Pete & Jen

Oh my goodness, can't beleive we haven't updated in so long, but we have spent most of the time in hotels without internet or travelling!!!

So we managed to get to Kunming in time to quickly see the East and West pagodas and then to get our flight to Sanya! We spent a few days in Sanya on the beach, exploring a tropical rainforest and Pete's birthday when it POURED HARD and we went to the beach and got SOAKED seeing how far we could run into the sea fully dressed and chasing each other about before going for an amazing sea food dinner in the evening where we picked our dinner alive out of tanks and then had it cooked - mussels, crabs and shrimp - yummy! Plus Pete got bought some cheesecake by some of the guys who we were at the hostel with and we all sang happy birthday and dr5ank pina coladas with fresh coconut juice. Delicious!

After that we headed to Macau, but got a bit confused and ended up going to Hong Kong first where we stayed in Chungking Mansions. What a dive! But only 12 pounds a night. Bargain! We spent a day in Hong Kong doing all the tourist bits worth doing, the tram peak, mid level escalators through Soho and the Ngong Ping 360 - which we tried to walk, but couldn't find the path and were so hot that we ended up getting the cable car both ways, which was a bit of a bummer, but saved us from getting sunburnt more than we already were. Then we headed to the avenue of the stars to check out the Bruce Lee statue, Jackie Chan and Jet Li's handprints and watch the symphony of light!

The next day we caught a ferry to Macau where we visited the ruins of St Pauls and the Macau museum, before heading to the border gate - with some rather tasty egg custard tarts, a Macau speciality! - as we had got a bit bored of feeling penniless and being in really big cities!

We managed to catch another night bus to Xiamen (although this bus was a little more swanky than the previous buses and we were quite impressed, if still a little squashed in!) where we visited a gorgeous Buddhist monastry where we watched the monks wandering about (jumping in taxis and waiting for buses outside, chanting and washing clothes inside!) and had lunch at the vegetarian restaurant, which was pretty good! Then we caught a boat over to a small island called Gulang Yu where we spent a few hours wandering around and looking at the old, dilapidated buildings of what used to be a colonial settlement and felt a little sorry that houses that had once been grand, stately homes were now all dirty and disused. I want to buy one oneday and restore it! Hehe... We had hoped to stay the night, but the youth hostel ws full, so we hot footed it to the train statiion and cught the train to Wuyishan - in true traveller style - hard seat on a 13 hour journey! Ergh...

With about 3-4 hours sleep each we arrived at Wuyishan suprisingly ready to climb the mountain! We just about made it to the top, with lots of encouragement from the other that we would never be here again! The views were amazing, really beautiful and natural, so it was well worth it! Then we headed to the bus station as we had heard that accomodation in the area was expensive, but the station was closed and at which point it decided to POUR again! Absolutly soaked we headed to the train station, but nothing was going to where we wanted to go, so Pete tried to haggle with taxi without much success and we were just considering sleeping at the airport when a friendly looking woman waved us into her hotel and offered us a twin room for a fiver! Bargain... Shower, towel... Yay!

Smelling better the next day we headed to Wuyuan by bus where we stayed for a couple of nights and visited a small village called Qinghua, where we sat on a bridge and watched the dragonflys and people going about their buisness, washing clothes in the river and such! It was quite beautiful and relaxing. Then this morning we caught a bus to Tunxi, where in the next few days we plan to climb another mountain (Huang Shan) and visit some of the nearby villages (Xidi and Hongcun).

We are both having such an amazing time, it is hard to explain how awesome everything is, and it is so strange how much we are coping with things and changing (I haven't been stressing at all, which is a miracle!)... Plus we are both really looking forward to seeing my parents in Shanghai in TWO WEEKS!!! Yay... Hehe... So until next time, zai jien!

p.s. It is ridiculously hot and humid everywhere we go at the moment!

Well, where to start! It has been a crazy first week and we are currently sitting in the common room of Naxi Mama's Guesthouse in Lijiang, on a computer on top of which a cat is happily perched, fast asleep!

It seems only yeasterday that we boarded a plane in Wuhan, destination Kunming! Kunming was a really pretty city, quite built up, but with lots of traditional pagodas and we visited both Yunnan Provincial Museum and Kunming City Museum to get an idea of the culture and history of the province and city! We learned all about Naxi culture and religious beliefs of the area. Yunnan is bordered by Tibet, so there is quite big influence on the province by Tibetan culture aswell. We stayed at a hosel called The Hump (bit of a dodgy name!) which had an amazing roof terrace where we would sit in the evenings and enjoy some beers and the view down onto the streets below (as well as a pizza one night)...

Just had a biy of a panic as we thought today was the 23rd and we had a bus booked, but it's the 24th, so we have missed our bus and have had to book a new one which means we will get into Kunming tomorrow with just a few hours before our flight... Crazy!!! But this does mean we will be in Hainan tomorrow (and be much more careful with our dates from now on as we have to pay again! Argh...)!

...Then from Kunming we got a sleeper bus to Lijiang which was a bit of an experience! Manic drivers and tiny bunk beds make for quite an interesting journey! we arrived at 5:30 in the morning and went for a wander around the old town for a bit before spending over an hour trying to find Mama's Hostel... The whole of old town is a maze! Mama's is crazy, but has a really friendly, homely atmosphere, which has been awesome and Mama herself is a proper character, always shouting at someone for something or other! We spent alot of time wandering around the old town, chilling out and just watching people.

We also went on an overnight trip to Tiger Leaping Gorge, one of the biggest gorges in the world, where we spent two days trekking through some of the most beautiful scenery ever. We spent about 5-6 hours walking each day and felt so good and fit for it! The first day was really hot and sunny and we both caught the sun a little bit, but luckily the next day was cooler and even rained a bit (making the trail a little difficult and slippery!) The trek was amazing and we got to see some awesome views of Haba Shan and Yulong Xueshan.

Today we went out to a little village called Baisha and got to see some Naxi culture and houses that have hardly changed since 1368. We also got to see some amazing embrodery at a school that invited us in to have a look around.

We have seen and done so many amazing things it really doesn't do them justice with the words that I can write on this crazy old school computer...! Ok, so now tonight we will leave for Kunming at 8 on another sleeper bus (*groan*), which will get in to Kunming at 4 in the morning! Ergh... Then we have to be at the airport at 12:30pm to catch our flight... Panic over a little bit now we have our tickets! This is the most stressful thing that has happened since we have left... Let's just hope it doesn't happen again!

Wish us luck...!

Hi guys and welcome to our blog charting our amazing journeys of China. This is just a first entry (so I understand what I'm doing, it's been a long time since I last used an internet blogging page! Crazy...), so I'll keep it short and sweet and sign out now, but stay tuned for our adventures when we head off tomorrow... Kunming here we come (and please be cooler than Wuhan!)...