Stupid aeroflot

The plane was an hour and courtyard minutes late leaving which would have annoyed me but it just means I only spend two hours in a Russian airport so I don't really care! During the flight I saw the flight attendants maybe twice in the whole 9 hours! Even when we called for assistance they would remotely cancel the light and not come until we called 5 or so times, we werebso thirsty! Eventually we managed to get something to drink by a burly Russian Guy dressed in a co pilots uniforms thrust two cups of water into our hands without asking and had gone before we could say thank you!

Just about managed to wars off insanity through boredom and made it to Russia but we had to have our bags rechecked to transfer and while I got through ok after removing my shoes and belt Chris had bought a silver ornamental traditional pipe and the woman jumped on it and demanded he unpack it and then she mimed smoking it while saying 'drugas' meaning drugs! She didn't understand Chris explaining it was ornamental but eventually let him go.
Russia really hasn't changed since I came here years ago, everything is run but ugly old women who are very rude and never smile, very different from china!

On our time its midnight now but only 7pm here and we were up at 6! Gonna try and stay up and sleep when I get home but the time zones are going to make it a crazy long day!

Nearly back!

Chengdu day

Went straight to the station today to book a train going anywhere but unfortunately we got stuck in a national holiday and so after a 3 hour wait there were no trains going anywhere for at least 5 days, we didn't have 5 days to wait so decided to rethink our plans.
I had wanted to see Guangzhou and so we went back to the hostel and booked the cheapest flight we could find from where we were to Guangzhou.
It turned out that this was from Chongqing, the town we just left! However this was no problem with a fast an easy train connection.
We booked the ticket for two days time giving a day to get to Chongqing and then flying the next day.
With that booked I sat down to do some homework again and kept at it for a few hours. In the end the staff brought me an IKEA candle lamp to work by as it had gotten dark.
The people on the table behind were 5 loud and young English girls who invited us over to their table and so after finishing my homework we went.
We sat together talking and drinking beers until late when we got hungry and took the spoiled English princesses back to our little BBQ street food place.
One of them had lived in china for a year but had not managed to pepersuade her visiting friends to try streetfood before but they seemed to like it!
After more beers there we went on out to a bar in the old town and paid way too much for awful beers, although they did keep the place open just for us. Two of the girls got in a massive fight and stormed off and one just sat there not listening.
One girl who was very drunk took quite a shine to Chris and I was left talking to the other. Walked back in the end and retreated away from the crazy foreigners to a very late bed!
Checking out the next morning we saw them again but barely spoke before we got the train back to Chongqing.
When we arrived in Chongqing we went back to the same restaurant as Chris had left his painting in and after elaine provided some phone translation we even managed to find the picture we had been looking for! They had kept it in lost property! It really was Chris 's lucky day!
After that we made it to the hostel and were very tired but still took an evening walk down to a local statue before an early bed.

Shanghai to the airport!

Had a day in shanghai picking up last minute gifts and then met
cecilia from chongqing for dinner, went to a nice thai place before
heading back to the hostel.

This morning we got up early and carried our really heavy stuff to the
airport in the crazy heat, sweating away, not a great start for an 18
hour flight though!

Waiting at the airport now, had my umbrella confiscation as apparantly
umbrellas are too dangerous to take on board planes nowadays!

Home in less than 24 hours! crazy!

See you all soon!

Lingxi to shanghai

On my only full day back in lingxi I went to take a morning shower only to
find we have no water! Great! Spent the morning packing until elaine arrived
and then she started making calls and before long some guys are trying to
fix the water while a few more are trying to fix the internet (also broken).
We left them to it and went to get xiaolongbao and mazhan jianbao, two foods
I have never seen in England but are very tasty!
We did some last minute present shopping and then went for a meal in a
nearby restaurant.

The next morning is the morning we were due to leave lingxi but I got a call
at 8am that there had been a big train crash near Hangzhou on the d3115, the
train we always take and I have taken many times!
One carriage was on a bridge when a power cut caused it to stop and another
train crashed into the stationary one, knocking two carriages off the
bridge. 35 people are thought to have died and the worst bit is that some of
my students were on that train!

The lesser problem is that the accident had closed all the train routes
through my town to Hangzhou but we have a flight to catch!
Elaine to the rescue, she got our train tickets refunded and managed to buy
two tickets on the last bus to Shanghai that night. The only problem being
it was not a sleeper bus and that it arrived at 3am!

We were pretty much packed so spent the day with elaine and Jenny and had a
nice meal, when we walked in the chef was hooking fish out of the tank and
throwing them onto the concrete floor in the reception with nobody even
looking twice, the price of truly fresh fish I guess!

