese and ourselves there was a Scottish couple and an extremely tall Norwegian chap. Our driver found it amusing to stand up next to him at every stop and exclaim at his height. As he didn't even come up to his shoulder it's not surprising.

The road was a continuous series of hairpin bends and potholes, but finally we arrived in Boten on the Lao side of the border. Immigration was simple and we were soon back on the bus for the 3km trip to Chinese immigration at Mohan. We were both a little concerned at whether we would be stranded in no-man's land as our double entry visa and it's validity dates didn't seem to coincide with the information in the guide books. According to me we can enter China twice and the second time must be before the 12th March. Fortunately for us Chinese immigration agreed and soon we were on the way to Mengla, the first major town after leaving Laos. The Chinese are taking no chances with S.A.R.S and the like. Prior to immigration we had to pass by a sensor that measured our body temperature and then displayed it on an electronic readout. Too high and I assume alarms would sound, just right and you are rewarded with a beep and a nod from the official behind the desk together with a piece of paper allowing you to proceed on to passport control.

As usual we stopped several times on the way to pick up and drop off locals with their usual assortment of ridiculous luggage and/or food. Today we had an empty 30 litre propane gas bottle, 2 huge sacks of rice (which ended up being used as seats) and some sort of petrol driven generator, that came in handy as an arm rest.

Arriving in Mengla we saw that a bus was leaving for Jinghong only 10 minutes later and so biting the bullet we hopped straight on for another 5 hours of bum numbing torture. China is so vast that even 5 hours makes no discernible dent and we have a long way to go before our 30 days here is up. Besides Mengla is not very interesting and Jinghong is a bigger city with much more to do.

The difference in infrastructure, buildings and sheer energy once in China is, as always, quite amazing. For example on our final bus journey in Laos the road was awful although they are resurfacing it. In China, the road was equally bad, but are they resurfacing their twisty turny road, oh no, they are building a separate straight one, suspended on pylons above the valleys, and drilling through hills, cutting out the hairpin bends altogether.

Stopping several times on route, we noticed the loo's were just as 'good' as the ones in the hutongs in Beijing, but here they even charged for using them. Although not the 3 RMB that Sam thought they were asking for, when they held up three fingers at the desk outside the loo's. It was in fact three Yijiao's, of which there are 10 to 1RMB. The Yijiao notes are the tiniest you will ever see, only a little longer than your index finger.

Having found a great little hotel in Jinghong for only £2.80 per night, we took a walk down one of the main streets called Manting Lu. Here we found the Mekong Cafe and parched and hungry scanned the menu eagerly. The local beer in these parts is called Dali beer, after the city Dali, which we will go to in a few days time. It is home to an ethnic group called the Bai and is surrounded by the 4000metre high Jade Green Mountains.

It is wonderful to be back in China and to eat different food again. Steamed dumplings with a great sauce, Dali chicken, lemon salad, stir fried vegetables and rice all of it viciously spicy.

The town has a lot of ugly concrete buildings, but thoughtfully the planners long ago planted hundreds of trees, so mostly all you can see are long tree lined boulevards as you stroll along.

The noise level in the hotel has just increased and poking my head out of the door it seems that a local dance troupe has just booked in for the night as they are all dressed up in blue and pink outfits. I guess they must all be tired though as the noise has already abated.  

Day 149 - Tuesday 7th March 2006 - Sam's Account

Today was what I can best describe as "an orientation day" of Jinghong which sounds very American I know. We checked out the local tourist café, Mei Mei, for breakfast and picked their brains over everything from buying SIM cards, to hiring bikes and regional transportation.

Unfortunately the only thing they couldn't accommodate us on was the free internet service they offer as this consists of one lonely computer which someone was already using. So, we went off on foot to discover the city and try to up/down-load our e-mails.

One road in Jinghong has rows and rows of enormous internet shops. Would they let us plug in our laptop? No way. It honestly seemed as they were all scared of the lap top. Every time we pulled it out to explain what we wanted they shook their heads and hands fervently and walked away muttering. They must have been concerned about committing some type of information breach. We eventually found a solution and with shoulders back and heads high we walked straight into a very posh hotel and asked for the business centre. Once they understood what we wanted they couldn't have been more accommodating of helpful if they tried. We spent a good couple of hours on line and they weren't going to even charge us, we ended up paying only 10RMB which wasn't bad at all.

We continued to wander around Jinghong which I have to say is a great place. The city is small and totally manageable, it also has a very relaxed feel to it and the climate is lovely. Since entering China we have not really seen any other westerners at all and the locals react in very different ways to us. Either they smile, waive and shout "hello" or they give us a frowning stare; you never know what you're going to get. In general it is the elder generation which are much more bothered about our presence, the younger generations i.e. middle age downwards are very welcoming. Interestingly everyone seems extremely curious in us.

I especially noticed the locals curiosity in us when I went for a stroll around the night market. Groups of women stared and pointed and giggled between themselves as I wandered through the stalls. Evidently after a while you end up getting a little paranoid that your flies are undone! Having surreptitiously checked the possibility of this and reassured myself everything was in order I had to come to the conclusion that the points, stares, glares and giggles were all down to my presence in their market and nothing else. Feeling extremely out of place I grudgingly wended my way having had a brief look around at all the makeshift restaurants, food stalls, fun fair games and rides.

Back at our hotel Colin was engrossed in his book and we made an early night of it.
 

Day 150 - Wednesday 8th March 2006 - Colin's Account

Quite an eventful day and night. Having booked our overnight sleeper bus to Kunming, a 13 hour journey, we hired some bicycles and set off to explore some local villages and a huge reservoir about 16km from town.

The scenery is beautiful as usual, with mountains in the distance and rice fields all around. Little dusty lanes wander over rickety bridges and into small villages. Even in the smallest villages the roofs are slate rather than the thatch that we saw so much of in Cambodia and Laos.

Back on the main road, which is being reconstructed and is currently absolutely awful with rocks, potholes and bumps everywhere, we headed for the hills and reservoir. What made the road worse was the continuous stream of lorries throwing up clouds of dust, but everyone we passed shouted 'hello' or 'ni hao' (hello in Chinese).

After stopping at a market for some dumplings, where we immediately became the main source of attraction, we arrived at the reservoir. It is difficult to tell if it's man made or not as it is not a regular shape and is ringed by hills and forests. A fisherman or two were hoping to catch dinner with their bamboo fishing poles and a couple of partially sunken rafts proved that the odd bit of boating has gone on at some time in the past.

Stopping for a drink at a cafe with great views of the reservoir we watched groups of locals concentrating hard on their game of Mah Jong and then it was back to Jinghong.

Our sleeper bus was just that and we were the only westerners aboard. There are no seats, only beds which are bunks in three rows across the width of the bus with two very narrow aisles. The first six hours were through the mountains and you needed the seat belt provided to strap you into your bed as the bus swung constantly from left to right as it negotiated hairpin bend after hairpin bend on a very bumpy road.

Up until now we have only ever seen the capitalist, dynamic aspect of China and not the police state side, that was about to change.

