Strangely enough, there were lie-ins all round today. Sam's head felt a little delicate today, probably because of her age. We mooched around drinking coffee; Angie packed swiftly and efficiently while I looked helplessly at my mountain of belongings on the bed. It was a miserable day, cold and pouring with rain, which perhaps reflected our moods - tired, sad that our China trip had come to an end and sad to be saying goodbye to Sam after an amazing three weeks. ...

Sam's 40th birthday!!!! Woo hoo!!! The day started with coffee and singing to the birthday girl. We had a range of yummy steamed buns and dumplings for breakfast, then jumped on our trusty 58a into town with Sam's friends, including a newly arrived teacher, MJ, for a massage afternoon unlike any other!!! The massage place was a huge room - the size of a small school hall - full of mirrored posts and reclining easy chairs and stools equipped with tv screens, plat...

Another chilled morning: tea, packing, chatting. Had a cheeky check on facebook via a 'freegate' as fb is blocked here. Most bizarre. Then a 20p bus and metro ride to Martyrs' Square to explore outdoor shops and satisfy my bag fetish! Just had to treat myself to a beautiful green rucksack...then sushi with super-strong wasabi! (Can I just put at this stage that you have Susie authoring today, I do not have said bag fetish!) Next was the metro to Haizhu to glim...

Today we decided to get up early and after a yummy breakfast of fruit with red date yoghurt and pork buns we set off to explore Guangzhou. We took the bus to the Orchid Garden and couldn't understand why we received change after trying to pay the enormous sum of 80p each that was listed on the entrance board.... We soon realised that although the park is beautiful there were no orchids!!! The wrong season.... Susie was amazed to realise that every time she walked...

Lovely lazy sleepy morning. Coffee. Chatting. Reading. Lazy. Cooked up some travel plans and Sam booked our Yongding guest house. Eventually we got dressed and got the 58 bus to go shopping. Our fellow passengers stared so long and hard at us, I began to wonder if I had accidentally put my bra on over my t-shirt. Lunch was Wasabi squid and Japanese noodles (yum yum) before the Mission to Get The Train Tickets. We walked to a ticket booth, where the Mission in...