finally got a chance to update me blog. am currently in Xi'an the ancient capital of China, and home of the Terra-Cotta Warriors. im sitting here at the computer, with our new accomplice the Austrian Astronomer to my right, and shayd in between regularly endulging into the large bag of salty peanuts, of which i am totally addicted!!

My last entry was after my return from Trekking in Pokhara. We were ever so lucky that we were in Kathmandu for Holi Festival, a Major celebration in the Hindu world. The days leading up to Holi Day consisted of what we thought to be young hoodrats lobbing water balloons from rooftops onto the streets below. We soon learned that it was all part of the fun, and soon were unafraif and got involved with the festive spirit. On Friday 21st March, the day before we left Nepal it wasnt just waterbombs, but bombs filled with coloured spices and dye!

Previously warned we headed out of our hotel, not in old clothes but in just our swimming trunks and the rest bare. almost immediatly an army of multicoloured hands netted us to the wall, fingers in every orafice, both balls groped and not a white bit of skin left on us. The group despersed and we spilled out the other side still on course to go exchanged our Nepal Lonely Planet for a China Lonely Planet. After some blaggin & hagglin it was sorted and we made our way back to the hotel where we headed straight to the roof with our remaining bombs to make revenge. Soon it wasnt enough and we needed food! we headed for a sandwhich bar and decided to stay out in the carnage. The music from the Reggae rooftop drew us up the flights of stairs to the REAL party. up there we spent the rest of the day with fellow coloureds hurling balloons at the tourists below. Being the highest rooftop we were safe, not totally but we certainly had an advantage. Absolutly Mental. I have never experienced anything like that before. Kathmandu city was literally a War-zone, so much so that soon there was no ammunition. The city had a drought, the toilets didn't flush, there was no water comeing from the taps. Not even the orange pastie coloured juice that we were used to. From word of mouth we heard there were people heading to a trance rave and the Funky Buddha. We knew where it was and soon became group leaders. We then continued to other bars, with some sexy israelis and nutty British, one fella from Brighton~!!. Eventually ending the night in the 24hour sandwhich bar purchasing some cheap chicken burgers around 3am.Top Fun.

My time so far in china has been fun, and for the first 6days after arriving at Chengdu airport i was a typcial wide-eyed tourist that im more used to seeing as opposed to being. For the first couple of days we wandered aimlessly around the city exploring and being overly enquisitive like we were from another world in and ancient age. The bakeries were of special interest, which was blatently obvious as we picked everything up and held it close to our face to be examined. Half the products didn't look real and inedible.

The locals speak absolutly NO english making it very hard to comunicate and get involved with the ching chong china-mans everyday life, and so us travellers tend to bond together, and stayed glued to the hostels. haha.On our 2nd day, shay and i ventured into a supermarket purely on thirst for experience and ended up spending 2 hours in the instant noodle aisle deciphering the colligraphy on the packets. comparing signs and eventually understanding the symbols for:Beef,Noodles,Hot,Spicy,Sweet,Sour,Instant,sweet potato noodle, and flavour. This really helped, and after comparing with other menus that were in English, mainly in the guest house we could get them copied down onto paper in order to exhibit the piece of paper infront of Waitresses in restaurants.Finally towards the end of our stay in Chengdu we got a little more pro-active and went to visit the panda breeding sanctuary. this was cool and the pandas are facinating creatures. the hostel organised a tour for around Y150, we decided to do it by ourselves and got it for Y32. These animals are more lazy than my cat, we arrived when they were just getting woken up by the guards for feeding time. this lasted around 2 hours after which they resumed their second favourite past-time, sleeping. Check the pix out, they look as if they're sitting in a deck chair, leaning back on the be hinds, haha funny ol things. Apparently they are too lazy to mate and so the park attendants at the Research facility have concocted some panda porn in order to get them jiggy with it.

So now here in the ancient capital, and staying in a Guest house we were recommened by a few pals at the hostel in Chengdu. while searching for our guest house, we exchanged smiles and a hello to some other travelling walking by. Then signing in at our hostel, finally, the guy walks in.

We've been chilling with this guy Daniel for a few days now.Hes a well-travelled and funny man to have around. were sharing a room with him and although alot older than us, hes great fun,even though hes struggling to keep up on the beer front.hah. Hes come from Austria across land, but via the north, clearing the blatic states, through russia and Kazahkstan entering the far west of China. All 3 of us have booked tickets to PingYao which we class as a pitstop from here to Beijing(the new capital). hopeing to see some rural china there, with some authentic looking dress.

Im absolutly loving the food here. In the province Sichuan, capital Chengdu. We were told that the food there was the spiciest in China and the region itself boasted over 3000 dishes. Hell of a long way off from the Nepali Dal Bhat, ahem. Being some of the few travellers flowing from India, Both me and Shay seem to be able to handle the hot chillies. Considering i was not a spicy food eater back home, im impressed with my accomplishment. Either that or my tongue has just been burnt to s*** through the past cuisines. Reading the menu in a restuarent has probably been the most challenging thing ive come across, the second being ordering it. however due to our noodle detective work, were making progress. we now have our own menu, which we bring out in restuarents with all the food WE like, and if that doesnt work we have to try to communicate by pointing at other peoples dishes.

Yesterday we visited the Terra-Cotta Warriors. Im glad to have seen them as they are a truly magnificent cultural representation of China. There are 3 tombs and a museum. We visited the Pit 1 first which was ideal because the second and third were of smaller scale and a bit same old. the Museum was pitch black and didn't seem to contain anything historical so we scooted round that pretty quick.

Ill end on the fact that im Totally addicted to peanuts, and can enver get enough. The Snickers here and good too, especially compared to India and Nepal, where i discovered recently they put some s*** in it to preserve the chocolate stopping it from melting in the severe heat. Infact making it taste more like the back-end of a bus.