China china china... What a place you have turned out to be. I've been in China for a few days now and I feel I have learnt a lot of the southern culture, the way things work, the people and the food.

Before I entered China I had heard many similar tales from fellow travelers regarding the difficulties we would face whilst we were here. Tales of the putrid toilets, the grumpy uncommunicative people, the absurd food unfit for any vegetarian and the extreme hardship we would face trying to book buses and get anywhere in a taxi!

Instead both Becks and I have found this place to be very hospitable and travel friendly; great for travelers like us to get off the tourist trail, also full of friendly, patient Chinese willing to try and understand your hand signals and point you in the right direction. The Chinese have warm, curious smiles almost hoping you will speak to them

in your native language so they can giggle and stare a little longer. If you dare to shock them with a "ne how" (hello) their faces tend to twist into a smug, nervous grin or giggle and their curious stares will proceed past any western illusion of acceptance.

Yes it takes a little longer to order food or book buses and get a taxi to take you to where you want to go. Yes bartering for everything takes longer and more energy. Yes the toilets require tiger balm on your nose before you enter and Yes some Chinese will just giggle and refuse to help you to

Avoid embarrassment because of their little English or our little Chinese. But this is WHY we travel. To endure a little hardship and difficulty. It means when you order your first delicious vegetarian meal in a local eatery and you get a delicious vegetarian meal you are ecstatic!

Ok ok back to the story. So we left jinghong by overnight bus. Similar to the ones in vietnam, The conditions were not too bad and the bed length was longer than anticipated - BONUS!! 14 hours on the top bunk lightly sleeping every now and then listening to phlegm hucked up and spat in the isles by locals - DELICIOUS! Smoking is also allowed on the bus, so I kept a constant hand on the window opener incase my passive smoking radar was progressing towards smoke asphyxiation. All in all a pretty comfortable journey though. Sleeper buses are the way forward.

At around 7am we arrived in jianshui, hungry, sweaty and completely lost in a dirty city with no plans :) thanks to the loney planet (LP) we had a Chinese symbols of a guesthouse in the city center which served a western breakfast. 3km by taxi we enter a average sized town lain with cobble stones, sectioned off by gorgeous big bright archways in the traditional Chinese architecture. Old buildings line the streets and intriguing alleyways wonder off the main streets. The taxi makes a turn down one of these lanes :) PERFECT. In a cute little courtyard we sat eating fried eggs on Sweet toast, mango and coffee - just what the doctor ordered! During this time we were approached by a group if friendly middle aged chinese men asked for photographs with us. Not too sure why as we still hadn't showered and smelt a little mangy. Ahhh well. It didn't bother these dudes, for a good 5 minutes we had tens of pictures taken with every photo combination imaginable - CLASSIC!

After breakfast (with our bags secured at the hostel reception) we meandered around the ancient Chinese city of Jianshui admiring the incredibly beautiful architecture. It really is mesmerizing. I've never seen anything like this. It pretty cool town. The ancient building are shop fronts to Asian couture and is a busy hub for funky Chinese shoppers. Quirky cafes, outdoor food bbq's and bars also line the streets. Really nice atmosphere -STOKED!!

By around noon we got in contact with our couch surfer host, Ellen. In a taxi we get (giving directions to where she was to the cab driver by a text message in Chinese symbols Ellen herself had written) and arrive at a traditional Chinese restaurant for lunch!

Ellen is a sweet Chinese girl. She's 26 and a english teacher at a school of 2000 kids! She was was initially really flustered making sure we enjoyed the food, had enough to eat and knew our plans - SO CUTE! Lunch was delicious. It was our first real Chinese lunch at a traditional restaurant! We had a eggplant dish, a silken tofu soup dish and a peanut soup with greens with rice and green tea - pretty damn tasty!

The plan was to stay 2 nights with Ellen and within the first few hours we had already extended it by a day :)

My first couch surfing experience! If you are unsure about what couch surfing is, heres a quick overview: its a website that you can join with your own profile. You can either be a host or be a couch surfer (someones that wants to stay). There is no money involved, its purely a concept designed for travellers to get a free couch to sleep on whilst the hosts may enjoy stories or the company of the surfer.

