Friday 23rd October

Up at our favourite time of the morning NOT 5am. Still half asleep we got our bits together and left the key with the mum who was asleep on the couch near the front door, I guess they take this in turns.

Still dark outside we put on our torches to light the way to the bus station. When we got there, a few guys were waiting around but nobody selling tickets, this did not look good. 20mins later a sleep girl came in to do them, felt so sorry for her as she was bombarded by arms and money as soon as she sat down. Luckily we managed to get a ticket though, that's all I cared about at this time of the morning.

Our tickets were not sat together but hey ho, we used language barrier to our advantage and played dumb to it, sitting together, no-one said anything directly to us, just each other, but we got away with it anyway YEHHHH.

The journey was as bumpy as ever. At first toilet stop I was shocked to see that yet again they were charging for you to squat down in a horrid concrete block that stunk, I just waited till the lady walked away and dived in quick without paying. It might not cost much, but its principle, why should I pay, when I could go behind a tree anyway, trust me the tree would smell a lot better, I am just being polite visiting their horrid choice of a toilet.

Saw some kittens at this stop, they was so thin looking and dirty, just wished I could have hidden them in my coat and taken them somewhere nice, to be looked after.

Took about 5 hours to get to Kangding, mainly listened to music on the way to waste time. As we walked out of the bus station we bumped into an english lady who advised us not to go to the hostel as she didn't recommend it, had stayed there before and said it wasn't very nice. Instead she took us to a local place, just as cheap and right next to bus station, perfect for our early start tomorrow, so we were pleased we'd met her.

She also gave us tips on area's we are about to go as she has just come from there, said Li-Tang wasn't that special just a town in the middle of nowhere, with not much to see, fine by me, if we are passing anyway that should be enough. Settled our bags and went for a wander to see Kangding.

We were pleasantly surprised at this town, hadn't heard much about it, just that it was another city, but it was quite clean and very new looking. Busy but a nice place to wander. We strolled along the market, lots of fruit stands, was nice until we reached the meat stands and saw a Yaks head casually thrown to one side on the floor - not up for meat in my dinner tonight that's for sure.

Stopped a little cafe in the middle of town, the lady running it was so cute, very mumsy, she took us in, sat us down and gave us each a huge portion of won ton soup, was delicious, we took our time eating it and really relaxed there, felt quite at home. A little annoying when a begger came in and kept nudging us to give her money, but after a few no's from us and then ignoring her, she went away. They all seem to be drawn to us, it can get a bit much at times.

My bad influence on Ad worked again and we came across another YUMMY cake shop mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Ad got to choose one for his belated birthday cake, so I got a pic of him eating it and I got a yummy sponge wedge, just for being me te he, we found a nice spot in the center of town on a huge rock by the road, to rest our legs and munch away YUM YUM!!

Some young girls stopped us to practice their english, one was shockingly great at it, she asked us some questions, like age, name, where we are from etc, she told us a bit about herself, I was very surprised, she seemed so young, made us look soooo stupid not knowing much Chinese at all te he.

Found an internet cafe which we went in to burn our photos to disc, but once settled and paid for our time, we realised there was no burning facilities and we couldn't even get skype to work, so used this time to email everyone I know a Travel overview, from some of the replies I got I think they quite enjoyed reading it. Was nice to hear from people so quickly, made me miss home that little bit more arrhhhh. We were in the cafe for about 3 hours, it's surprising how time flies in here, but managed to get some more of this blog done so thats good. Think I must have smoked a million cigarettes without actually smoking, I could barely see Ad in front of me, I guess it's cos packets of cigarettes here are about 30p a box, everyone seems to smoke its CRAZY!!

On way back to hostel we stopped at the local square, where a group of young lads were practasing some break dancing, was fascinating to watch, so took a seat on one of the pavement steps and took pics and video'd them a bit. They were doing really well and really enjoyed watching them. They didn't seem to mind having and audience, think they rather liked it.

Bumped into a couple of guys we met in the Danba hostel, they've been here a day already and were going off to a mountain to trek tomorrow, told us about a club here worth going to, but we are leaving early in the morn, so might give it a miss. Grabbed some fast food (chinese style) chicken burgers and chicken on sticks (or so we think) with them - tasted really good actually and then parted our ways.

Stopped at a supermarket to get some bits for our long journey tomorrow, the shop keepers son was well cute in his little old man cap, Ad got a pic and he totally posed for it, was gorgeous. Grabbed some banana's from stand outside shop, he weighed them on old style scales with wood and weight on one end, probably charged us more, but it was different and kinda cool.

Was a wee bit chilly back at hostel now it's late, but the electric blanket soon warmed us up. The other guests or staff were beeing really loud, sounded like a couple were rowing, I'm sure I heard a girl crying, but soon got to sleep.

Look at section on Doucheng