We got to the bus station in plenty of time and were treated while we waited
and for the first hour of our journey to an amazing lightening storm.
Literally the whole sky was covered in bright forks, it was amazing and very
beautiful, I wished I had time to set up my camera and take some pictures,
but no luck!

The bus ride was uneventful by Chinese standards but did involve three grown
men holding and helping a small male child to urinate into a bottle, but
then, this is china!

Got a taxi to the hostel and was just given a bed and told to checkin in the
morning, perfect!

Hangzhou to lingxi

Landed in Hangzhou at 1.20 and managed to get our bags and get the last
shuttle bus into downtown Hangzhou arriving around 2am with no hotel.
We walked to the train station booking office and got two tickets for the
half past 7 train, now just 5 hours to kill! We walked from the station to
west lake past the old street. It was the first time I had seen old street
so empty so I took the chance to take some pictures in the dark.
We walked through a park down to the lake and there we sat looking over the
lake and read a book while watching other people sleeping, taking aromatic
walks and of course fishing for frogs to eat.
We needed a more comfy seat around 4 and so hid in a McDonald's for an hour
with Chris asleep and me reading.
We got the taxi to the train station at around 5 and spent the last bit
trying to sleep on awful metal train station benches.
The train was fine if a little slow at 4 hours but we arrived in time to be
met by elaine.
Despite the fact I got maybe half an hours sleep that night I managed to
book the train tickets for Shanghai and spend a day with elaine without, I
hope, acting too much like a zombie.

Leaving yanshou

Stayed up late last night drinking beers with xiao zhu, xiao fei and xiao
jury (little pig, little fly and jury) the people we climbed the mountain
with when we arrived and so woke up late today.
Booked a shuttle bus to the airport for 6pm but there were no rooms in our
favorite hostel and since we land at half 12 we hardly need a room, just
somewhere to get a coffee while we wait for the first train back to our town
so we will find a park bench in Hangzhou somewhere!
We walked into town and on the way met little pig and the rest from last
night so chatted for a bit before getting some breakfast. Afterwards as we
walked along through the market we heard someone shouting my name, it turned
out to be the German couple so we spent the afternoon with them shopping in
western street before they had to get their bus.
After that we met little pig again as we finished up our crazy shopping
spree and the again as we walked back to our hotel to catch the shuttle bus.
Chris slept the whole way on the shuttle bus and we are now killing time
waiting for our flight to Hangzhou, fun!

Busy day in yangshou

Chris has been itching to climb for 6 months and today we finally found a
place for him and so, not wanting to pull him back to the beginners class he
went off to climb and I had the more fun job of trying to book train
tickets.
It turns out that because of the crazy summer holiday buying spree there are
no tickets this close to our leaving date and since we mmust get back it
looks like we are going to have to fly to Hangzhou.

I decided to get some culture so took a Chinese calligraphy lesson to try to
improve my Chinese characters. This was really fun and spent a couple of
hours practising the different strokes before practising a few characters,
it was pretty cool and I avoided buying a set but did buy a brush, identical
to the one I used in the lesson!

After my lesson Chris met me at the hotel having had a great climb in the
morning and over lunch we decided we would have to fly.
We went back to the hotel and booked our flights and then asked offhand if
it was too late (at half 3) to join the kayaking trip.
The hotel manager made a call and then said the bus would arrive in 5
minutes!
We changed and got into a small minibus and were driven to a small villiage
on the river.
After being driven through what was actually a pedestrian shopping street we
stopped outside a warehouse from where he produced two well used plastic
kayaks, paddles and life jackets older than me!
He took us to the waters edge and asked if we could swim before helping us
into our boats and pushing us off. No guide, no training, the only direction
was turn left and paddle to the bridge, we can't miss it and it should take
around 3 hours.
Since we were both kayakers and there was no real whitewater we decided to
go with it and so paddled out into the afternoon sun.

The views were beautiful and Chris's waterproof camera was very useful as we
paddled and floated in the strong current.
The sun started to set and we started to wonder just where this bridge was
when it rolled around the bend.
We were pretty tired as we arrived and asked how far it was, turns out it
was 11km the section we paddled! Not bad! But Chris 's morning climbing
really showed as he was dead!
We missed the last bus back but luckily the company left a swanky brand new
car for Chris and I to climb into smelling of river water for the very high
speed run back to town totally exhausted and in desperate need of a shower.

