We arose early in the morning and packed as quickly as we could, ignoring the breakfast apparently included in the room price, god know what that would've been like! We had to fend off the driver we'd told the girl on reception we didn't want but she'd booked anyway (price: 160 Yuan) and headed via a supermarket to the bus stop for a local bus (price: 1 Yuan) up to the Longmen Caves, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The caves were created by Buddhist monks from the local temple between the late 6th and 8th centuries. Each mini 'cave' contains one or more statues of religious and/or historical figures. Many of the sculptures took over 5 years to create and the detailing is incredible, showing far more craft that most European sculpture of the time. There are literally thousands of figures and though sadly a fair proportion have had their heads removed for Western collectors in the early 20th century or were defaced in the cultural revolution many still remain and it is an incredible sight.

After we'd been around the caves we headed to the temple where the monks that created the works of art lived. What happened there is possibly the highlight of Dave's entire trip. Early in ou joint travels Mr Henderson had explained his compulsive need to acquire fridge magnets from around the globe to remind him of his travels. At the very entrance of the temple was a stall that would take a picture of you, superimpose it in front of the statue of your choice and magically turn it into a fridge magnet in a matter of moments. After my aquiescing to being immortalised on Dave's fridge for evermore our picture was taken and the craftsmen went to their work. The look of rapture on Dave's face as he received the magnet is something I believe only I and an unlucky handful of women have ever seen.

Our journey back involved criminally little leg room and I had to be parcelled in the corner as Dave did his best impression of an Essex girl courting but any movement away from the hotel in Luoyang was so welcome we didn't care. As we checked back in we were welcomed by the staff and climbed into bed happy bunnies.