Hello again, its me the pretty one....yep Hells Bells, so for the ones that thought Pete-Bad people!! I have to apologise for this long blog but we havent been able to stop and I need it for my own journal so feel free to stop reading at any point, ill try not to bore you too much.

So Pete left us in Shanghai, where we met up with a guy from beijing and had a good few beers with him watching the royal wedding, which was lovely, Kate Looked lovely. We visited the bund the following day and it was a nice scenic setting, it was slightly more manic in the evening when we thought there must have been a parade on, but no just loads of Chinese tourist, wanting photos, of the bund and me-very strange. We also visited Yuyuan Gardens, which was nice once we found it, sneaky gardens were hiding from us.

We then bused it down to Hangzhou for the beautiful west lake. We hired bikes, which were well comfy, we biked all the way around the west lake going to see lots of gorgeous sights. It was a but cloudy but was still really nice. We stopped at a Chinese gardens and I was admiring the waterfalls when I heard a scream, next minute I know there are about 8 teenage Chinese girls standing in front of me grinning and pointing the camera in my face asking for a photo. I said yes and I was swarmed, so many pictures, now I know what it feels like to be famous, Pete had to grab me out of there as I went bright red. Then people were chasing after me, was a bit crazy. This blonde hair is a curse, tehe. It started to rain on the bikes and then stopped so we dryed off slightly but then a truck spraying water came passed and sprayed Pete, he was covered-HILARIOUS!!!!

We then went to Nanjing for the night, it wasnt well planned as didnt have any time there, but was nice to see. We then took a 16 hour hard sleeper train to Xi'an. We got confused and went in a hard sleeper section and the ticket lady took our tickets and everything was fine, we were made up, we had that room for 5 hours on our own, drinking tea out of make your own cups (a plastic bottle cut in half). Then loads of Chinese people came in and we were like, there are only 4 beds, we arent all going to fit in here. We were then instructed to leave and go to the other part, which was 6 lots of beds and no doors. They really cram you in the sleepers but they are quite cool. This Chinese lady saw me standing at one point and moved all her things out of the way to make room or me, so cute.

We arrived at Xi'an and went to our funky hostel, where we had a few beers and met up with an older couple and was taught how to make our own dumplings. I was ace at it : S . we had a trip to the terrocota warriers the next day, where we had the cutest woman as our tour guide, she kept saying, "Hello, Hello come here I have something very important to tell you' and "yes" or 'UM' . The warriers were an amazing sight. We met some nice canadian girls and an ozzy who we went out drinking with later on. I had to drag Pete out of bed the next day, he is so relaxed. We had to catch a bus and had about 15 mins to spare, trying to catch a taxi when some chinese tourists decided that they wanted pictures with us, so we obliged, they did manage to get us a taxi, so I suppose one good turn and all.

Pete decided he was bored of big cities and wanted an adventure, so I went along for the ride. We got a bus to Guangyuan, where the bus stopped dropping us off in the middle of nowhere, when we asked where the bus station was she nodded and ushered us out the door. So we were on a main road and 2 guys stared at us and then brought their motorbikes over. The only option was to get on the back of them with our rucksacks, no helmets or anything. Less than impressed, although was a fun little ride, cost us though. Next day it was pouring down with rain and I wondered why we couldnt go back to the sunny big cities. We got a rickerty bus, where we had 2 stops for toilet, which were both my worst and best toilet experience ever. The 1st being that a wee'd next to a pig, and the second with 4 chinese women and a whole load of maggots-Not nice! We eventually arrived at Zuizhaigou station, which was miles away from our hostel and again cost us. It was still pouring down with rain and the prospect of hiking for hours in the rain didnt really appeal. Luckily the following day we had sunshine, we were very lucky. We had a lovely day and the park was amazing. We trekked for 5 hours, till my feet felt like they were going to drop off. The next day Pete wanted to go to the other park Huanglong national park. It poured it down again, on the bus a was a sleep only to be awoken to snow, I was like 'Are we still in China?'. We went to the park, it was lovely apart from alot of the lakes were dried up but the one we did see was definitely worth the bus journeys, which I think Pete was pleased with or he might have been in trouble, tehe. We stopped in a lovely village called Songpan, which was all tradional style building and very quaint. As we were eating loads of sheep passed in the road. We treat ourselves to a tibetan massage, which was only 5 pounds for the hour, the tiny ladies were tough to start, I made a small yelping sound when I thought she might break my back so she went softer for me-hard core.

