Warriors with Dumplings

Found them…..the Terracotta Army that is. Hard to miss really (well apart from the fact they were underground). All 11000 of them plus horses, carriages and a whole host of stuff the Chinese haven’t dug up yet.

 

I tell you, Indiana Jones, The Mummy and Sinbad the Sailor have nothing on this lot. They look just like they will start stomping along just as soon as some bad guy presses the button! There are rows of them in just about one piece but the ones with holes in and limbs missing and heads missing etc are a bit freaky. There is one that is just two feet standing there.

 

Phenomenal to think they were all painted bright colours as well – I didn’t know that. They even went to the detail of putting tread on the guys shoes – there is a kneeling archer and you can see the sole of his foot, his shoe had tread marks on it. 11000 hand made models and they are putting tread marks on shoes. Wow!

 

And they were chrome plating their swords and they cast the most magnificent (if small – well smaller than we were expecting anyway) horse and carriage out of bronze.

 

Breakfast yummy today – proper toast and jam that tasted of jam not runny sugar water (mind you it had come all the way from Austria in its little packets which was a little distressing on the carbon footprint level). Proper bacon as well. Wooops. Allowed though as no lunch so it was left over snacks for us, oh and a packet of mini shortbread biscuits we bought at our tea tasting ceremony. Very useful on two counts – one was lunch, the other was to take away the taste of the tea! We tried Lychee Black tea – this was the winner. Then Dragon Well tea, Ginseng Oolong tea (which should have an aftertaste of liquorice but Martyn said not – although I think he’s damaged his taste buds with his salt liquorice) and finally Ku Ding tea. Fortunately for me the tasting cups were very small and it was perfectly acceptable to throw away the bits you didn’t like into the servers little draining board!! Personally I preferred the little Buddha and pig models the lady had that changed colour when she poured the hot waste water over them but I did my best to focus on the tea!

 

Back to hotel for a quick nap. Well that’s what everyone else did. We went for a walk down the road – Martyn found a gadget shop. To be honest I think he spent longer looking at the gas burners and wok attachments than at the gadgets but at least I wasn’t subjected to the freezers and washing machines floor. They had a dehumidifier that had two goldfish in it. I thought you had to empty the water out of dehumidifiers. What would happen to the poor fish?

 

And then dinner – dumpling banquet. Well we compromised as we weren’t sure we all wanted an entire meal of dumplings so we had ordinary food for 5 and two dumpling banquets which was good as we all got to try a bit of everything. Followed by birthday cake for Lucy and Happy Birthday song over the loudspeakers and applause from everyone else in the restaurant as well. Very nice for her but we were very glad we had our cake in a much smaller restaurant with no speaker system!

 

Then everyone else went back to bed and Martyn and I stayed out – ‘what’ I hear you say. Martyn and Kay having a night on the town whilst everyone else is tucked up in bed. What is the world coming to????? Well, we just figured we’d come all this way and we were not going to miss out. If we can stay awake through The Nutcracker ballet in Russia after a night train we can stay awake for this. We watched the Tang Dynasty Show – lots of beautiful costumes and great dancing with some traditional Chinese musical instruments. It was very good.

 

And then, hello pillow!

Dam

No I’m not mis-typing a blasphemy. That’s where we went today!

Three Gorges Dam. Largest dam in the world. 2.4km long, 15m deep at top, 124m deep at bottom. HUGE.
Whether you agree it should have been built or not given the environmental and human implications it is a very impressive feat of engineering.


Martyn managed to stay up to see our boat go through the lock system down the side of the dam. This was at about 11.30pm and I had been asleep for an hour. Missed him leaving the room, woke up when he came back. I was in time to look out the window and see the boat moving down instead of along!

(yep, that's a 7x5 container barge and 3 cruise ships, there were also 2 other barges behind us - all in the same lock.)

Anyway, dam very impressive. Then we went along the last gorge of the three gorges on the Yangtse river but actually our ummmm, 7th counting the little side excursions! Then we found another dam at YingChang where we disembarked and had lunch. This second dam was actually built first and is 0.2km longer but still not as big as the three gorges dam.