Yangshou

Woke up at 6pm and went into the town, seeing in the light just how big the
hill we decided to climb really is!
We walked around town and walked down to the docs, as soon as we made it to
the docks we felt the wind pick up and as we dived into a hotel lobby the
torrential rain started.
I had my trusty new umbrella but even that was useless so we waited half an
hour in the hotel with a few equally stranded chinese and watched the
lightening.
After a while we made a dash down to the next hotel which had a bar and
drank beer and ate onion rings while waiting for the rain to stop.
Eventually it did and we found a nicer (and cheaper) Chinese restaurant and
ate dinner before going straight back to bed.
This morning we hired some bikes from the hotel and used my frommers guide
which has a section devoted to finding secret parts of yangshou.
Chris demanded a cycle helmet which they provided but I decided to brave it,
but could imagine my.mothers face so almost left that out of my blog!
We cycled out of town to a tiny path through a villiage and eventually over
a tiny bridge, then an even smaller bridge, and then some very old stone
steps. The steps apparently contained parts of a temple pulled down during
the cultural revolution. At the top was a tiny goat farm with three loud
but.harmless dogs and we walked through into a hidden valley. Im pretty sure
few tourists make it there and so we walked down overgrown tracks and
through small groves of pomello trees and even around the odd sink hole!
We walked around for an hour or so before making our way back to the bikes.
The dogs followed us all the way back to the bikes and even along the road a
way, very confident in their area.
We cycled further and saw the most popular thing in yangshou, bamboo
rafting. It is just floating down a sedate section of the river on a bamboo
raft but with a literal constant stream of rafts being carted up hy lorry
and then one going past every few seconds down the river.
We gave that a miss and cycled on to a riverside hotel for lunch.
After lunch we followed our crazy directions through various tiny villages
including through a small school before finding a semi secluded place by the
river to stop. We were about to take a swim when we noticed another guest
was already using it, a water Buffalo!
Keeping well back we had a paddle and a quick swim to cool off before
cycling on.
Eventually we got back to yangshou town and went through the town and up
river to a small beach.
We locked up the bikes and climbed down the bank and went for an evening
swim in the river. We ended up swimming right across the river despite its
width and strong current which was fun.
Chris also has a water proof camera and so we messed around and got some
cool photos of our heads sticking our of the water and the mountains behind,
even some crazy underwater shots!

That evening after a much needed shower we went out for a meal and some more
shopping, I managed to resisit but Chris was taken in more than once!
Back in the hotel room that now smells vaguely of river water hoping to
sleep earlyish as Chris is climbing in the morning and we are hoping to do
some other stuff in the afternoon before the long train back....

Best and longest day in guangzhou

Woke up late after a good rest and my previously awful cold felt a lot
better, I had arranged to meet a friend again for the day so had a late
breakfast before wandering out. Did a bit of shopping before meeting up with
my friend and bought a few gifts and had a look around tesco, a bit surreal!
Met my friend and together we walked down to the central shopping district
and had a look around there.
My sister called and wanted to meet up so I took my friend and together we
met my sister at shamien island and explored that again along with some
shopping in the multitude of souvenir shops around the old British and
western concessions.
After this we pointed gabby towards a massive market and went to find
somewhere to sit down for a bit! As we sat outside chatting suddenly the
wind really picked up and massive black clouds came rolling in, as we walked
back to the Metro the wind got stronger and we felt the first touches of
rain, we made it back into the station just in time and as we looked back it
really started to rain!
We got the metro to a random stop and found ourselves in the Muslim district
so decided to eat there.
We tried to find something spicy but every place we tried had nothing, in
the end I ordered a few things to share and had a great meal.
After the meal we found a nearby coffee shop to sit down and watch the rain
from until my friend had to leave for the bus. Getting to the bus stop did
involving climbing over a fence in the middle of the road as there was
literally no crossing but we made it with a bit of a lift. After dropping
off my friend I hit the subway back and dragged my sister out of bed since
it was her last night.
To celebrate I took her out for a meal in a tiny local restaurant with a few
beers and then we wandered back to the Hostel and chatted over another beer.
Chris and the other guys from the hostel including Felix who I've mentioned
all went out clubbing but I stayed back with my sister to say goodbye.

