thailand

Hey,
Arrived at our project placement in au nang in the south of Thailand. heat is pretty uncomfortable. Yesterday we started our placement with a beach clean up. Conditions unfortunately we perfect. 35*c+ and not a cloud In the sky. Already got a nice little tan appearing. Au nang is a busy town based around tourism. Beaches are very pretty with islands off shore making it ideal for diving. We have our first dive on Saturday. Should be fun.

Sun, Sea, Football and Kebabs.

The last few days have been very relaxing. Walks around Macau and the like. Just after updating my blog last time, Chris and I stumbled upon Macau's premier Kebab house, very exciting.

Also exciting was the fact we could watch every Premiership game in our room back at the hotel. trouble soon insued due to the fact West Ham played Bolton at the same time Arsenal played Sunderland. so we watched west ham first half (oh joy) and arsenal second (oh joy again).

not a very exciting blog today. We fly to bangkok tomoz. should be fun. BRING ON THE GO-GO BARS!

HK + Macau.

Has it only been 3 days since i updated the blog!! Where do i start.

The bus from Yangshou to Hong Kong was unforgettable experience. Picture a bus, then add beds, 2 high, 3 wide. each bed measuring 5ft in length. i think you have a good idea of this bus. Being just shy of 6ft 2" these beds weren't too comfy to put it lightly. Along with the rolling bus and the feeling of sickness this bought. eventually the 12 hours came and went and we arrived in Hong kong....ish.

When we finally arrived in Kowloon, across the water from Hong kong island we started our hunt for somewhere to stay. on the 3 floor above and Indian market, between two Indian restaurants we found a guesthouse of sorts. This room for 3 costing us 4 times the amount the double beds in Chengdu cost. but we took it.

Kowloon and Hong kong island were both a very nice change from the main land of china. No spitting, road names that didn't change in the middle, and an underground which made scene.

The first day we spent wondering around the business center of Hong kong island. in the afternoon both Chris and i sat for 2 hours on Kowloon hall of stars to get our first glimpse of Hong kong by night. AMAZING.

Day 2 in Hong kong consisted of Hong Kong Park and the longest escalator in the world. followed by a good bye meal with our good friend Shehan, who we've spent the best part of 3 weeks with through china.

After an early start we left our Kowloon room and went underground to Hong Kong ferry port. shortly after arriving in Macau we realised we had no idea where anything was. A quick stop at the tourist information shop set us right.

We checked into a cheap hotel for the next 3 night due to Macau having no hostels.

Macau itself is beautiful. Its just like a typical Portuguese town. Road names in Portuguese and signs of their influence from building to food (and driving!!).

We have a 3 night stop over here before our flight to Bangkok on Monday leading to our flight to krabi in south Thailand on Tuesday.

Yangshou

Hey, sorry its been a while. no wireless in this hostel so had to wait for the PC to become free. on the 15Th we arrived in Yangshou after an over night stop off in Guilin. Its a beautiful town in the middle of the mountains in southern central china. when we arrived we checked in to the weirdest hostel ever. no passport needed no nothing (fairly sure were not allowed to stay here as foreigners, but hey its cheap) the bloke running the hostel also showed us loads of tours we could do, he also took money for these(dodgy). but everything has turned out fine.

On the first day in Yangshou we settled in and had a look around. after buy comedy t-shirts (thanks Joe) we went on to the river to watch the local fisherman use birds to fish. i forget the name of them. after our fishing adventure we returned to a home made catfish and rice dish called "beer fish".
the morning after we got given bikes and a tour guide and we road through the mountains to a water cave about 5 miles out of town. there were dressed appropriately and went for it. the water was freezing but the mud bath in the cave bought great fun.

Today we woke early to jump on a bus to a small village about 40 mins west of Yangshou to be taken up the river on a local bamboo boat. the scenery was spectacular.

Tonight we are taking the sleeper bus from Yangshou to Hong Kong. I'll keep everyone updated with our progress.

Panda panda panda

Our good fortunes seem to be continuing. Whilst writing my last entry a local man failed in fixing our dorm door. So for £3 a night the 3 of us are for the next 3 days are stay in a £54 a night top floor apartment, each with a temper double bed ,of course. Obviously there was a catch. The DVD collection for the hd tele is all dubbed in eastern European languages. LOL

Today was the day I've been looking forward to for ages. Panda day. Even though it did mean waking up in the A.M it was so worth it. The panda sanctuary in Chengdu had loads of pandas ranging from the new born to the old and frail. Again like in Beijing they had photos of famous statesmen holding pandas this time from previous visits. My fears of what I'd see next to the GB flag came true. Mr Prescott holding a little panda that obviously didn't want to be there. I did find myself loosing track of time watching these amazing animals just sit and eat.

