Jo and Hayley's SEA journal From Vietnam to Bali, our most extensive South East Asia trip yet!

After leaving Yangshuo we headed to Guangzhuo by bus, about 7hrs and arrived at our new hotel, which was rather unpleasant. The area around the hotel was basically comprised of highrise shopping malls, so we spent many hours wandering. We hardly brought anything as prices were quite high, surprisingly. Lots of brand name shops, Lacoste, Luis Vitton, Tiffany... the list goes on.Found a really good frozen yoghurt cafe, in which you pay by weight. You pick your yoghurt, like soft-serve and then you pick you toppings, about 50 choices, from fruit to marsmallows. We did find one underground mall which was really interesting, lots of neon lights, and quite funky and arty, spent a few enjoyable hours poking around. At the top of one mall we found an entertainment area with a cinema (no english) and a large area of arcade games, so played around for quite a while, was fun. It also had a haunted house so we screamed and laughed our way through that as well. Food also proved to be a little tricky, there were lots of restaurants, but no english on the menu, and the food was largely unrecogniseable, except for the ever-popular chicken feet, which are in soups, and seem to feature in most dishes and are also a popular bar snack. Had it not been for McDonalds, KFC, Pizza and Starbucks we may have starved. Our hotel room was so grotty, and tiring of mall hopping we decided to head to Shenzen. It is difficult to sightsee in some areas, people aren't that helpful, the language barrier does'nt help either, and there are few tour agencies. Very different to Vietnam, which we have gained a re-newed appreciation of. As Hayley quite rightly pointed out, Western tourists are not needed, or wanted? for the economy here. Some people will help you and others ignore you. Getting our luggage on the bus for instance, the driver just gestured under the bus... so after shifting other peoples baggage we got ours in, then a chinese lady came along and the driver gave her the utmost assistance. Little things like this can make you feel quite isolated. The people at the hotel advised us to head to the bus station to get the bus to Shenzen. This too was quite an experience as there were about a million people there, no joke! Again, no english, and not another foreigner in sight. We did get assistance though, thank goodness, a nice female staffer pointed me in the right direction, and after a half hour in a line, secured our tickets. We caught our bus about an hour later. Our new hotel, the Metropark was a welcome relief, clean! and spacious, nice bathroom, two tv's and a comfortable couch. Bed is rock hard, so couch cushions are a big help! Have been wandering around Shenzen, and again the food is difficult...have been warned about the street food, after a brief dabble in Guangzhou we are a little wary. A few things have made us appreciate home alot more, there is a high presence of police and maintaining public order is main priority, the level of pollution is incredible, even in rural areas, I haven't seen the sky, moon or stars for weeks and it can feel quite oppressive. The high-rise residential complexes are everywhere, and look unappealing to live in. The sheer volume of people is overwhelming. We are enjoying ourselves, but probably will not return to China. Shanghai and Yangshuo have been the most enjoyable part of our journey here. Next stop Macau!!! Love to all!