We set of early for a nice 8 hour journey to Chengdu, well that is until a Chinese lady spent the whole journey throwing her guts up right next to us, in a bin. The smell was horrendous so we had to ave the windows open, which meant it was freezing. Noone cleaned the bucket, so Pete did it, bless him. We arrived in Chengdu and met some nice guys, which we drank the night away with. We visited Leshan to see the Giant buddha the following day and then went to the Giant panda breeding base, the panda were so cute, I wanted to kidnap one, but wouldnt fit in my rucksack. We watched a movie on them, which was basically panda porn, as showed all mating-alot of fun!! We went to peoples park, which was mental, people were signing, bands playing, people dancing, people doing catwalk shows and all sorts, none of them any good but they were having fun. We also visited the tibetan quarter. Went out drinking to watch the Stoke v man City in the eve, which I wish Stoke would have won.

We prepared ourselves for our 26 hour train journey to Guilin with lots of snacks. We had a soft sleeper but had the top 2 bunks and had to stay on them as the people below werent sharing. The guy also creeped me out by staring at me constantly-weird. The journey wasnt too bad after all, did take 27 hours though. This french guy approached asking if we were in the same hostel, which we were, so he said he would guide us, inevitably getting us completely lost, so ended up walking for ages and getting a taxi, we didnt speak to him again, ha! In Guilin we had a bad 1st day on bikes, we got completely lost-general theme going here. We visited Seven stars park, which was a bit rubbish and had caged animals, in tiny spaces-not nice. We also went to Folded Brocade Hill, which was rubbish scenery and I got covered in flies, man I hate flies!!! We called in a day as Petes ass killed him. we saw the moon and star pagodas, which were good. Pete took me out for a romantic meal against the river over the most rickerty bridge you will ever see, we sat on plastic chairs, whilst chinese people stared at us trying to order from a full chinese menu. We worked out a chicken dish and went for it. When it arrived he opened the lid.......well you should have seen my face, it was a picture! All I could see was feet, heads, bones, cartilage, skin I nearly throw up on the table, when they left we just had to laugh. They brought rice over, thank god, I ate rice with the sauce, there was no meat to be found, pete had a good go, but was no getting much. He contemplated eating the head, but think that was too much for even him. We went back to the hostel for tea and cake-so British, I was happy then. Leaving Guilin we watched the sunset, which was probably the nicest views of all of Guilin, so we were pleased we saw that.

We had a bus trip to Yangshou, arrived late, the streets were mental. Following day we hired bikes, yet again got lost. We made it to the dragons bridge, very sweaty, after a chinese lady followed us for about an hour. Pete jumped off the bridge, I have pushed him over the edge, tehe. He went for a swim. Then we took a bamboo raft all the wat down Yi long river, which was really relaxing. Petes ass hurt again so the following day we were lazy and hired an electric moped, so much more fun, especially when you get lost!! We went to moon hill, where we sweated so much climbing up, we are so unfit. Gorgeous view. we then went to moon water caves, where we explored caves and took a mud dive in mud pits and them got to go in hot spring-in caves!!Amazing. We saw a snake crossing the road. We visited a farmers market, which is not for the squeamish, there was half a dog on a hook, dogs in cages, even cats! The guy was blow torching a dog to get the fur off, not a pretty sight. In the evening we wanted to see the light show, the hostel got us cheap tickets on a boat. I wore a nice dress and tights and cardy to cover up. It was on a bamboo raft, we were on there for 2 hours, then went to the show, where we couldnt see a thing and when I got back i discovered 75 bites on my legs!Brilliant!!

We went to Xingping and trekked from Xingping to Yangdi or tried but got lost : S so had to get a bamboo raft there and back as there was no bus. We are now back at yangshou and are heading on along journey to Hong Kong as our visa are about to expire.

Anyway sorry about that long blog, will update more often, dont worry if you couldnt read it all, Ill forgive you.

Lots of love

Helen and Petexxxx