My sister introduced me to another girl from the hostel before she left,
Claire, a Chinese girl about to go to england for a year!
My sister finally went off to bed around 1 and Claire and I stayed up
drinking before we decided to go for a walk. We walked through the town and
along the river and chatted before seeing the ferry dock was deserted now
the ferry had stopped for the night. We let ourselves in and walked along
the dock with the pretty lights on the opposite side of the river. Claire
took a look into a boat and saw the ferry workers doing ktv!
We spent the night chatting and walking around and sitting by the river
until at 6am around 30old Chinese guys came down and started to swim
together across the river! Crazy! The river is so dirty and still a major
shipping lane!
We walked back to the hotel and said goodbye to a confused and tired
gabrielle before we went to bed around 7am.
We all had to checkout before 12 so we did and chris just walked into the
seating area and camped out for the whole day, even sleeping through half of
it. Claire was practising for her driving test the next morning but we
chatted around that before I went with her to tthe station.
Once I was in town I did some shopping and picked up some cool things before
meeting Chris back at the hostel.
We got our things and made our way to the bus station for our 8pm overnight
bus to yangshou.

The bus was cool with 30 or so sleeping beds half under each other in 3
rows. We found our beds but they were too short for me, let alone Chris! And
no onboard toilets just every few hours a service station or smoke break!
The bus was fine albut instead of a 6am arrival we arrived at 2am. Having
slept very little we stumbled off as a confused little group and met a
German couple equally dazed and confused...

We had booked a hostel but for the next night thinking we would he asleep on
the bus all night and so had nothing to do until midday check in.

We decided to at least dump our bags so went to our Hostel and we all left
our bags there before walking out into 2.30am yangshou!
We found a BBQ place and so sat down and had a few beers and some BBQ snacks
and chatted with the germans. We paid the bill and as we left i got chatting
with some Chinese buying water.
The Chinese were a group of 5 all off to climb a mountain overlooking the
town to watch the sunrise, they invited us along and we accepted!
Having not slept that night and barely slot the night before the climb up
was interesting, especially with 3 torches between 9!
We made it to the top in around an hour dragging the hesitant Germans along.
It was pretty hot and we were sweating buckets before we made it. The top is
actually a TV mast and so we had to go past lots of no entry signs and a few
closed but not locked gates to get there but we made it and watched the
sunrise.....behind a bank of clouds! It was still amazing to see the
mountains appear out of the mist and then the row behind appear, an amazing
introduction to the town.
We climbed down and all went ffor breakfast and a beer before saying
goodbye, exchanging qq details and making a friend in macau, and then
checkers into our hotel at 8 as someone checked out early, we chased the
maids out, showered and slept for most of the day, it was much needed!

Guangzhou

Got to Guangzhou airport with few problems and the flight was equally
fine, typical domestic chinese travel really, but the food is usually
not too bad!
Arrived in Guangzhou and took the metro to our hotel right on the
river bank. Arriving there we found we had no reservation! But it was
pretty cheap to just get a twin room so we did that instead for
16pounds.

Spent the next couple of days around Guangzhou exploring the sites and
at lunchtime meeting up with a friend of mine who lives in Guangzhou
and she showed me around a bit and some cool places!
In the evening I went for dinner with her and had frogs meat and super
spicy beef, but it was very tasty!

The next night my friend was busy so instead we met a guy in the hotel
and went for some food with them instead. As we sat down for a beer at
a street cafe around the corner we got talking to some other chinese
people I recignised from the hotel. As always the conversation started
with "wow you are a teacher, where are you from?" I replied near
Wenzhou, and the guy said wow where near wenzhou I am from there. Oh a
small province, Cangnan, Wow Cangnan I am from there which town!
Lingxi, wow that is my hometown! We met another guy from our tiny town
in the Hostel, and whats more he had met Chris once in a night club
with the guys from DD long! China really is a small country! haha.
Spent the evening with them chatting and drinking in the street until
5am when we finally headed back to the hostel but lulu a chinese girl
and Felix the guy from Lingxi really wanted to go to KTV. We went back
to the hotel and had one more beer while we waited. Chris turned it
down but decided to go out to KTV at 5am so we grabbed a taxi to a
place that felix new and tried to go in. We got to the door but they
said they were closed! Felix tried his best to use the foreigner card
and pretending that I had friends inside I needed to see but they were
having none of it and so we had to head back outside. We went across
the road to a small shop, bought some beers, and sat by the river
watching the sunrise and the morning joggers come out and drank our
beers! Very cool! Before heading to bed around 8am!

Gotta get outta this place!

After staying longer than we had hoped in Chongqing we really had to go, this morning Cecilia left for another exam but huanghe had decided to come with us to.the station as she was picking up her friend and to help us buy a ticket.
We wanted to go to jiuzhaigou or yunan, two beautiful places, but when both were fully booked we accepted a train to chungdu only an hour away, we just needed somewhere new!