After lunch bus to train station and then night train to Xian which is where we are now.. Of course given that we’ve spent about 95% of the last 4 days on bus, boat or train we still feel like we are moving. It was very odd having breakfast in the restaurant and looking out the window at scenery that stayed still.

Better go – apparently there is a Terracotta Army around here somewhere………

Slippery little suckers

We have met our chopstick match! Skills have been improving dramatically and we can now even get the last of the rice out the bottom of the bowl but dinner today was a challenge. Mini shrimp dumplings in soup. Even the Chinese were using spoons to get from big bowl to personal little dish. Then they went for the chopsticks. Everything else was fine – even the sweetcorn and the very awkwardly shaped carrot but those shrimp balls – they were slippery little suckers. Fortunately the Chinese like to get their bowls very close to their mouths and just sort of scoop it all in with the chopsticks. This was nearly the only way to manage the little shrimp balls. Although we did have some success with balancing said shrimp balls across the top of two chopsticks. Of course if the boat happened to hit a slight swell the ball rolled off. It added a certain challenge to successful consumption of dinner anyway!

Breakfast was somewhat disappointing. Our lovely guide had told us there would be western breakfast including bacon so we all opted for breakfast and skipping lunch. There was toast. The bacon was in with green pepper and soy sauce. I quite liked my noodles and steamed buns. The rest of the group were not so impressed. I think they thought they might get a full English with the possibility of nicking a bread roll for lunch.

Martyn and I did better than the others with lunch as well – in as much as we thought to take some with us on our optional excursion (although it was the leftover crackers, chicken sausage and dried Heinz tomato soup stick from the other day). Others in the group didn’t. Oh dear, our lunch was processed gunge and crackers but our group members were staring really quite longingly at it. Ah well, they found a shop and bought a double packed of Oreos (which along with Chinese Pringles is pretty much the majority of their diet along with beer, bananas and the odd apple)

Anyway food ponderings over – today was excursion day. Very exciting. Drifted through gorge number 1 on our big cruise boat this morning – very pretty. Then got off big cruise boat. Wow. Got on smaller boat and drifted through the Little Three Gorges. Then got off smaller boat and on to even smaller boat (Sampan) and pootled down the Daning River for a while. This was the best of the gorges. Very beautiful and, our murky sludgy Yangtse River became a stunning blue/green colour. Very pretty. SO yes, our excursion involved getting out of our seats on a big boat to sit on different seats on two smaller boats. There is a theme here. Stunning scenery though.

Back to bigger cruise ship for gorge number 2 (which is actually gorge number 5 today but its number 2 on the Yangtse river in our cruise ship (sorry if this is confusing but it makes sense to us!). We missed half of this gorge as we popped to our cabin to await the little ‘bing bong lady’ (you know, a bit like Hi De Hi’s ‘good morning campers’ although to be honest I think Gladys’ xylophone worked a bit better than the ships ‘bing bonger’ which occasionally sounds like someone is messing with the frequency dial on a signal generator!) to tell us that we had arrived at the gorge. There was a ‘bing bong’ message but it was in German and I didn’t quite get it so we were half way through the gorge by the time we looked out the window and realized we were missing it – ooops. Ran up four flights of stairs to observation deck in time to get last pictures – phew.

Now sat trying to stay awake as we are supposed to enter the lock system sometime between 10 and midnight and we thought we would try to see it. Well, we’ll try anyway ….. let you know tomorrow!

longest toilet in the world

Lovely. Actually got around to reading the Yangtse cruise section in guide book today. Apparently the river used to flow quite nicely. Then they built the Three Gorges Dam and slowed everything down so all of the river above the dam (where we are) is something of a steaming cess pit. I was quite enjoying sitting on deck until I read that bit.

 

Quite a surreal day really – well the evening was anyway.

 

Breakfast in bed – sponge cake and banana bought in shops yesterday – too stingy to pay for buffet breakfast every day on the boat (but we’re having it tomorrow!). Nice lie in as we decided to skip the optional excursion this morning – no Abode of the Ghosts for us but its okay, the cruise ship sent a chap with a video camera to make a DVD for all the Chinese tourists and we’ve just watched it playing in the bar so we’ve seen the Abode of the Ghosts and we don’t think we missed all that much!