I assume that the Chinese are not encouraged to stray out of their region of residence, because as we passed from one to another there was a checkpoint. Two soldiers got on board and examined everyone's identity very closely, they also asked each passenger a lot of questions and searched all of their bags. Then everyone had to get off the bus and take their luggage out of the hold which was also searched and what were we doing during all this time? The answer is not much, they barely glanced at our passports, didn't want to search our bags and said we could leave our luggage in the hold as they didn't want to search that either.

They were unfailingly polite to us, even smiling. It's rather nice to be somewhere where as a foreigner you get treated better than the locals. That certainly wasn't the case in Cambodia and particularly Laos.

The bus trundled off again, finally reaching the superhighway some 400km south of Kunming and we tried to sleep. At about 6am we reached another checkpoint and the police who came aboard were much harsher. The same questions, but more insistent and one chap had to empty his pockets out and pass his jacket to the police to check that he had emptied everything out. Bags were opened, packets of food examined and one even spent half a minute studying the soles of someone's trainers. Again all the bags were emptied from the hold except ours as we once more escaped with a single cursory glance at our passports. There were some grumblings from the locals at this second inspection, but only very quietly.

I assume that the police have been instructed to be friendly and not hassle foreign tourists, especially with the Olympics coming up in 2008 and that's alright by us.

We eventually pulled in the fairly huge city of Kunming at 8am, which is where I'll leave it as that's a new day.

Day 151 - Thursday 9th March 2006 - Sam's Account

Feeling tired, cold and aching all over from the long overnight journey we eventually managed to get our bearings and hopped in a taxi asking in our best Chinese for the area of the city which hosts the majority of the cheaper hotels.

Kunming is huge. The very wide boulevards all laid out in a modern grid system do not lend themselves to any characteristic qualities. The city has everything, as all cities do but it does very much feel like a pit-stop place and the real interest is outside of town. Although it takes you a couple of hours to reach the extremities of the town as it is so huge.

Having checked into our modern hotel, which is predominantly used by Chinese business men and women, we set off on foot to have a look around.

Very quickly I realised I was not feeling too well and having managed just a couple of hours of sightseeing I went back to the hotel to clamber into bed.

Hey presto, a few hours later I had the most raging temperature and both ends were stuck to the loo. I wanted to curl up into a coma until I was better as I felt so awful.

Day 152 - Friday 10th March 2006 - Colin's Account

The overnight trains to Dali are full all his week, so we'll have to go by bus instead.

Sam is not very well and so I have been strolling around on my own most of the day. Despite its size and the amount of traffic the streets are fairly quiet. The reason for this is that almost every single motorbike, of which there are many, is powered by electricity, leaving you with a feeling that things are much quieter than you think they should be. The light is also a bit different as the sun is very bright and hot due to our altitude, but it does get cold in the shade and the evening.

A cafe restaurant just round the corner from our hotel is offering an hours tuition in Chinese every Friday, starting at 2.30 and the Tsing Tao beer is on special offer as well, ideal.

There are four tones in the Chinese language, which are denoted by different accents above the letters. Getting these right is important as it can change the meaning of the word, although they do give foreigners a bit of leeway. For example mā means mother, but mà means to scold and má means hemp. The fourth tone in this example is mă which means horse. The numbering system is easy to learn, once you have 1-10 mastered, you only need learn the words for 100,1000 & 10000 and a couple of simple rules and you can count up to 99999. We were a disparate little group learning Chinese, two Israeli's, a Canadian, a Spaniard and me. So words in Hebrew, Spanish, English & Chinese were being batted around non-stop.

Our teacher and the staff at the Cafe, which by the way is decked out in bamboo & plants with pleasant lighting, told me that they could have gotten me a discount of 30% on our hotel room. As I'd already paid and we are leaving tomorrow it was too late, maybe the next time we stay at the City Spring Kunming Machinery Hotel, I'll nip round and see the girls at Mama Fu's first.

There are quite a few office blocks in view and so I boot up the laptop from my table in the cafe and turn on the WI-FI. I am immediately presented with a long list of networks, mostly unsecured, giving me free internet access. With nothing much else to do for the rest of the day it's an ideal opportunity to do some on-line admin.

Day 153 - Saturday 11th March 2006 - Sam's Account

Well I finally prized myself out of the room and into a waiting cab to go to the bus station for us to catch our 5 hour bus to Dali.

It was quite odd seeing the sunlight and blue sky having spent the last two days in the hotel room. Still feeling decidedly offish we settled into the bus and woe of all woe's I am sat directly in front of a fat, aging, ugly smelly git again. But this time, this time, it was worse. He reeked, not just smelt, but reeked of stale alcohol and my poor delicate tummy spent the whole 5 hour bus trip trying it's very best to behave. It was revoltingly foul and I have decided that if it happens to me again I'm just going to get off the bus and get another one. This guy literally made me want to puke.

The toilets at our customary pee break stop were just as filthy as usual and I struggled to relax enough to pee in the communal toilets on the floor with all the other Chinese women squatting right next to me and others standing watching waiting for some space for them to relieve themselves in the floor holes too. The stench was crippling and I can't believe I actually managed a) to pee b) not to be sick and c) to get back on the bus with the stench that lay in wait for me there.

So far my opinion of China has not changed. It is a wonderfully dynamic country with go-getter, educated people. The landscapes, both man made and natural are truly wonderful but it seems that the people have no understanding of basic hygiene. They scoff their food while spitting and throwing what they don't want on the floor, the bodily functions they are prepared to display in public should be illegal, and for a country so quickly developing and proud I can't understand their acceptance of the Neolithic toilet systems. That said we're having a good time!

On arrival in Dali we took our time to get our bearings and then walk across the town with all our luggage to the "Friends Guesthouse" which promised to be the cheapest deal in town. It was and having been given two room options, one at 40RMB and one at 60RMB we decided to push the boat out and go for the more expensive one, which was definitely much better.

The rest of the day was spent wandering around the streets lapping up the atmosphere with the hoards of Chinese tourists who were on holiday here. The weather is very changeable but mostly cold with high winds and we often have to take shelter in a little bar or restaurant. What a shame!

Day 154 - Sunday 12th March 2006 - Colin's Account

Very little doing today apart from strolling round the old city of Dali, but to avoid emails telling us we've missed a day here's a quick précis.

The main part of the town of Dali is given over to long rows of souvenir and craft shops selling 'silver', jade, hand made jewellery, pottery and marble. Everywhere you look are local Bai people in traditional costume, although mainly young women giving tours to groups of Chinese tourists. Old men and women in peasant garb sell local Bai delicacies or trinkets and craftsmen sit outside their shops hammering away on small anvils.

Most houses are very old with low wooden doors and have pagoda style roofs which are often lit up at night. There are four gates into the old city at each point of the compass and a partially covered stream with mini rapids runs down the side of the main street. Despite the fact that there are not many westerners here, one street has the local name of Foreigners Street. Named so, because of all the western style cafe's and restaurants that line the road. There are also dozens of local Chinese restaurants dotted all over the miniature city which offer much better value for money and frankly, better food as well.

There are also BBQ stalls which have a huge selection of meat, fish, shellfish and vegetable skewers all ready to be thrown on the charcoal once you have made your choice. This evening Sam and I ate at one of these, choosing two skewers each of potato, mushroom, pork, beef & fish. The chef sprinkled them all liberally with chilli and salt, too much salt in fact. They were fiery hot and too salty, but very good anyway and the whole lot only cost about 55 pence. 