While we waited for the train we sat in a restaurant and had a traditional breakfast of super spicy noodles. Huanghe left us after breakfast and we went to the train shortly after.
Halfway on the train Chris realised that a painting he had bought in Chongqing was no longer with us and we didn't remember having it since the restaurant!
We asked huanghe to go back but by the time she got there it was too late, it had gone! Chris was a bit annoyed but nevermind.
We arrived at chungdu at the biggest train station I have ever seen, it would shame most airports and the.scale was just amazing, even from 400 meters back at the other side of the huge square in front of it my camera could not fit it all in! Unfortunately it was also in the middle of nowhere and so we called the Hostel and got the bus they recommended and found it with.little trouble.
We checked in late afternoon it Chris was awfully tired so while he got some sleep I sat in the garden and did some Chinese homework, especially the characters. Before long an 8 year old girl saw and started helping me, her teaching my the chinese and I teacher her the English. Before long her mother, who spoke no English came over and started helping, with me having to talk in Chinese to them while.teaching them a little English, before long Morse of the staff are joining in too and there is around 5 or 6 Chinese people and me laughing aand joking and practising each others languages. Soon it turned to tongue twisters with me teaching them he sells sea shells on the sea shore, to much amusement, and them teaching me 4is4 10is10 40is40 14is14 which is much harder in Chinese because of the tones, and all laughing at everyone trying them, especially me trying the Chinese ones. By the end even the cleaning staff had stopped by to.give it a go, very fun!
After an hour or two Chris woke up so we ended the lesson and Chris and I went to explore chungdu. We saw the giant statue of Mao and a few other cool things and room some beautiful sunset pictures before getting back in the evening. We missed last call food in the hostel so went to an all night BBQ street stall and had some great food there, although there a few uninvited guests in the cockroaches on the wall behind us, but they kept themselves to themselves and no harm was done!

Extra day in Chongqing

We met the girls for breakfast and Chris was very keen to stay an extra day here and they seemed friendly so we decided to stay on another day.
As we checked out a girl working there called fish gave us her Qq number. We had spoken to her a few times and she was pretty fun, a bit sad that we were leaving though! She was however full on crazy and would always greet us by shouting naysan across the place as loud as she could, sweet though!

We met Cecilia and huanghe and they had decided to spend a night in another part of Chongqing to see a specific district in the night, not being ones for strict plans we decided to stay and spend the day in Chongqing, nothing to do with Chris being a little taken, and I have had worse days that spending time with the pretty friend. When we visited a temple in the old town huanghe (the Chinese girl with no English name) got talking to a random Chinese Guy who then invited himself along for the day, very strange! After the temple we checked out and got the bus to our old hostel with the girls along too, unfortunately the hostel was full but they recommended another Hostel in town. Eventually we got two taxis to the new hostel, still with the girls and this random Guy and ended up in the strangest hostel yet. It was an old 20 floor Chinese hotel which was now a huge but mostly unused hostel. The staff however were friendly and after checking in and dumping our bags we all went to the top floor to see the view, and took lots of pictures at the top, much to the surprise of the washer women hanging clothes there!
Had a good day around town after that and did some window shopping as well as some straw hat shopping, the latest fashion out here! We got some super spicy local speciality food and then retired to a swanky coffee shop and spent a few hours ordering random things and practising Chinese. Cecilia taught me some local slang words that elaine cannot teach me, some of which I think are very cool, as well as explaining to me some of the crazy complicated faces they make in text messages as well as a million other things about Chinese culture.
It was getting late when the random Guy had to leave but he gave us a beautifully written goodbye picture in Chinese which I have kept. The girls and Chris and I got a taxi to the hotel and while Chris and huanghe went to the room Cecilia and I, on the pretense of buying cards, went for a walk around the area. We went down a Backstreet exploring and it was very cool until suddenly Cecilia grabbed me and pulled me back to the main street pointing at some signs painted on the wall. This cool old house was not only condemmed and unsafe but also a crime scene!

We bought a pack of cards and stayed up in the girls room teaching them poker and a few other games and being taught 'beat the landlord ', a very popular Chinese game!
Eventually headers off to bed pretty late , good fun though!

