well this had to be the final photo i'm afraid! it may only make sense to a select few but its a fabulous beer and did you know .... its free from formaldehyde!!!! :o) sorry but becks, damo and i discovered it last trip and it really does state in large letters on the label "free from formaldehyde" never occured to us it might not be???!!!!!

anyway i'm babbling already which is never a good sign, not the fault of the kingway i hassen to add! but last day of trip, boo!!! not that i havent missed you all but theres something about the english weather thats not encouraging me home!

so what have you missed? not alot managed to get flight out of manila, to macau, and had a hysterical job finding a hostel, mainly because everything is in chinese and frankly my mandarin isnt up to much? apart from ordering beer? so ended up in what can only be described as a brothel, there was a room full of girls in reception! they were lovely though and i wasnt the only westerner staying there which is always reassuring! think we may have been raided though on first night? got woken up at silly o clock by police banging on door, who then apologised LOTS when he realised i was english, bless! quite funny i thought!!

anyway here in hong kong trying to kill 12 hours between check out time of room and flight! lots of book reading me thinks!

so i guess i should do the best bits, worse bits kinda thing? ........

hmm best bits .... defo climbing that silly wall in china with becks! no idea why i thought it should be flat but ridiculously wrong on that one! and the irish girl we met on route that claimed 100 metres before the end that "she'd hit the wall" :o) trust the irish huh!

what else ... the pandas obviously, never before have i impersonated a 4 year with a camera so convincingly! i think i may have reduced the number of pictures down into double figures though?!!! maybe?

the ridiculous journeys have to be up there in the list, the 31 hour train trip that we forgot to take food on with us! the 18 hard sleeper train that the beds resembled coffins, only coffins 8 foot off the ground! the 27 hour trip that saw us through 3 countries, on coach, taxi, flight, flight, taxi! and most definetly the jeepneys in palawan, philippines! most notibly the 10 hour trip from el nido to princessa where not only did we get a puncture but i'm pretty sure the driveshaft fell off! it was certainly on the ground once i'd managed to crawl out one of the windows (these guys watched way too much dukes of hazard!) after a huge bang and a pretty quick stop by our driver! we were up and going within an hour though, although no idea what was holding us together? oh and the jeepney that got stuck in the mud and we all had to get out and push! :o)

but when it comes to transport the all time funniest memory has to be split between the flight to Beijing (shenzhen airlines) where the air hostesses did aerobics in the aisles for us all to copy and signed the company song and the moment beck and I realised we would have to watch the poor woman sat next to us to try and work out how to eat our in flight meal! It's a close run thing between that and the cebu pacific flights in the philippines where we had quizzes and name that tune sung by the chief steward!  I think the prize has to go to shenzhen airlines purely swung by the fact they also served drinks in "I Love shenzhen Airlines" cups

palawan in general HAS to be in my top 5 purely because its so gorgeous and relaxed, its yet to be ruined by the lonely planet and co and the people are great, even the kids that spent hours throwing fireworks at us on new years eve!!! still maintain we should have brought some ourselves and thrown them back!

and my final best bit ..... almost getting hornbill poo on my head on pulau pangkor, as i laid on the beach! purely for comedy value!!!! ;o)

those that missed the cut ... the meal in guilin that we couldnt work out the pork from sweet potato! without doubt the worst meal ever served!

frasers hill (even with the annoying canadian in tow!)

and of course Nancy's grandsons birthday party in kinabalu that i was invited to, and the cake obviously!

as for worse bits dont really have any apart from the small event of being robbed in bangkok but hey things happen!!! (sorry for those i havent told about that!!!!) oh and rob "the stalker" canadian that i went to fraser's hill with, never have i got SO close to smothering someone in there sleep!!!! but these things are sent to try us!! :o) and if thats all i can mention then i'm pretty lucky huh!!! :o)

I'm also fabulously lucky to have friends like you guys that have emailed me while i've been away THANK YOU! i hope i havent babbled and bored you all too much, back to reality i guess now!!

final question though: work will give me siesta breaks wont they? ;o) xx love you all xxx