Then we watched movies and I introduced Sam to David Lean's classic, Dr Zhivago.

Day 155 - Monday 13th March 2006 - Sam's Account

Well today as I was feeling a little more recovered from my bug we decided we ought to actually do something. Especially after the delectable Sunday laziness of yesterday; watching films all day with cakes and chocolates to munch through. It had been the first "Sunday feeling" we had had since our departure and it had been great. I had started to dream of smoked salmon with scrambled eggs and champagne for breakfast with a rack of lamb for lunch accompanied by a fair few glasses of red wine. But hey, it was great dreaming and it evidently meant I was on the mend!

So having decided to walk to the lake and back, about a 12Km walk, we decided to have a late breakfast to stoke the boiler before hand. There was only one other person who came into the Bamboo Café whilst we were there, and as he was looking for a wireless connection we soon struck up conversation as Colin gave him directions to the nearest hot-spot.  Amazingly, he has come to Dali to buy a couple of horses and walk to Lhasa in Tibet on his own. A loony, then again he did say himself he was a very mad person. Sensibly though, he has been training 5 hours a day in Kung Fu to get fit and protect himself from any robbers en route. We took his full name, Dan Robinson, to see if we hear about his escapades in the news or his eventual publication of a book.

So, today we walked to the lake and back. It is an easy walk as it is along a flat road and it took about an hour to get there and an hour back. The erratic weather was doing it's best to hinder those who braved it, and we were pleased to have taken our waterproof jackets. On our way there we passed a young Chinese couple who had hired a tandem bicycle and the chap was pushing the bike on foot into the head wind whilst his girlfriend was walking backwards to avoid the harsh wind in her face. She was evidently not amused and seemed so frail  I thought she'd get blown away!

On our return we tucked into some steamed dumplings at one of the local Chinese eatery's and had 2 wicker baskets full of them with spicy sauce for 6RMB. That's they way to do it. The other restaurants here are quite pricey.

The rest of the day was spent hibernating once again whilst reading, surfing the internet and watching films.

Day 156 - Tuesday 14th March 2006 - Colin's Account

Today we are off to Lijiang a couple of hundred kilometres north of Dali and one step nearer to the elusive city of Shangri-La some distance to the north. Our bus tickets, bought from our guesthouse ensured that the bus stopped right at our door and for once it was us who were last on as the locals were already all aboard. Like most of our recent journeys, the route took us around snow capped mountains and past freshwater lakes. Lijiang is effectively two cities the old & the new with the boundary between the two being Lion Hill.

In 1996 an earthquake of over 7 on the Richter scale flattened most of the new town, but fortunately left the old town largely unscathed. The old town is a maze of cobblestone streets and alleyways, with wooden bridges crisscrossing the streams that run through the town. Lijiang with its traditional Naxi architecture is beautiful, far nicer than Dali and again the tourists here are almost entirely Chinese.

We found a bargain guesthouse at only 40RMB per night and wandered the old city in search of lunch. The restaurants are quite expensive, relatively speaking, but the problem with some of the cheaper options is that there is no menu translation or even no menu. We can, of course, point to something from the menu stuck on the wall, but my dad and I used to do that at a Korean restaurant in Raynes Park, London and once ended up with Pig intestines for lunch so I am understandably wary about going that route.

We found the word for dumplings in our book and in a few minutes two steaming bowls of soup arrived complete with dumplings. The chef makes his own pastry and the couple who came in after us ordered noodles so he set to work bashing out his pastry and then splitting it into long strands, holding it like a cats cradle. Another couple arrived and this time it was fat noodles and the chef stood about a bubbling pot with a lump of pastry in his hand and shaved off slices at high speed which flew through the air one by one to land in the pot a couple of feet below him.

We found a small cafe down a side street where the lady is Chinese, but also speaks English and French. Her son doesn't look very oriental so we suspect her husband is French, especially as she spoke to her son in that language. I managed to exchange some of my books with her and we sat on a balcony that was beautifully decorated with jazz playing quietly in the background. Needless to say my trusty laptop picked up a wireless internet connection and so we uploaded the photo's of Laos.

At night Lijiang is stunning with everything lit up by Chinese lanterns which dangle over the streams and the wooden bridges, leading to restaurants, artisan's studio's or just another alleyway. In the main square dozens of Chinese people were singing and dancing around a bonfire while more looked on. I walked for an hour, turning down a couple of restaurants due to price, but at one where I was about to turn away again, the waitress said she would do the food at half price! So I sat down to a bowl of yellow noodles with pork and bok choy, just shows how much they are overcharging in the first place.

Day 157 - Wednesday 15th March 2006 - Sam's Account

Well today we discovered the new part of Lijiang. This was mainly because the shops in the old town don't sell anything useful at all, they are all souvenir shops. So with the urge to part with a few more of our RMB we walked off to find some decent shops.

The supermarket did not have any fresh produce whatsoever which was odd so we moved swiftly on to the market where not only did we find a good selection of fruit but also some thermal underwear for Colin!

Having surfaced quite late we decided to hunt out a good cheap eat for lunch and found a dumpling place - our favourite - where we ate 2 wicker baskets of the tasty, steaming, filling morsels. We drowned them as usual with copious amounts of spicy sauce and went for a side dish of spicy cucumber for good measure. It was all washed down with a local Dali beer and Chinese tea for the total price of 12RMB (80p!).

The rest of the day was spent wandering around the markets and shops (lèche vitrine as they say in France) and planning the next leg of our trip which was actually quite involved.

In the end we got it sorted. We were going to bus it up to the Tibetan border and then work our way slowly back down to Lijiang in a loop via our 3 day trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge. The majority of our luggage was staying in Lijiang and the hotel we booked the tickets from (not only for this part of the trip but also buses and trains over to Kunming & Guilin on 26th) were very accommodating. So they should have been once we'd parted with a cool 1000RMB.

Satisfied with our research, planning and organisation it was then time to reward ourselves with dinner. Having weighed up all the cheaper options (KFC, more dumplings or a Korean meal), we went for the Korean. It was great. Kimchi stew with Kimchi on the side, I was half expecting  Kimchi beer and tea to be served! Our royal feast came to 41RMB (£2.90), excellent value for money.

Travellers tip : if you ever find yourself in Lijiang don't eat or drink in the old town as the prices are double if not triple or at times quadruple what you can expect to pay elsewhere.

Back at our hotel in our tiny little room we took it in turns to prepare our bags for the off tomorrow. 10 days of lighter travelling were beckoning.

Day 158 -  Thursday 16th March 2006 - Colin's Account

We are leaving for Shangri-la or Zhongdian, as it's also known, today and having left most of our luggage, including my guitar, at a local guesthouse in Lijiang, we headed for the Bus station.

We plan to be away about 10 days, travelling up to the border of Tibet, which is far as we are allowed without additional permits. However although we will not technically be in Tibet, the landscape will be the same and the border town is predominantly Tibetan in people & character.

It's great to be travelling light with just a few essentials and our bus journey this morning is full of amazing views, snow capped mountains and a river that the road follows in all its twists and turns. The river, a tributary of the Yangtze, almost disappears at times and the reason soon becomes clear when we round a bend and see a great dam holding back the water. We are almost constantly climbing and as we started at 1900M altitude, I guess we must be very high indeed by now. The landscape is getting more and more rugged with pines and scrubland making up most of the vegetation and our ears are constantly popping.