Siqikou old town

Today we had been recommended another hostel, still in Chongqing, but in a much older part of town, or at least it looked much older I guess. We got the bus from just up the street for the hours ride out of town to the old town. Once there we found a very pretty old style building now a hostel right on the bank of the river.
We checked into our dorm and went out and had a look around, after a quick look I came back to.get my camera and whilst looking out from a small balcony I got talking to two Chinese girls on the balcony, the more confident one, Cecilia was an English student prepraring for her exams and the other girl, with no English name, (her Chinese name was yellow river island) came along too.
I got chatting to Cecilia and invites them both for lunch since we were pretty hungry and so we all went off to find the local specialty, another kind of hot pot.
At the meal Cecilia ordered a spicy (again) hotpot and when it came started eating the food with relish, from the parts we recognized we saw that it was various animal organs again but this region is know for preferring to eat parts of the animal that west people throw away. The bits we didn't recognize we really didn't want to know, and if we did ask they just laughed and said a type of bamboo! Obviously not thinking we would try it if we knew what it was. Cecilia had been living here a while and so ate the crazy hotpot with obvious relish while the rest of us bravely tried everything, and some bits were actually pretty tasty, but I think I prefer real meat!
After the meal we did some shopping together before Cecilia had to go and take an exam! She left her friend with us and so together we went off around the old town.
As we walked and explored and took pictures it seemed that Chris and river island were getting on very well so after a small snack I left them two alone and went to take some beautiful pictures around tthe old town at night and along the yellow river.
I got back late and Chris was in a good mood although she had gone to bed, I texted Cecilia and we arranged to meet them tomorrow as well!

Day 2 and paddling in the Yangtze

We went straight into the town today to have a good look around and did find everything including Chris's secret passion, outdoor shops, where he proceeded to undo all his light travel plans and buy some more clothes.
After exploring the peninsula we were on we got an ancient cable car over the yangzte which was actually pretty cool. The cable car and the platform and entrance way obviously used to be amazing and was designed for a large passenger volume, I guess before the bridges and buses got so cheap, but now its a run down and empty echo of what it used to be, very Soviet Russian!
The carriage pulls in swinging crazily and the attendant is first off straight into the air-conditioning leaving everyone else to half jump off the swinging car. The next people mill around until 2 seconds before it leaves with the most brave (or most foolish) waiting in the carriage in the sweltering heat (us) and just before the man walks briskly out into the heat, climbs aboard and it leaves, the Chinese people waiting as long as possible before jumping on, crazy Chinese!
The other side of the river was not touristy at all and obviously rarely visited, more mahjiang clubs than I have seen but quite pretty and a bit like an Asian San Francisco with all the steep hills.

When I was in china a year ago travelling I met a Guy in Xian called Johny and we kept in touch every 4 months on qq and he said if I was ever in Chongqing to look him up so last night I left him a message on qq saying i was in town and leaving my mobile number, I woke up this morning to a call from him inviting us to dinner. I accepted and so we arranged to meet at 7 and go for the local dish, huaguo (hotpot) .
He met us in our hotel lobby and I managed to recognise him, just, not bad considering I had only met him for a few hours!
He got a taxi without too much trouble although they are usually impossible to get here and took us to a restaurant he knew around 30 minutes away by taxi.
His girlfriend met us in the restaurant and she was also lovely and after some discussion out of deference to us they went for a mildly spiced hotpot which, after tasting, turned out to be right on the limit of what I could eat and way past what Chris liked. We had heard they liked it spicy but this was madness!
They ordered lots of cool things which you then put in the soup in the middle until they cook then eat, sharing and trying everything as well as cooking for each other.  We had also been warned that chongqing food was.....varied but we wernt prepared for what came out. The most standout things were the cow intestine, small and large, the cow stomach, liver and kidney and the real highlight the fish served without their heads but so recently decapitated that a push from a chopsticks will make them swim. When they are dropped into the hotpot the even make a last attempt at swimming for a short time. You eat everything except the tip of the tail and try not to think about what you are eating, the taste ok though and the bones can just be safely crunched.

After the meal we walked through the centre of this district with its big shops and bright lights before jony had to head back as he had work the next day.
We joined a queue in a taxi rank but after 20minutes and not a single taxi stopping there jony started standing in the road arguing with any that dared to get close. Eventually after more than an hour he got one and dropped us off safely back at the hostel.

There was on thing I really wanted to do so we grabbed a bag and borrowed the hostels flipflops before walking the 5 minutes up to where the two rivers meet in central Chongqing. At this point there are steps down into the river and we put on our borrowed flipflops and went for a midnight paddle in the Yangtze, still deliciously cool compared to the warm air. We paddled for a while and took some pictures before making our way back to our Hostel for a night cap beer in the bar.