The whole experience was pretty intense. In a good way though. Ellens house is a pokey room at the school she works at with a small bathroom and a couch and somehow a basic cooking space in which her wardrobe doubled as a pantry - Our backpacks took up most of the free floor space.. Ellen the cute thing gave up her pink bed with pink heart decorations for us and opted for the couch.. Seriously she was extremely generous. She whipped us up delicious dinners and breakfasts and snacks, rose teas and ginger teas. She offered icecream and fruit 24/7. Never wanted us to be hungry.. Ellen is one of those girls with a bottomless pit for a stomach. For a tiny little Chinese girl she eats loads. Lots more than us 5ft10 westerners! 6 peaches and a whole dragon fruit is what she considers a snack!!!

The school system is pretty interesting. Most Of the 2000 kids live on campus. Classes start at 7:30am and don't finish till 10pm at night!!! Seriously! The kids get 1hr nap during the day but that's it!

On our first evening at Ellens after dinner (7pm) (remember we had done an overnight bus and walked around all day!) Ellen asked us to come to hey to her English class for 10 minutes. Exhausted, we agreed and after an hour of being forced to sing and dance and take over the class of 50kids for over an hour, we had had enough! A little overwhelmed by the situation and maybe feeling a little decieved and used by Ellen, Becks and I sauntered off to look for a pack of cigarettes and sit, isolated and somehow regain a little energy. I loved the kids and I donlove teaching. The whole expeience took me back to days teaching english in north-eastern thailand. But just the fact we were not warned and merely thrust into the situation was a little annoying. The kids loved in though. Lots of laughs, pictures and autographs!!

The following day Ellen contacted friends of friends of neighbors and managed to find some one with connections to the swallows caves which is THE tourist attraction of the area. With or names on the door (freeof charge) and Chinese directions from Ellen, the two of us caught the bus 25minutes to the caves! The caves were Awesome! Absolutely huge. Walking through the enormous caves for a good 2 hours enjoying the swallows zipping around above us, the stalacmites and stalactites splitting the large Cavernous areas into little pokey walkways and the intermittent lightshows whenever a paid guide with a group of tourists turned on the lights then quickly turned then off the moment they were done talking about the 'thing' that was lit up! Probably the funniest thing of the day was the realization as we approached the very back/deepest part of the cave, that a food court and shopping stands were available for tourist! Haha. There we are in 'the biggest cave in china' eating French fries in a food court! Ha! Only in china!

On our final day Becks and I decided to thank Ellens anally attentive, boardering on smothering Ways and cook her a meal we both eat back home; spagetti ogli olio, bruchetta, garlic bread and for desert - banoffee pie!! We enjoyed the day visiting supermarkets trying to determine sugar from salt and pretty stoked with ourselves For finding cream from a bakery about to use it on a cake!

With ellen coming home between periods to check up on us, jumping with excitement from Feeling like one of the girls she annoyed the shot out of me! Haha. ELLEN ITS A SURPRISE!!!! Haha. Everything worked out perfect! It all tasted delicious and we had so much fun hunting and gathering as we did cooking! Cheers Ellen for a glass of red wine with dinner! Topped it off! The meal was really nice and a great way to say thankyou and goodbye!

Ellen was a star. I speak a little negatively of her but I just have issues with the restriction of freedom. She gave us great insight into Chinese customs and traditions, showed us how to order from a Chinese resturaunt without speaking Chinese, wrote down many phrases for us to make our life easier here in china and also saved us heaps of money on accomodation, entries to the caves and also meals! We will definately couch surf again!!!

NW: if you have Your period in china everyone gets told and will bring you ginger soups to calm any pains. Also rose tea with 'special sugar' is also a good remedy. Drink as much as possible!! Haha. Isn't that right beck?!

Oh and don't forget - no ice-cream or massage on your period! Defiantly a big no no in china!