Well Zhongdian is undergoing a huge amount of construction with massive hotels and shopping centres that somehow look fake, like toy town or a film set. The light is very bright and the sun hot, but at 3200 metres the wind is biting cold and in the shadows there are patches of ice and snow.

The old town is undergoing even more construction, but the buildings are beautiful Tibetan style houses and cafe's. Obviously they are hoping to cash in on the Shangri-la aspect, but they have a long long way to go. The area may be Shangri-la, but the town certainly isn't.

The Tibetan cafe next to our hotel is wooden with rugs hanging over the doorways and wood burning stoves making it nice and cosy and smelling of wood smoke.

Day 159 -  Friday 17th March 2006 - Sam's Account

Today was a great day. Having enjoyed a bottle of wine by the fire the night before, we surfaced late  The late morning hot sun and biting cold wind was attacking us whilst standing on Changzheng Lu, the main street in Zhongdian, to catch bus number 3 to Ganden Sumtseling Gompa, a 300 year old Tibetan monastery complex. The monastery houses around 600 monks and is the most important in South West China. Having paid the 10RMB entrance fee each we were literally given the free run of the place and felt a little as though we were intruding on the monks lives. We could watch them praying and chanting and going about their daily business and chores. The views from the top of the monastery are well worth the steep climb up to the summit, even though everyone is very breathless at this altitude. As usual I had the "heebie jeebies" being in a place of worship, however the resident monks and the other visitors, all Chinese tourists, were very relaxed about the whole experience and children were running and shouting around the place, families and couples taking photo's left, right and centre, many smoking, chatting, laughing and generally making quite a noise and enjoying themselves. This was quite a surprise at first as we tend to be so reverent about our places of worship in Europe, however, it made the place feel friendly and accessible, not how you tend to feel in big Churches or Cathedrals back home.

We decided to walk back into town and the fresh countryside air did our sniffling noses the world of good. The long haired Yak's were to be seen everywhere grazing in the surrounding fields. Farmers were herding their cattle, working the land and the local people all in their traditional dress. Many smiled and nodded which was a welcome change to the generally frosty reaction we were receiving from people in the main town. This "non smiling" policy of the town folk has since been explained to us. Apparently the Chinese think smiling makes you look stupid and simple as for them it is only the countryside people who smile. Well, I'm not sure if that's the truth but it seems rather silly to me.

Lunch was steaming dumplings in a little Chinese eatery for 6RMB and we then carried on walking around the town and found Guishan Park which has a temple at the top of the hill with great views of the town and surrounding area. There was also the most enormous prayer wheel which seemed to be gold plated and stood about 20 meters high.

We eventually made our way back to the toasty fire which was beckoning us back to the hotel and warmed our toes and fingers in front of the fire. We met a couple of American girls, Amy & Betsy who had been travelling for some time too and living in Korea for a year teaching English before that. Anyhow, we all discussed what we were hoping to do over the next few days and they were a little unsure of what to do. Liking our plans to stay the night with  a Tibetan family we organised the trip for the four of us through the hotel which worked out really well for us as the cost of the transportation was cut in half. 300RMB for the car to take us tomorrow afternoon to this tiny village 2 hours away and bring us all back + 20RMB per person for the night's accommodation, 20RMB per person for dinner, 10RMB for breakfast, 15 RMB for lunch and then we can share the 50RMB cost of going out hiking on a day trip the following day with the family. In sterling terms about £14 each for the 2 day trip. Not bad!

Dinner was in the old town preceded by a drink in a pub, yes a pub! As soon as the sun goes down here it is really freezing and all the beds have electric blankets. Thank god as none of the rooms are heated so getting in and out of bed or the shower needs a lot of determination!

Day 160 -  Saturday 18th March 2006 - Colin's Account

A few words about Monks, which are a large part of South East Asia and China. In the UK your average monk is a shy and retiring sort of fellow, not often seen outside of his Monastery and if he is, then it's normally trudging peacefully along the road. While the monks here in China tend to have red robes rather than orange and they are of much thicker material to compensate for the climate, they still get up to the same antics.

So far I have seen monks driving cars, on buses, in Tuk Tuk's, driving three up on motorbikes, eating in restaurants, splashing in waterfalls and on day trips. I even saw one driving a lorry yesterday and I just need to see one on a plane to complete the set.

Anyway today we are off to a Tibetan village to stay with a local family for the night. It is about 40km north of Zhongdian, but the last 15km is an unmade road with pot holes and rocks all over the place. Our driver seems to feel the need to drive as close to the edge of the road as possible, leaving me with a lovely view of a sheer drop down the mountainside. To add to this the passenger door is buckled so not only is it snowing outside the car, but quite often it is snowing on me in the passenger seat too!

The village is nestled in a valley in the middle of nowhere and after a warm welcome with some snacks and the local Yak butter tea, we set off for a walk. Yak butter tea by the way is fairly foul and Sam thinks it tastes a little of blue cheese which is fine, but not in tea. They have pots of barley powder which you can add to the tea which improves it no end. If you add enough it turns into a sort of dough, which you can then pick up and eat. It is made by pouring hot water in to a 2 inch diameter, 18 inch high bamboo tube, followed by a spoonful of yak butter. Then a stick is inserted into the tube and the whole lot pummelled about until it's mixed in. It is then poured into a pot and from there, through a tea strainer and into bowls.

It wasn't long before we were surrounded by all the village children and Betsy immediately set about organising some games to play. We kicked off with something called Duck Duck Goose which involves patting people on the head and saying either duck or goose and then running around in a circle. Next we moved on to hopscotch and finally jumping games. All the while they were clamouring for us to take their photo's and howling with laughter when they saw the results.

The house we are staying in is huge as all their houses seem to be, but they are very bare with hardly a stick of furniture. The focal point is a stove and an open fire which give off a good heat and are used for cooking as well. The smoke goes straight up through a hole in the roof.

Although they have TV, a Hi-fi and electric lights, for some obscure reason they have no toilet or any washing facilities. The toilet is the attached field and I guess the nearby stream is for washing - if you're brave enough.

The power failed at one point and so much of dinner was prepared and cooked by firelight and candlelight which was provided from Sam's store of candles. The food was quite good, but for what we were paying I would have expected some meat with the vegetables rather than chunks of Yak fat.

We sat by the stove and listened to them all chatting away, not understanding a word, but wishing we could. Our bedroom for the night contained four big beds and a veritable mountain of blankets which we made good use of. A quick walk around before turning in gave me a great view of the stars which are incredibly bright due to lack of light pollution, but at 3300m altitude it's freezing!

Day 161 -  Sunday 19th March 2006 - Sam's Account

Having slept badly due to the cold, we could see our breath in the dormitory bedroom all night, we surfaced around 9am and slithered out of our night clothes into jeans and jumpers again. The revolting "yak butter tea" was waiting for us as we sloped across to the fire place in the sitting room and we were then served dough balls and boiled eggs for breakfast. Lovely! Having brushed our teeth, as that was all any of us could do without a bathroom, we prepared our rucksacks to leave for a trek up into the higher mountain peaks.