Chongqing

NiOk this travelling has meant I've really slipped up with the blog, I will try to get everything up to date with the crazyness of travelling in china as soon as I can!
So we landed in Chongqing and got our bags, I walked out and went to buy some tickets to take us into down, I used my Chinese and she understood Jo problem, then another woman came over and decided because I booked this bus ticket ok I.could understand everything and started ranting on in Chinese, I apologized and told her I didn't understand and she explained she was trying to sell q three gorges tour, not words I had learnt yet!
We got the bus to the third stop as requested by our directions which menlntioned some bus numbera before cutting off. No bus stops or directions just numbers....
We arrived and found that Chongqing is seriously hot. It is one of the three furnaces of china, unbelievable!

After trying a few different streets and walking quite a way with a seriously heavy bag eventually a taxi pulled over, I bundled us in and started trying to make the taxi driver go there, a little begging and paying a couple of RMB over gets it sorted and he was actually very Friendly giving me a chance to practise some more awful Chinese.

We made it to the hostel and checked in ok, our 4 bed ensuite dorm had 6 people and a shared bathroom down the hall but nevermind, it did look out over the Yangtze river! When we checked in part of the government form in this province required an intended destination, of course when they asked us we had no idea so they just put down three gorges even though we knew it would not be there!
Once we had checked in we went for a walk and realised just how serious the heat here is. We stuck to it and walked a good way around the district and investigating anything that looked interesting.
The city here is really just like Hong Kong, steep streets running down to rivers and ravines with lots of bridges, and of course the heat! But I prefer this to hongkong as Chongqing is much more Chinese.

In the evening we walked down by the river to choutienmen port just nearby and watched the massive river cruise ships filling up with tourists, even with the occasional foreigner!
Choutianmen is at the point where two massive rivers meet and at this point you can paddle in the meeting point, we marked this down as a must do for another night and retired to the hotel for a few beers.

Ningbo

Got a pretty early train to ningbo and walked out of the station into sweltering heat with heavy bags, we called gabby and agreed to meet at tian yi a shopping complex in the middle of town, we tried for a bus but in the heat chose a taxi instead and I chatted a bit to the taxi driver in broken Chinese, his accent was pretty strange though and some words he really didn't understand, God damn!
Met gabrielle with no problems and celebrated our return to the developed world with a Starbucks iced coffee, something impossible in our town, before getting the bus to our new residences. Gabrielle had offered to put us up in her university rooms one way or another...
We got there and dropped off our bags before going for a walk around and a spicy sichuan late lunch, we took a walk around the campus and gabby saw some people in the bell tower of the school and confessed a secret dream to climb the Nottingham tower which was closed to the public, Chris and I immediately decided to see if we could get in this one since someone else obviously had!
We foundthe base of the tower but unfortunately it was surroundes by no entry signs and closed doors, luckily however the door was not locked and when Chris tried it and headed in we both followed!
Insiide through a maze of plant rooms and doors we found the iron steps up and Chris led the way, at the top we found a small group of Chinese people who immediately started apologising to Chris thinking he was a teacher come to tell them off and kick them out of the tower! As soon as Chris started taking pictures and they saw us two they realised their mistake hut it was too late to kick us out now so we grabbed a few photos and sneaked away again the whole time acting like we had as much right to he there as them, despite not even being allowed on university property at all, let alone out of bounds clock towers!

That evening we wanted to go back to central ningbo so with gabby and two of her classmates we headed into town. One turned out to be a nice girl similar to gabby and one a rather rich and sheltered Indian girl who complained that her room had not been cleaned when it was a self catered and self sufficient living place not a hotel!
In town we did a little shopping and saw the river before stopping off for cocktails by the river, after rehydrating we walked towards 'laowaitan ' foreigner street.
We couldn't find it at first but did find a swanky and expensive micro brewery we were forced to take refuge in for a pitcher or two!
After that we gave up on walking and I flagged down a taxi and persuaded him to carry us 5 in his small taxi with some awful Chinese and got us taken straight there.
As soon as we arrived the Indian girl promptly left leaving just us four and at first it looked like we would end up in the dreaded Irish bar but just down the road we found a place with Chinese people doing ktv and no foreigners.
We stayed there and ordered many beers, soon in the Chinese way we were chatting with a doctor and plastic surgeon on the table next to us who nearly dragged us away for more drinks in their house, we declined as the music here was good but I got chatting to the barman who it turned out was Ukrainian! A nice Guy and soon he was mixing us an extra strong cocktail and showing us a nearby club he recommended. We hit the club for an hour before grabbing a quick bits to eat and then arguing with a taxi driver until he took us all home for a good price.

