My Adventure Around the World

Hey everyone!

Really dodgey computer so not sure how much of a mess this text will come out in?  It has got some Chinese translation thing on and I don't know how to turn it off!

Went to Leshan (4 February)to go and see the Giant Buddha?  Seemed pricy to get in at 12 quid but what we didn‘t realise was that it was a massive area of hills and other carvings to look at?  So it wasn't that bad in the end?  When we finally made it to the Buddha it was huge,never thought itwas going to be that big!

So,we made the decision to go on the Yangtze River.  Only a day thing on a hydrafoil-supposed to be some quick boat thing.  Sounded like it should be nice and new and clean oh how I was wrong, it was just the same as most things everywhere else! Nice and dirty!

Got a bus from Chengdu to Chongqing and stayed one night in Chongqing before getting up at 6 to catch a bus to the dock.  Chongqing was absolutely massive and so polluted, some German girls we shared with in Chengdu told us it was the largest city in the world?

6 February? So we got up and got taken to a bus station by the hostel and then pretty much handed over to a Chinese lady who seemed to be in charge?  Think the guy told her we didn't speak Chinese?  We thought the hydrafoil was supposed to leave at 10.30 and when we were still on a bus on the way there at 11.30, we started to wonder if we would ever get on the river!  Finally we made it on the boat?  Got to see the Three Gorges, they were impressive!  We then managed to catch the last bus to Wuhan from Yichang-as there is nothing in Yichang?  Arrived in Wuhan at half 12 at night-the guy on reception was not happy to see us at all?  Finally sorted out a room and went to bed?

7 February

Said bye to Justin and Michael today, they were off to Shanghai to catch their flight home to Sydney in a few days?  Was weird to say bye to them as we had spent the last week with them.

We then found out that we were stuck in wuhan for another night.  What a rubbish place to be stuck in!  Nothing to do at all.  Tried everything to get out of their, flight, train and bus but nothing had any space for us.  Managed to get ourselves a train ticket out of their on 8 February-so we thought!!

The hostel got us a train ticket to a place I can't remember the name of and told us that we would have to get a ticket all the way to Guilin once we were on the train.  Ok we thought so we got the hostel to write down in Chinese what we needed and off we went.  Found out on the train that there were no seats left to Guilin-oh god, what are we going to do we thought!  Managed to sort something out and the nice train people let us stay on the train in the food cart all the way to Guilin, we eventually paid for the ticket all the  way and when we got to the station there wasn't even anyone there to check them after all that hassle!!  We think that what we paid for when we were on the food cart was a standing ticket but they let us stay sitting.  Either because they felt sorry for us, we had to much luggage or they didn't want to have to try and explain that we needed to move.....

Made it to Guilin at half 5 and had some Chinese guy let us in the hostel and he didn't speak English so he had to ring someone.  Finally we got a room and got to sleep.  What a relief, couldn't believe we made it!!!

Guilin seems really nice, seems European rather than Chinese.  Lots of cafes, its clean and new looking.  Really good location for our hostel.  Right on the doorstep of the city.  Had a pot of strawberries and cream for 80p, oh how nice that was :)

Think that is all that has happened although I'm sure there is something that I have forgotten!

Will spend some time here in Guilin and then going to head towards Vietnam as the visa is valid from 17 February?  Might try and fly to avoid any unnecessary trouble like what we have just encountered!

Hope all is well with everyone

xx