Of course it was cold, but the scenery was beautiful. As we reached the snow line I started to feel the first affects of altitude sickness. The classical symptoms are dizziness, nausea and headaches. In a worst case situation people can slide into a coma. Thankfully my first altitude sickness signs were nothing like this, simply a feeling of unsure footing and very slightly off balance. One thing was for sure, we were all gasping for breath in the thinly oxygenated air, except Colin, of course, who didn't seem to notice at all.

The American girls we had teamed up with were struggling considerably more with the altitude and felt distinctly dizzy. So once we had reached the point on this walk whereby it meant wading through knee high snow or turning back we all chose the easy option. Warmed by the brisk walk back down hill we clambered back into our minibus and having dropped off our guide we set off back to Zhongdian across the terribly bumpy road tracks.

On arrival in Zhongdian our priority was a hot shower and then some hot, tasty food. So that is what we did. The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent milling around, I watched a movie in our bedroom, Colin helped Betsy and Amy with downloading their digital photo's and an early night was had by all.

Day 162 -  Monday 20th March 2006 - Colin's Account

Yesterday, feeling the need for something more substantial to eat after the trials of our Tibetan village excursion, I had some Yak meat pie, you should try it, it's very good.

Today we are off to The Tiger Leaping Gorge about 110km south of Zhongdian. I tried to get a top up card for our Chinese mobile, which is proving difficult as we bought it in a different region and our 136 prefix is not very popular here.

Our bus dropped us off in the middle of Qiaotou and we walked over a bridge to Margo's place, run by an Australian woman who is undoubtedly mad as a hatter. Fortified with some spicy chicken we paid the entrance fee of 50RMB each and set off for the gorge. The entrance fee is a bit of a scam as it is really a public highway to start with and then mountain trails. You can get a 50% reduction if you are a student, but we neglected to pick up a couple of student cards from one of the many Bangkok forgers. In any case it's worth the entrance fee as the views are quite outstanding.

After a few hundred metres you leave the main road and start heading up a narrow mountain trail that winds high above the river. Every so often we had to stand to one side of the path to allow horses to go by and say no thanks to the offer of hiring them. After all we won't be much good on Everest if we give up and take horses only two hours into our trek.

Imagine standing high up on a mountainside on a 45cm wide path with the Yanktse river running far below, a farmer herds his sheep and cows 500metres further down the mountain and in the near distance are towering mountains capped with snow.

After about two and half hours we arrived at our first stop for the night, the Naxi Guest House. The people here are very friendly and having immediately brought us out some green tea, they gave us a few minutes to relax before showing us a double room at 30RMB with a great view. You can hardly swing a cat in the room and the walls are paper thin, but it is clean and tidy.

Obviously there is no en-suite here so a trip to the shower block, a concrete cubicle really, followed shortly after. At least there is plenty of hot water heated by a solar panel, which is useful as they have had no power for a couple of days.

The food here is mainly traditional Naxi cuisine, which is not all that different from Chinese, but does include other dishes and sandwiches with a type of home made pita  bread. Potato's are also a lot more popular here than the rest of China, which makes a welcome change to rice and noodles.

To our surprise there are at least a dozen people staying here, although it is low season. We met a couple of Canadian girls, one who is studying to be doctor of Chinese Medicine. Also we chatted to and Englishman called Giles and his Sri Lankan wife Yoshi. He teaches maths at an International school in Shanghai and she teaches dance. They were very fortunate in that they left their house on the beach in Sri Lanka on Christmas day, hours before the Tsunami struck.

Having raised money in the UK, they visited many makeshift and damaged local schools and after ascertaining how many children were still attending the school, helped with books, desks, etc. They also explained their anger about the clean up operation and the reporting by foreign news agencies and how some aid workers with T-shirts carrying their charities logo would muscle in on camera footage of local people, working to salvage what they could, for a bit of publicity.

There was also a friendly middle aged couple, Dutch as it turned out later. The man had a big round red face and a huge twirling moustache. He had a competitive game of Badminton, in the courtyard, with one of the Canadian girls and as we looked on I decided to nickname him Herman the German.  

Day 163 -  Tuesday 21st March 2006 - Sam's Account

Well today we woke up late after a really good nights sleep with a mild hangover from the beers drank the night before with Yoshi and Giles. We ate banana pancakes for breakfast, which I have to say were more like pita breads but they went down just the same.

Having re-packed our rucksacks and paid our bill were off on the next leg of our trek down Tiger Leaping Gorge. The initial climb to 2659 metres was hard work. No, I lie, it wasn't just hard work it was excruciatingly painful! Especially with 12 kilos on my back. My right lung kept promising to explode if I didn't rest for a while. So we took it slowly, or so we thought. In fact when we arrived at the first watering hole we found a Canadian couple who had stayed at the Naxi Guest House that night too who had set off at 8.30am. Not bad we thought, as we had left at 10am, although poor Ursula was trekking with bronchitis.  We left them eating their lunch and pressed on to the Half-Way Guest House.

This trek is most definitely one of the highlights of our trip so far. The scenery is stunning and we loved every tiring step of it. The photo's will no doubt not do the landscapes justice but suffice to say if you ever have a chance to come to China, Tiger Leaping Gorge should be on the top of your list of places to see.

On arrival at the Half Way Guest House at 4pm we found a room which has the most fantastic view of the majestic & rugged mountains opposite. We settled in with a few too many well earned beers and then I devoured some stir fried vegetables and rice as I was already quite pissed! After a hot shower and change into some dry clean clothes we caught up in our diaries and then I'm sure tonight we'll spend more time with the others. The "others" being Yoshi & Giles, Amanda & Ursula, Tony & Michelle.

Day 164 -  Wednesday 22nd March 2006 - Colin's Account

Having set off fairly late as we only have about two and a half hours hiking today, we soon left even the little bit of civilisation of our guest house behind. The trail becomes much more dangerous in places with boulders and great pieces of slate that need to be scrambled over. At two different points there is a waterfall running across the path and as we picked our way across, some mountain goats broke off from quenching their thirst to watch us.

The path is steeply downhill most of the time now, which is harder on the feet and legs in many ways than going up. At times the way is little more than a mountain goat track and rounding a bend, the wind tears at our hair and clothes.

We finally arrived on the main road and forsaking Tina's guesthouse, which we have heard a few things about, we walked for a couple of kilometres to Sean's Guest House. It felt very odd after 30km or so of high mountain trails to be back on tarmac.

At Sean's we bumped into our old friend Herman the German and chatting to him found that they had only recently abandoned their bicycles for trains, planes and automobiles. He and his wife had cycled around Thailand, Burma, Laos and Cambodia, rather impressive!

This feat, though, was equalled by another couple we met, Tormod from Norway and his girlfriend Inge from Belgium. They have so far cycled from the Laos border and intend to cycle all the way to Kathmandu in Nepal, taking in Tibet on the way and sleeping off the road in their tents to avoid awkward questions about their lack of pass to enter Tibet.

Another couple, Ross from New Zealand and Lyn from Scotland made up the group for the evening where we ate, drank and put the world to rights. Over the course of the evening we discussed royalty, education, travelling, Europe, food and the influx of Dutch people into the fjords of Norway, who are snapping up land at bargain prices and everything in between.

