helloooo! im back in the civilised world, well almost. just gotta cross the border today to hong kong and then i know ill be in the civilised world! cant wait..... im very proud of myself for managing to achieve my objective and make it to the glacier in far western china. it was a long trip there and a log hike up to the glacier but it was worth it and im definitely feeling a sense of completeness now. the mountain range at shangri la was outstanding, totally beautiful. i stayed one night in the town of deqin which was as rough as youd expect the last border town before tibet to be. pretty intimidating. the next day i ran into two lovely girls from london id met in yangshuo which was fantastic so we completed the trip to the glacier together by mini bus, there and back fro 50 yuan each, not bad for a 2 hr drive over some pretty hairy roads. from the village of minyinong it was a 2 hr hike up the mountain side to the temple which had amazing views of the 12km long glacier. we were tired (altitude!!) but glad we werent as lazy as all the chinese taking a mule up. i spent that night with another british couple in a place called felai si, a row of 12 temple chorten next tp the main road where you can pray towards the mountains. one of the mountains is sacred under buddhism and noone has yet reached the top. many japanese climbers have tried but all have died or so local legend goes. maybe the mountain doesnt like japanese people as much as the chinese government!! the great thing about felai si is theyve recently built guest houses, nothing fancy, no hot water etc but did mean i could wake up at 5.30 and watch the sun rise in the east. reflected in the snow and glaciers on these incredible huge mountains. literally the most beautiful thing iver ever seen. ill uplaod some pictures when i get to the free world.... so i retunred to zhongdain sunday morning. called chris to wish him happy birthday and secured myself a bargainous luxury room in a new hostel in the old town. zhingdian has a new old town by the way. chinese tourists are now interested in minority cultures so theyre rebuilding what was destroyed by the cultural revolution so tourists can visit on masse to sight see and shop. not so good cos it looks a bit like disneyland sometimes. but good because theres lots fo great places to stay and eat and at least theyre rebuilding tibetan, bai and naxi cultural elements, including millions of old style houses, even if it is for profit. my last night in zhingdian turned out very well. while dancing around the square with the whole town to tobetan folk music (in a big circle, was so cool, everyone seemed to know the dances already but it was so much fun to try!!) i bumped into trisha, who i was with from yangshuo to dali! and it was her birthday, she was drining shangri la wine and having a ball. kelly and dan were there too and we all went for a birthday dinner at a nepalese/tibetan restaurant, had soem great spicey food and ended up dancing with the family to xinjiang music, singing and being sung to by two little girls there (happy birthday song in 5 languages!!) and generally having a hell of a time! what a great night. got my first and only chinese sleeper bus from zhongdian to kunming monday night. you get a little bed, not so bad for me as im a little person but not spacious. i was sleeping next to a family with a little girl who loved me!! and kept taking pictures. was alright but quite bumpy (bit my tongue with one bad bounce!!) and in case id forgotten which country i was in, we were dtopped twice by military police to search the cargo we were carrying. once they stopped us around 3.30 am and did a full search, even took a good look at my rucksack and wanted to see id off everyone. odd. spent the day in kunming shopping and eating, twas lovely. no sightseeing!! bought another pretty skirt and two tops plus some underwear as need to do some washing soon! flew out of the heavy rain to shenzhen where i was met at the airport by my friend raj id met in tokyo. he brought me to his dads apartment where i have been resting, painting my toe nails, watching CSI miami series 4 (fake dvds everywhere, any requests anniemay?) and walking around barefoot on the carpet, what luxury!! we're heading to hong kong today so ill let u know how that goes. yay, leaving china!!!