Hi all,

Now we are in Yangshuo, a small town along the Li River, with the amazing scenery (like the pic above). It is very hot at the moment and jonny has been feeling a bit under the weather but has made a swift recovery in the last 2 days.

Hong Kong: We both loved HK! It definitely felt a lot like England only with scorching weather! We went up Victoria Peak on a tram and took a further 1 hour walk up to the top. We could see the harbour and surrounding islands from the top. We then took a lovely walk, thankfully in the shade, down the peak into Soho.

We also visited HK Park where we walked through a plant conservatory and some lakes. There were lots of coi carp in the lakes which seemed to follow us around the river. Surprisingly, there were also turtles in the lake! (we will upload the video for you to see!) The park had a registry office in it so we saw a few wedding couples having their photos taken! A bit random!

Also we happened upon the red light district by accident and Jonny wanted to see what a club was like so he went into one!! He said that as soon as he got inside 4/5 chinese girls jumped onto him and he struggled to get out!!

We took the chance to go to Lamma Island which was beautiful. We took the ferry to the island and took a 1 and a half hour walk across it. The walk took us through some small villages and past some tiny beaches. Saw some really beautiful views and flowers. The island was quite tropical and sort of jungle like - we saw a massive spider!! Yuk! We treated ourselves to some delicious ice lollies which were refreshing as the weather was boiling!!

Guilin: We headed to Guilin on an overnight bus which had loads of bunk beds on! It really wasn't comfortable and as we were both in top bunks we felt the speed of the bus! The Driver definitely wasn't being cautious. We got into Guilin at 5.40 in the morning feeling very tired, lost and bedraggled! We took an hour journey through Guilin to find our hostel!!

Only having a day here, we fought the fatigue and hired some bikes and headed out to one of the peaks. We went through a cave which i really didn't want to go through! i'm such a wimp! The cycling was a bit scary because the traffic is manic and intense but we survived! We both really enjoyed it but had rather sore bums at the end of the day! Oh and I broke the brake off my bike by riding into Jonny and trying not to fall off! We had to pay 5 Yuan (50p) for it to be fixed!

We signed up to a bamboo boat cruise down the Li River to get to Yangshuo. We were a bit dubious about the trip as a man came up to us on the street to sell it to us but all was ok in the end! the Cruise was beautiful, taking us through the limestone karst scenery of Guilin/Yangshuo. Took lots and lots of pictures! We even saw a chinese man cormorant fishing just like the HSBC advert!!

We are heading up to Chongqing next to see the Three Gorges Dam.

Jonny promises he will do the next blog as he thinks i write too much, but at least i put a lot of detail in!

lots of love and take care

Kirsty (author) and Jonny xx