Ross told us how in some of the southern pacific islands, Cook islands etc, they used to name their children after events. One unfortunate soul whose mother lived on a tiny island, had to cross to a bigger island with better facilities for the birth. The literal translation of the new baby's name was 'jump in the boat and start the engine'! Another one was called 'sore knee', the reason for which escapes me now.

Our room is the best we've had on the trek so far, although as usual the walls are paper thin and the curtains hardly cover the windows. The shower is in a dingy concrete bunker half filled with gas bottles. The water is hot, but oh for an ensuite room.

Day 165 -   Thursday 23rd March 2006 - Sam's Account

Feeling rather ropey from the Dali beers the night before we surfaced fairly late and continued chatting with our new found fellow travellers; Tormod, Inge, Ross & Lynne.

Tormod and Inge hit the road first, braving their long, winding, up-hill cycle to Baishuitai. We were all hugely impressed with their packing. They only had one pair of trousers that they wore constantly and their joint wash bag was a small flat plastic zip lock with only a few small items; toothpaste, toothbrush, and sun block. That was it! The rest of their luggage on their bikers bags included a tent, waterproof clothing and other essentials to their journey. There were definitely no luxury items in their bags and they even dispensed with a couple of T-shirts before checking out of the guesthouse. I was so impressed.

The next couple to leave were Ross and Lynne who caught the 2pm bus to Baishuitai. Left on our own at Sean's guesthouse we felt we needed to get moving and hauled on our bags to then hitch-hike up to the ferry crossing about 12 kilometres away.

Having waited for a good 45 minutes we successfully secured our ride and as we trundled along we were thankful that we hadn't had to walk as the road was long, disintegrating and badly signposted. The driver took us up to the footpath leading to the ferry landing and asked us for some money. Oh well, it wasn't a real hitch-hike, but we had got where we wanted so we paid him the 20RMB as requested.

We found the ferry landing after a 10 minute trek down a dusty little tow path to the waters edge, passing an elderly couple with their horse and all their belongings strapped to the horses back including what seemed to be a wardrobe.

On arrival at the waters edge we heard someone yelling at us, it was the boatmen on the opposite side to the river. After at least 15 minutes they decided to come and get us and we paid our crossing (20RMB which is a total rip off considering the width of the river) and they dropped us on the other side a little further down steam, with only a short walk up the river bank to Daju.

On arrival in Daju we were slightly hounded by the local taxi man and eventually he dropped us off, free of charge, at a very local guesthouse. The land lady of "Dali Hotel" did not speak a word of English, as did anyone else we had met that day, and we looked at her spotlessly clean rooms before agreeing on the price of 30RMB for the night. The guesthouse was basic, but very well look after and the central courtyard was adorned with plants, trees and flowers of all types. It felt very homely.

Walking into the main part of town we found the bus station and a lady who spoke some English sprung herself upon us and hastily invited us back to her hotel "Tiger Leaping Gorge Hotel" to organise our bus tickets to Cloud Fir Meadow for the next day, where we were to spend the night in the mountains having ogled our first glacier.

We accepted her offer to sit for a drink and watched the locals carry out their day to day lives. Kids back from school doing their homework, the women busying themselves, cooking and cleaning and helping with homework whilst the men sat playing cards and drinking beer. Hmm.

With professional efficiency our bus tickets were all organised for us and the bus driver was instructed to come by our hotel in the morning to collect us. Our hotel had even been telephoned to be forewarned of our early morning travel plans. Thanking the hostess with the 'mostess' we left to walk back to our hotel.

Dinner in our hotel was excellent - really good, wholesome Chinese food without any MSG in sight. With our bellies full we retired to bed where we could hear the farmyard animals all night. Even the cow was unusually vocal from 5am.

Day 166 -   Friday 24th March 2006 - Colin's Account

The bus from Daju to Lijiang leaves very early and the bus driver picked us up outside our hotel at 7.13am. Lijiang is about three hours away, but we are only going as far as Cloud Fir Meadow which is about an hour and three quarters.

The first thirty minutes was spent picking up other people around town, although no other westerners; we are, after all, in the back of beyond again.

The cobblestone road climbs up into the mountains for at least 30km and we understand how Tormod ended up with numb hands from cycling down it a couple of days ago.

We have the name of where we want to go written in Chinese and our bus driver stops and lets us off. I do like the way the buses operate over here and in South East Asia, not only do they often pick you up where you want, although not when you want, but drop you off where you want as well. Everyone seems to have the bus driver's mobile phone number and a quick call is all it takes.

Our first impression is, help let's run the other way as we are confronted by hordes of Chinese tourists and wall to wall coaches. The single hotel in 'town' is an astronomical 460RMB for the night, bearing in mind we usually pay 40-60RMB, we were not too pleased. I decided some hard bargaining was in order and we finally settled on the still high, but acceptable rate of 160RMB.

The room is good, but the rules are hilarious. You can smoke inside, but not outside and there is a long list of fines in the room for over dirtying towels and cracking the toilet seat, etc. Some examples are: 1cm² burn on the carpet = 150RMB, broken tea cup = 30RMB, damaged wallpaper = 150RMB per sheet, broken bed = 2000RMB, damaged potted plants = 500RMB and so it goes on.

Fortified with vegetable fried rice from a little cafe nearby, we headed for the chair lift which we expected to take us up to 4506m above sea level and a short walk from a spectacular glacier.

The queues were awful, a bit like waiting for a ride at a theme park in the school holidays and the piped music was loud enough to be served with a noise abatement order. Finally hopping on the chair lift we found it was 958m long and only took us up to 3200m. What's going on we cried as we arrived at the top. It seems our trusty lonely planet has let us down or at least mislead us. There are three chairlifts, perhaps 13km each apart and our guide clearly states that Cloud Fir meadow and the glacier is the middle one, which is where we should be.

Resigned to wondering around a boring meadow at an altitude we have already exceeded in Zhongdian, we wished we had just carried on to Lijiang. There are dozens of booths dotted around up here, with women dressed in local garb, complete with big fur hats and three feet long feathers sticking out of the top. If you wish you can pay to have your photo taken with them, which is then printed out straight away judging by the number of empty Epson printer boxes lying around.

Sitting at the edge of the meadow, a bit down in the dumps, I took out my binoculars and scanned the nearby snow capped mountains. What did I see in the distance, but a hut perched high above the snowline complete with chairlifts coming from its open side and disappearing behind a hill a few kilometres away. Damn & double damn, we have already paid for our room and it's too far to get there, explore and come back before nightfall.

Tant pis, as the French say, we'll see plenty of glaciers in Nepal and it's our first mistake in nearly six months of travelling. At least the hotel bar is well stocked, even if the beer is warm and they have given me a tea cup to drink it from!

I had finished with today's story which I wrote in the bar at 7pm, but suddenly there is lots more to tell. Sam hasn't slept well for a couple of days and as she was tired I went out to eat on my own at the same cafe where we had had lunch. I took my book expecting to have a bit of rice and be back at the hotel within half an hour, but not a bit of it. When I arrived, the family were all sitting around a charcoal brazier and ushering me to a stool by the fire, they immediately brought me some green tea. After a few minutes I was going to ask for the menu when the boss lady, mimicked eating, pointed to a table laden with rice, vegetables and a huge tureen of soup. I, of course, accepted being more than happy to eat what the locals eat. The family, plus me, sat down and tucked in, while perched on stools around a small table. Each of us had a small bowl with chilli, to which we added a bit of the liquor from the soup. Next to this we each had a bowl of rice topped up from a huge rice steamer which had 'happy family' stencilled on the side. The soup tureen was full of bits of meat, bones, potato's, spinach and things you probably don't want to know about, but it was great. There was also a plate of some type of green vegetable stems.