Got back to our hostel about an hour ago to the staff putting a variety of veg and meat on sticks. Apparently tonight is hot pot night (famous in Chengdu) and we've been invited for free. Result.

Let's hope our luck doesn't run out soon.

Just a quick congrats to Julian for his app being featured on the app store

Chengdu

I believe I referred to Chengdu in my post as a small village. I'd like to offer an apology, it's a huge city. I was miss informed.
Yesterday we arrived to a busy town centre. Whilst looking totally lost a pretty Chinese girl walked up to us offering a hostel in the best part of town for only £3 a night. She also offered to pay for the taxi, glances were exchange between the 3 of us but we thought we'd take the risk of being taken to a dark ally and..... Well. We arrived at the dragontown yh. This place is amazing. Right in the centre, beautiful surroundings and cheap. Chengdu is so beautiful as well. So relaxed with no one wanting to sell me anything.

Whilst walking round the flower festival in the peoples park I got asked what my favourite song was by a group of 5 old blokes brandishing musical instruments. After a few minutes of some Russian song I didn't know convo got on to our fav films and surprisingly the old Chinese bloke loved Apocalypse now (with MARVIN Brando, apparently) when I told him it was also my favourite film a great friendship was struck up and they played more songs to celebrate.

In the evening we went to an Irish bar. Food was good and also stayed fir the 20/20 between sri lanka and India. Also got beaten in a pool tournament. And this bar also show 6 nations. Result.

Xi'an To Chengdu

After arriving yesterday in Xi'an we've decided to leave. pretty much only the warriors here.
We have the longest train journey (to date)to a small town called Chengdu in the heart of shicuan to see pandas. Probably the best chance we have to see them in china. we also have 2 weeks to make our way down to hong Kong.

anyway must dash got a train to catch

Colin McRay didnt die. he's a Chinese bus driver.

The last few days of shanghai were very peaceful. visiting fuxing park to witness people walking backwards and the best diablo(ers) in the world.

Qi pu market on the other hand was one of the most stressful moments of my life. even though the guys following us knew very well how to speak English to get us to there shops, they refused to understand both local and international sign language to go away!!

After a 16 hour train journey and very little sleep we finally arrived in Xi'an, central china. after checking in to the nearest hostel we could find we jumped on 306 bus to the terracotta warriors. this bus however wasn't the normal 306. it had film crew, a host and a crowd very much up for being entertained. after the hour or so busy journey and a signature or two we arrived as celebrities, and were given soft toys to thank us for taking their bus.

The 3 pits of the terracotta warriors were all very impressive. 13,000 solders individually carved along with 500 horses and a number of chariots. pics available soon.

The bus journey back gives me the title for today's blog. the bus driver had no regard to others on the road or off, in fact for human life in general. often ploughing into peoples front gardens to undertake taxi's. The highlight has to have been the 3 wide overtaking manoeuvre performed on a busy dirt track.

its 4pm and I'm going to bed to get over my tonsillitis and cold. Wish i had packed my anti-biotics

Moving on.

first stop yesterday was to terrify a little child by taking his net to catch a frog to show him. didn't realise he wasn't looking for frogs and he proceeded to snatch his net back and run off to his parents. yesterday was also your museum day which consisted of the urban planning museum which shows Shanghai's plans for the 2010 expo.

after Tuesdays horror shock finally realising how much we'd spent over the last 10 days, Wednesday started our economy drive. 30p noodles for brunch and 90p noodles with meat and veg for dinner( which was surprisingly very tasty) followed by drinks at home before going out. finally found a bar which sold Guinness for less then 95 yuan.

today on the spur of the moment we bought train tickets to go to Xi'an about 1000km west into central china. Xi'an being the home of the terracotta army. we leave Saturday for a 16 hour train journey.

not sure what the Internet connection is like in central china but I'll keep everyone updated as much as possible.

Shanghai prt3

Hey, sorry I haven't updated the blog the last couple of days.

We've had a few days of relaxation. A few gentle walks throught the city and the like today. Yesterday didn't wake up till 3pm and slowly walked into town to eAt and buy washing powder (after calling back to England to ask mum how to put the washing liquid in!!). Afterwards we went to the French consession for buy one get one free beer and burgers, followed by trainspotting and beer.

Tonight we plan to visit a jazz club to experience Chinese culture.