Hello!

Long time no blog - it was really difficult to get online at the last place we were in.

Ok, so let me catch u up - on tuesday we arrived after the 23 (turned 35 hour) train journey and transfered via bus to Yangshau. This is one of the most popular tourist destantions in china and you could definately tell! It was quite small but most of the resturants and bars tailored to western tastes with big signs all over the place stating, 'english breakfast served here'! It reminded me a bit of spain!

We stayed at a hotel called fawlty towers who's owners were of course basil and sybil - they even had a worker called manuel! it is the same place that Paul Merton stayed when he visited the region for his china programme on channel 5 so that was quite exciting!

On the Tuesday we went for dinner and settled in then on Wednesday we went for a cruise on the Li River - said to be the highlight of a visit here. It was really enjoyable the the landscape was beautiful - i have some lovely pictures which i will try and put online soon.

On Thursday I went for a foot massage in the morning and then attended a chinese cooking school in the afternoon. We learnt to make 5 dishes and it was brilliant because we never had to do any of the washing up!! It was all very fast and furious trying to get all your ingredients in your wok in time - i was pretty bad!!

We moved to another hotel that night in the middle of nowhere and were accosted by insects!! There was a cricket in my room which was the size of my hand - i'm not kidding - I have a photo to prove it!! The hotel staff were all lovely here, probably my favourite so far. IOn Friday I headed back into the city and went for a killer back massage - it was the longest hour of my life!!

Today moved to another region which i will tell you all about tommorow as it is pretty late here and there is a big queue behind me to use the one pc in our guesthouse!

Hope you are all well.

Speak soon xx