Hi everyone!

Hope everything is going well with you all!

All is going well here. Only 5 days left in China!! It has gone so fast!

We have done a fair bit since our last update. After Dali we took a bus (the driving was mad!) to Lijiang. After a few days of exploring we decided to do Tiger Leaping gorge with 4 other guys we had met. It took us 3 days and some of the hills were really steep but we both agree it was one of the best things we have done! You hardly saw anybody on the trail and the views were amazing, a mix of snowy mountians and green fields. The weather was a mix aswell, we had sun, rain and even snow at one point!

After the gorge we had a couple more relaxing days in Lijiang in an amazing hostel called Mama Naxi's. The owner insisted on being called Mama and it was so friendly, after we left she gave us necklaces with some kind of tea in them and wished us good luck for our travels! Amongst the Naxi people in Lijiang it is the women who rule, and believe me when Mama was around she ruled!!!

We had a mad journey up to Chengdu which is where we are now. We had a 7 hour bus journey and several small bus journeys, then got the train through the night for twelve hours. The train is normally fine as we usually get a sleeper carriage but the only seats they had available were hard seats! It was so hard to get any sleep especially when a man brought on a basket full of chickens and a rooster which was swarking at 5am!

We had one night in Leshan to recouperate then got a 2 hour bus to Chengdu this morning! Chengdu is famous for spicy food!! We just had lunch which had a pepper in it that makes you mouth go numb, like you have pins and needles... interesting! We are hopefully going to do a cooking course here and go and visit the panda sanctury tomorrow.

Lots of Love!

Zoe and Rich. XXX