Goodbye China!

........wow back in Hong Kong already...lots of stuff has happened since the last blog, however we have been unable to update it as we were on the move almost every day..crazy bus rides, little sleep, 10 hour hikes, going out and having drinks and catching up on some desperately needed sleep.....

Apologies, but our photos again seem impossible to up load so click here for link!

So here it goes:

I think we were in De Qin or Zhongdian when I last wrote, which is still in Yunnan... well next we got an incredible bus accross the border into Sichuan across mountains and plateaus and just stunning scenery, we had 12 hours to appreciate this but it really was amazing. We ended up in a little village called Daocheng where we rested for a night before another early start to go south again to Yading national park... amazing place again huge 6-7000m peaks towering around us... after a night in a wooden hut that pretended to be a room with beds in it, we took a short morning stroll 5 hours through the forests and up the mountain to some amazing lakes at about 4500m... again astounding colours, turquoise to deep blue to indigos...(it is absolutley freezing up here though so we had to get down pretty quick).

On our way down, we got some pretty heavy snowfall and intermittent hail and strong winds. By the time we reached the start again (9 hours in total), our steps became slightly more eratic as it became more and more slippery and we became increasingly more exhausted (we were amazingly unprepared for this trek with 1.5 litre of water and 3 packs of biscuits between three of us for the day's supplies). On our 3 hour bus journey home, in an incredibly precarious stupid mini van with bald tyres, going round these icy mountain roads, we had to get out several time to help stop the bus from falling off the cliff... loving it!

After another night in Daocheng we started moving north to Litang... another minibus journey from hell as our suspension surprisingly broke half way there and he had to call his mates who came to fix it on the side of the road! I can't understand why this happened as this car for 6 tiny chinese people was only loaded with 5 heavy people, 6 large rucksacks, a bag of vegetables and a large panel of glass?!?!?!

Anyway, one night in Litang (the Cowboy central) and we stayed in another gorgeous damp freezing hostel and were up again at dawn to get the bus to Kanding in order to catch a bus to Chengdu... More awful bus journeys, crammed in a space half my size for 8 hours freezing our faces off as the guy 2 seats in front of us insisted on having the window open the entire way and being sick almost continuously for the entire ride, sometimes inside the bus, sometimes outside, didn't really seem to matter... sick and ice and a distinct smell of some kind of strong cheese rated this as one of my favourite journeys ever!

So finally Chengdu, 4 milion people live here....Civilisation at last. We treated ourselves to a room with a shower.. our first for about 5 days... mmmh we were quite nice to know at this point! However, no rest for the travellers, up again at 6 after all of 4 hours sleep to see the pandas at the research centre, well worth it and such a nice place for them, lost of space and expert care, gorgeous animals.

Anyway can't stay in a place for too long: next day train to Beijing... 26 hours on a sleeper train... slept well and had plenty of time to think and try and assimilate all that we've seen here... havn't quite figured it out yet but this country has definitly left us baffled and we feel we have only scratched the surface of all there is to explore, such a wonderfully confusing place, I would like another month to see some more!

Beijing..spend two gerat days with Seb's friend from home. Lovely appartment with shower and a mattress..luxury!! Went to see the Great wall in Simatai..very impressive. The wall section here is incredibly steep..up to 70 degrees at times and very well preserved...I hope the pictures speak for themselves.

Now we are back in Hong Kong...We were wondering about at the airport after our plane arrived and who should we see but Catherine Tristram (one of katie's oldest friends from home)... would you believe it! Not quite such a coincidence as we had been organising this for the last 2 months but still wonderful to see a face from home! HK is definitely a completely different country we have decided, no matter what the government says. The food is different and no way close to the Sichuan haute cusine and the Yunnan dishes...MSG all the way here. Strangely our first night out in HK involved a German Octoberfest party in a 5 star hotel with the Hong Kong skyline behind us... slightly surreal, watching Chinese people party and sing Bavarian folkloric songs, very funny!!

Had our last Chinese dinner today and then off tomorrow to NZ....wow time flies...
We will keep you posted....

Be good, lots of love

Katie and Seb

ps. thanks for all your comments and do keep em coming: we love hearing from you!!