We started our Intrepid tour on the 11th meeting in a really posh hotel in Hong Kong. Jon and I spent most of the day admiring how large the bathroom was in comparison to the hovel we had been staying in previously! We were a bit appreshensive about our group as 11 of them had been from Bejing to Hong Kong together and seemed a little bonded! However, it turns out that they are all lovely and we are having an amazing time. Left Hong Kong and spent the first day on a mamouth 18 hour train journey arriving in Kaili a little tired but very excited.
Our first day of treking was cancelled so we got a bus to a little village called XiJiang. It was beautiful, set high in the mountains with amazing views. We were taught to play Majiong by our guide Huang and then the festivies really began. We were staying in a typical Miao village so we were introduced to their way of life. They insist that guests are given Rice Wine and plenty of it. It is a little like Raki only stronger! (There's was home made!) The worst thing (or the best, depensing how you look at it) is that they have to hold the bowl whilst you down the drink. The video footage of people's faces as they drunk is priceless! Much rice wine later and a little karoke and dancing we fell in to bed to prepare for our trek the next day.
7 people for various reasons didn;t come on the trek with us so a smaller group headed for the mountains. It was a beautiful sunny day and I cannot begin to described the views. We climbed up through the village, passing people, cows and a ceremonial funeral pig on the way. it was steep but I was cunning enough to stay at the front, therefore setting a slow pace! We treked for about 20K up, over and around the mountains, surrounded by silence (apart from the heavy breathing of the unfit.... that was mostly Jon!) and paddy fields. It was truely amazing. We arrived in a remote village high in the mountains. We had been warned about the toilet but being used to squatting I was prepared.... or so I thought! The toilet was in the pig sty.... literally! With the cows next door. It was a little smelly and dark but all part of the adventure. We had dinner with a lovely village family in their home which consisted of 3 rooms built in a barn with only two wooden tables and tiny wooden stalls. The food was delicious and the family so welcoming. Some more rice wine...(I think Jon is getting a taste for it, he even had some on the train alst night to keep up with "traditions") and a couple of card games later and we left to stay in another person's house. We ventured out into the night and looked up to see the most amazing stars... the first we had seen since arriving in China. The barn that we stayed in had wooden beds... the girls had straw under theirs for "comfort" but the boys didn't! THe toilet this time was out of the house, down the road and in the garden... fun times!

The next morning we got up early to get a mini bus back to the others in the town. On route down the mountain we stopped as a tree and fallen in the road. THe boys, being cocky, jumped off the bus and insisted they could lift the tree, clear the way and rescue the day! Alas it was a mud slide and on the other side of the tree the road had fallen away down the mountain. Huang was a little worried at this point but we simply turned around and took a different. bumpy, steeper mountain road home!

Last night we got a train for 12 hours and arrived today in Kunming. A pretty city where the weather is finally warm. We leave tomorrow to cross the border into Vietnam so getting very excited about that. Internet is getting sparse but stay in touch. We love your messages!