The next morning we were all a bit the worse for wear so had a chilled day around the campus and a little shopping and a bit of sleeping before a nice meal in town and an early bed!

Passport trip!

We got a call the next morning to go and collect our passports and elaine kindly offered to come along as our translator.
We got the car in with Mr yue and went straight to the police station and with surprisingly little hassle collected all we needed and were given our passports back, finally we could travel again!
While we were in Wenzhou we decided to send the car on home and go and see a bit more of Wenzhou, we had been there 7 times and still seen basically nothing of the place!
We got a ferry over to a big island in the middle of the river which had some beautiful gardens and a small fair on it including a couple of roller coasters! We walked around the island and took some pictures before getting beaten by the heat and taking refuge back on the mainland. Elaine went to university in Wenzhou and so knew a great little place for lunch where we got fried dumplings with soup and tea jelly, very tasty despite sounding pretty odd.
After dinner we went to the shopping district and I finally bought some shorts considering it is 38degrees!
We went for coffee afterwards and I managed to actually pay for something, admittedly only by sneaking off and paying before anyone could stop me.
After shopping we got the bus back to lingxi and went for a steak in a new place not far from the school.

The next morning we decided to leave to go travelling the next morning so spent the day packing, buying a train ticket to ningbo and booking a flight from ningbo to somewhere west, an 80 pound flight saves us from a 30hour train out there and means we can work our way back to lingxi as fast or as slowly as we want!
Early start for the train tomorrow but we are finally travelling again!

Another trip!

After climbing the mountains over Lingxi and seeing the beautiful views  we wanted to see some of the scenery around lingxi and Nora (another teacher in the school and Elaine's best friend) offered to show us her home town which we of course accepted.
Elaine picked us up and found Nora and in heavy rains we headed out of the city. As soon as we left lingxi the rain stopped and we heard from Nora's father that it was not raining in her home town.
We drove for around 20 minutes before reaching a road leading straight over a drop into a small river! Elaine backed up and drove a hundred meters futher down to a tiny bridge, we made it over the bridge but just after that there was a narrow gap with a river drop one side and a wall the other that looked exactly a cars width wide. Into this gap someone had dumped a concrete pile obviously to stop cars using this useful cut through! Elaine jumped out and I followed trying to judge if we could make it through. I decided not and managed, with the help of a passer by to dissuade elaine from trying her luck! We needed to find another route.

There was an alternative route, one that snakes through the rice fields on a road barely a cars width wide! We made ok progress until we got to an especially narrow section and three buses were coming the other way! Eventually, with one wheel hanging over the meter drop down to the rice paddy they squeezed past, it was a close thing!
After another 20 minutes we made it and drove out to a massive dam just outside the town, it turned out that Nora's father was the manager of the dam!
We got out to take a look and walked up the face of the dam and as we got to the top a random man with a boat offered to take us for a trip, we accepted and were soon on a boat driving across the centre of the lake. We wound our way up one of the tributaries until the boat could go Jo furher up this steep sided beautiful canyon. We left the boat and he promised to wait for us while we walked.
We walked up next to the stream to a small village, as we approached we noticed even more stares than usual, elaine and Nora spoke with some locals and found out that no foreigners had ever visited this village before!
I took some lovely pictures before heading back towards the waiting boat.
The bamboo and greenery next to the rushing stream was gorgeous in a very Chinese way. The boat back was fine but Chris was starting to feel pretty sick.
We arrived at the car and piled in before going into the centre of town from dinner.

As soon as we got to town Chris felt really bad with a splitting headache and so we abandoned our plan to eat dinner on a hill overlooking the town and Nora called her friend who happened to live nearby and also happened to be a doctor, albeit of traditional medicine!
They bundled Chris inside and eventually took him to a room upstairs to relax and sleep a bit. While he slept I ate downstairs with the doctor and his family in his house come hospital. Dinner was tasty and I mainly just tried to practise a little Chinese and enjoy the tasty food. After dinner the doctor invites me to drink some medicinal with with him, he was 60 or so and I should have known better, what they call wine is 50% alcohol rice whiskey! It would have been rude to refuse so I drank a glass or two with him before checking on Chris.
While I left Chris sorting himself out I had a loom around and it was fine for me to look behind the cabinet at all these boxes along the walls filled with different herbs and extracts that he used in his medecine. I tried to take a picture but in the dark it didn't come out so well!
After that we headed back the way we came and braved the rice field roads at night, luckily the roads were quiet and it all went ok.
Got back and fell straight asleep, with Chris feeling much better after the rest.