After numerous bowls of everything, the men adjourned to the fireplace to smoke and chat. I ordered two Dali beers for us to share, which arrived in double quick time together with glasses. It seems that they drink beer like the Russians drink Vodka, draining the full glass on each occasion. I soon had them saying 'cheers' each time we drank and before long there were five empty bottles on the table.

One of the men disappeared for a couple of minutes, returning with a clutch of letters from an American he had got to know in the late 90's. They obviously have mutual friends who translate their letters to each other, but they wanted me to read out loud the original English versions, which I did to howls of laughter. Then they wanted me to explain what to do with the sender part of the reply envelope he had enclosed and also help compose a new letter, but in English just to surprise him. Between me, the mum, the dad, the son, the uncle and the aunt and a lot of sign language we succeeded.

Two and a half hours later, I asked how much I owed for dinner and the beers, but I was not allowed to pay a penny or an RMB for that matter. The Uncle, whose pen pal it is, walked me back to our hotel (no street lighting here) and got security to let me in. Gratefully I sank into bed having had a great day after all. Happy birthday to my niece, Leander.

Day 167 -   Saturday 25th March 2006 - Sam's Account

Awoke to "buddy's" familiar beeping at 6am to catch the 7am bus to Lijiang. It was only just starting to get light and the outside temperature was very cold. As we waited for the bus on the main road people were already lighting their coal fires to cook their breakfasts of steamed dumplings and soup, brushing their teeth in the street and clearing their throats with some excellently mastered flobbing.

The bus was only 15 minutes late and we bundled on hoping that it would be heated. Yeah right!

After having dropped off the locals at Fir Tree Meadows, where we had hoped to be yesterday, we were the only passengers on the bus. On arrival at the outskirts of Lijiang the bus driver stopped for petrol and then for breakfast, while we waited patiently in the cold bus with his horrendous Techno music blasting out, torturing us first thing in the morning.

Once we were back in Lijiang proper we found our little guest house where we had left the remainder of our luggage and checked into a cosy room with a double bed & a bath in the bathroom. Pure luxury.

Colin spent the day reading and on internet whilst I went for a long walk and visited the local park. We bumped into the Canadian girls and the Dutch couple, we had met at Tiger Leaping Gorge, in the Tibetan Café and we all chatted and drank our tea/coffee/beer etc...

The day was just whiled away in preparation for the two days non-stop travelling awaiting us.

Day 168 -  Sunday 26th March 2006 - Colin's Account

Today we are leaving Yunnan province and starting to make our way across to Hong Kong (again). It's a bit of a daunting journey, kicking off with eight hours on an express bus to Kunming, followed by a twenty hour train journey to Guilin, via Nanning, which is where they brew Tsing Tao beer. The final leg is a one hour bus ride to Yangshuo, but that won't come until tomorrow.

Very little I can say about today, the bus journey was long & boring and our ears popped as we finally returned to somewhere approaching sea level after so long up in the clouds.

We had a few hours to wait in Kunming and revisited our old haunt, where I had my Chinese lesson last time we were here and then headed for the station.

Again the queues at the station were huge, there are just so many people in this country. Our train is a sleeper and our carriage is split into six compartments enclosed on three sides and the corridor runs past the open side. Each compartment has six bunks in two tiers of three. We have gone for the middle bunks as the bottom one's are used by everyone for sitting on and the top one's have no headroom whatsoever.

Sam would no doubt tell you about the usual snorers, except she had her earplugs in and for once wasn't disturbed at all.

Day 169 - Monday 27th March 2006 - Sam's Account  

Having had a great night's sleep, thanks to my trusty ear plugs and eye mask (very sexy, not!), we awoke quite stiff from our tight little bunks and proceeded to queue for the loo and sinks to brush our teeth and wash our faces.

The Chinese were all eating pot noodle soups for breakfast which were quite smelly and the carriage was fairly stuffy. Colin and I peeled our oranges and apples for breakfast to the curious glances from our fellow passengers.

We stopped in Nanning around 9.30am and really just watched the scenery go by interspersed with some reading, people watching and snoozing.

I got chatting, well sign 'languaging' really I suppose, with a few of the passengers on our carriage. They all wanted to know how old I was and surprisingly it didn't bother me at all to pronounce that I was 30. I must be getting used to it. They rubbed my arms, perhaps checking that my skin felt the same as theirs and grinned and nodded a lot.

On arrival in Guilin we immediately transferred to the bus stop by taxi to catch a connecting bus to Yangshuo. The bus from Guilin to Yangshuo took an hour and we were thankful to arrive at our destination at around 6pm. We had decided to skip Guilin as the guide book says it is extremely touristy with a vast amount of touts. So even if it's worth visiting we thought better of it.

Descending the bus in Yangshuo a lady approached us with photo's of her hotel and announced the price of 50RMB per night for what seemed to be a very sizeable, well decorated double room. The hotel was only a stone's throw from the bus stop and we were soon agreeably surprised to see that the rooms were just as good as the photo's and that she kept her promise regarding the price. So we checked into "Fawlty Towers". Yup, I think we'd have probably stayed there even if the rooms weren't quite up to scratch just from curiosities standpoint.

Fawlty Towers even has an employee called Manuel who is of course Chinese but funnily enough learning English.

The town is fantastic. Loads of bars, restaurants, shops and supermarkets. The scenery is beautiful and very unusual. I love it here.

We slept really well that night in a proper bed. Bliss.

Day 170 - Tuesday 28th March 2006 - Colin's Account

As Sam has already said we are checked in to Fawlty Towers, complete with Manuel. So far no one has been rude to us or attacked us, but we're not holding our breath. Last night after a quick bit of internet, Manuel chased me up the stairs saying 'please, un momentito', ok I exaggerate, but he wanted to practice his English on me 'which he was learning from a book!' He proceeded to point to his book and ask me which was the correct expression, can I rub ointment on your sore or can I run ointment on your wound. Trying not to laugh I tried to explain the difference between a cut, a sore, a wound and a graze, not easy I can tell you.

The town of Yangshuo is incredible, nestled in between dozens of oddly shaped hills and the Lijiang and Yilong rivers. Most of the hills have names such as 'Lion watching the nine horses' and 'Yellow cloth in water', but the only one that actually resembles it's name, in our opinion, is 'Camel crossing the river'.

We took a short bus ride to Xingping, where we hopped on a boat for a 1.5 hour cruise up the river. On the way we feasted on the same views that are displayed on the back of the 20RMB banknote.

There are many westerners here and it's been quite a shock after seeing so few for several weeks. The restaurants and bars are much more western as well, although they all serve Chinese as well as European food. Quite a few of them have live music, free internet and happy hours. There are a lot of touts wanting to hire you bikes or take you on tours and old Chinese men wander around playing things like Frere Jacques or Amazing Grace on some type of pan pipe. Despite this it really is a lovely town with some amazing sights and close by there are huge caves stretching for kilometres, where you can swim, whiz down mud slides, play the drums on stalactites or drift slowly along through hidden tunnels on a small boat, all by torchlight, of course.

