For the first time on this trip i've neglected to include a blog about one of the places we've visited and consequently our map doesn't show our 2 day diversion to the city of Suzhou! Not that Suzhou isn't a pretty place, but we just never saw the best of it for one reason or another... firstly because it rained the whole time and was almost perpetual night from start to finish and secondly because I finally succumbed to our first illness of the trip (Rachel's hangovers don't count) and had to spend most of the day in bed wheezing and sniffing and basically sweating out a fever on Sunday!!! It obviously didnt prevent me from dragging rachel out to a bar late sunday night to watch United crush Liverpool 1 - 0, but it was sufficiently bad to prevent us from doing almost any sight seeing in Suzhou! Never mind...

So after a couple of hours on the train yesterday, we're now in Hangzhou and are about to set off to visit West Lake... reportedly a favourite tourist destination amongst the Chinese. But it's grey and misty, so we might not see Hangzhou at its best either, but it's still better than being at work, eh?!!!!

Hope everyone has done all their xmas shopping!!!! xxx