Stopping at Monkey Jane's rooftop bar with great views, we watched England Vs New Zealand on the pool table in the corner and worryingly overheard their conversation about Hong Kong. With the Hong Kong Sevens Rugby due to start, there is almost no chance of finding a hotel room anywhere on the island, when we arrive in two days time and a few quick phone calls to hotels confirmed this.

Sam suggested we camp, but I not sure we'll be able to bang our tent pegs into the pavement next to M&S or anywhere else in the concrete jungle that is Hong Kong. We could go backwards and forwards on the tram all night as it's only HK$2 per ride or perhaps sit with the monkeys on Victoria peak and admire the view. Either way something will turn up. 

Day 171 - Wednesday 29th March 2006 - Sam's Account  

Woke up this morning with a sore head. Can't think why. We eventually left the room around lunchtime and went straight for something to eat in town. My Chinese food was good, Colin's burger was poor and the bill was expensive. With a resolve to spend less money on food and drinks we found and ATM and replenished our wallets.

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around the town, reading, 'interneting', snoozing and generally being thoroughly lazy. We had planned to hire some bicycles and go to the water cave out of town but it is a full day trip so that was out of the window before we even got up. So, instead, we nursed our sore heads and chilled out. It was great!

Day 172 - Thursday 30th March 2006 - Colin's Account  

Pretty overcast today with a fairly constant drizzle so, of course, we picked today for an outing to the Moon Hill water caves.

Manuel has done us proud again with the entrance fee as he knows the owners. We hired a couple of mountain bikes and cycled the six or seven kilometres to the caves. There are in fact several caves, but we were told that this one is the best.

Equipped with a hard hat, rubber flip-flops and powerful torches we hopped into a small punt with a Chinese couple and our guide. The entry to the cave is a low hanging ceiling of rock and the boatman pulled us along on a rope for a couple of hundred metres, until we reached a small landing stage deep in the mountain. Snaking away from us twinkling into the distance were low wattage light bulbs giving us a feeling of Christmas eve.

At times the roof was so low that I was almost on my hands and knees, at other times the roof was 5Om above our heads with huge stalactites hanging down. At one point we came around a corner a found some workmen busy rebuilding a stretch of pathway. It was strange seeing them working away in there and hearing their shouts and hammering fade away into the distance as we walked on.

After an hour or so we came to some mud baths which are famous for their healing properties and the mud slide that you can go down to reach them. By this time the lights had failed and we were all using torches, so decided not to bother.

The Chinese couple who were with us now live in Honduras and the man spoke some English, so was able to translate most of what our guide was saying. Mainly that such and such a rock looked like a tiger or that at another section of the wall there were formations that resembled monkeys hiding.

The final part of the caves was wading through a shallow, but fast running stream that had cut a deep channel through the rock, looking back over my shoulder it was complete blackness the way we had come.

As we had been climbing up fairly continuously we came out quite high up the mountainside and walked around and over the hills to get back to our starting point, where we picked up our bikes and headed back. Unfortunately the rain was coming down faster than ever and we were soaked.

One the way back we stopped at a cafe for some refreshments, when suddenly hoards of teenagers descended on us from what looked like an Athletics tour. They ate the place clean in about 5 minutes flat and disappeared again just as fast leaving us feel somewhat like the victims of a hit and run.

Our bus to Hong Kong leaves tonight, so saying goodbye to 'Manuel' we settled into our sleeper beds for the 12 hour overnight journey to Shenzhen and the border. Honk Kong Rugby 7's here we come.

Day 173 - Friday 31st March 2006 - Sam's Account  

Journey took longer than expected as usual. Eventually arrived very tired, smelly & sweaty at the border.

Took a lift to leave the country following signposts "Please take the elevator to Hong Kong"!

H.K's usual efficiency had us through the border in no time. Hooray, back in to civilisation, whizzing through the town on high speed train and excellent metro system.

Couldn't find anywhere cheap to stay as all accommodation was fully booked for the rugby. So what a fantastic excuse to check into the Empire Hotel where Dad was staying.

We are based in Wang Chai - the most lively and exciting part of H.K, as soon as the sun sets.

Met with Dad in the evening having already had some Pizza and a few toots at Amici's and went out on a bender with his rugby mates; Mike (another one but from Oz), Adrian and Steve (from the UK).

What a night!

Day 174 - Saturday 1st April 2006 - Colin's Account  

Hong Kong is absolutely heaving, the hotels are packed, as are the bars and the atmosphere everywhere is electric. We have decided that there is not much point trying to find a cheaper hotel, so are enjoying a bit of luxury for a few days. England are going great guns in the tournament and although we have no tickets, we have found a great venue with a huge screen and excellent wine. Sam's dad is on fine form as are his mates, who have flown in for the tournament as well.

We all have a good chat, catching up on news from 'Blighty' and elsewhere and help all the other thousands here to try and drink Hong Kong dry. My friend Kevin once told me he tried to drink a pub dry, but only two friends turned up to help. At least there are a lot of us! We are staying in the Wanchai area on Hong Kong Island, which is where it's all happening and no one seems to go to bed before 3am, judging by the number of 'do not disturb' signs on bedroom doors in the mornings.

Day 175 - Sunday 2nd April 2006 - Sam's Account  

It's THE BIG DAY! The finals to decide who will win the 2006 Hong Kong Sevens and England look good. In fact from where we were sitting in Amici's watching the big screen they looked better than good!

Dad and his mates were at the ground watching everything live, so we found a perfect spot with a huge screen and commentary to settle in for the days events.

I won't bore you with all the details for the lead up to the final, but suffice to say the wine was flowing steadily and we were on top form to watch the final Fiji Vs England.

It was the most nail biting final I have ever watched and having been in the lead for the first half (a gruelling 10 minutes opposed to the usual 7 minutes each way!!) we were in the lead.

Before you've had time to look down at your wine glass to take a sip, the second half has started and the phenomenal speed of the Sevens is just utterly amazing.

The second half was not just spent on the edge of our seats but on the edge of reason as Fiji clawed back and took the lead and finally, when we thought we'd lost the plot, we converted a try only seconds from the final whistle. AND WE WON!  ENNG...GER...LAAND! ENNG...GER...LAND!

The celebrations of course were outrageous and it would of course have been rude not to join in! He he!!

P.S. That's it, I'm totally hooked on Sevens rugby. I just need to convince Colin for us to organise our world tour around the Sevens tournaments. The next one is in Singapore in a couple of weeks. Bring it on!

Day 176 - Monday 3rd April 2006 - Colin's Account

A non-day, sorry, but there's little else to tell. Something I ate didn't agree with me, no doubt aided and abetted by too many drinks, so I did very little except feel miserable. 

Day 177 - Tuesday 4th April 2006 - Sam's Account

Another non-day, although this time for me as Dad took me out to the pub leaving Colin in bed as he was poorly and we crawled back into the hotel at about 4am. Disgusting!

Colin on the other hand had  productive day sorting out flight options for Korea and visa applications for China in case we decide to go back into China.

The Southern China journal is now finished and moves to the Korea journal