 

Sunbathed on deck for an hour. Had lunch. Went to talk advertised as ‘Chinese Traditional Medicine’ turned out to be on acupuncture and was in Chinese but our tour guide did a great translation job for us. Neither of us volunteered to be given acupuncture though. Apparently there are 12 routes of blood flow around the body just like there are 12 months in a year. There are 365 acupuncture points as per number of days in year. We now know four of them! Two for relaxation, one for funny tummy / travel sickness and one other that I’m not sure about!

 

Then had a Mahjong lesson for an hour. It’s a bit like Gin Rummy but you start with 13 bricks instead of 7 cards and you have to make 4 groups of 3 and one pair. If you get a ‘set of four’ you win double the bet money! Martyn and I lost 4 times. At least we were not betting otherwise we would be walking to the airport in Beijing!

 

Dinner was Chinese own brand pot noodle which was at least filling if not nutritious! Our food stash is looking much smaller though. Consequently have scheduled to have breakfast and dinner in restaurant tomorrow in the hope that if we have crackers for lunch we can eek out our supplies for dinner on the night train as well! Ah well, haven’t starved yet and we’ve always the ‘emergency biscuits’

 

And then there was the after dinner entertainment. Oh my goodness. It was billed as a ‘cultural show’. Hilarious. 7 of the most sullen looking Chinese yoooffs had obviously been forced by some sort of employment law to come up with a few dances to perform which they did with about as much enthusiasm as I had for listening to the second act – karaoke. Martyn held me in my seat and refused to let me leave which I think was a bit harsh as the whole show didn’t get any better. It was interspersed with two of the other guests performing more karaoke (actually they weren’t as awful as they might have been) and by the time the major ‘guest involvement’ sessions arrived I figured I might as well join in. One mad Chinese equivalent of musical statues later and I think our tour group had broken the ice with the Chinese tourists. Unfortunately our thought that ‘once will be enough’ didn’t quite hold out and we got dragged up for a sort of Chinese conga dance. Things dramatically improved when 4 blokes in silk dressing gowns arrived on stage to the sounds of Saturday Night Fever. Thankfully no strip show but instead YMCA – oh wow, one we all knew. An influx of 4 tall (relatively speaking) white English people ran to the dance floor. And then the piece de resistance – they played the Macarena. Well, the Chinese loved us. If they had been the sort of nation to give a standing ovation I think we’d have got one. Immense applause as we left the stage having done 3 rotations. That’s the funny thing about the Macarena. When on dance floor that is packed it seems quite a short tune. When on stage with two other people in front of a crowd of Chinese who have no idea what you are doing it seems like an amazingly long tune! Still I think we provided a good level of entertainment and we certainly have a starring role in the wonderful DVD that the ship sells and that strangely none of us will be buying!

 

And after all that excitement……bed methinks – we should arrive at gorge like scenery tomorrow…….

Toilet Humour

Martyn very chuffed with breakfast. Pre-ordered yesterday and he wasn’t sure his attempts to ask for an egg and bacon sandwich had worked. This morning – triple decker egg and bacon arrived. Ate on bus. I was allowed two small bites. Very nice.

2 hours later stopped for toilet break. No cubicles at all this time. Just three holes in the ground next to each other. For some reason two Chinese women filled these up from the closest one to the door so I had to walk past them to get to my allocated hole! Wasn’t sure of the etiquette but it seems that you wait until everyone is ready and then all go together. I think maybe I messed up by standing up before they were ready – I don’t really want to think about what else may have caused their little giggles! One of our group decided the ladies was too public so went in the gents. Fortunately this worked to her advantage as they were empty. It could however have been a very interesting experience.

2 hours later, lunch break. Toilets here had cubicles and doors and everything. All a bit disappointing in a way! Quite a relief in more than one other way though!

Lunch on bus – all others in group had Oreo cookies and Chinese Pringles. Martyn and I had savoury biscuits (we think tomato and Chinese leaf flavor given the pictures on the packet) with chicken flavoured processed sausage and tomato flavoured processed sausage (think Heinz tomato soup but sort of dehydrated and made into one of those plastic cheese stick things kids eat nowadays……). We’re saving our pickled chilli tofu for another day.

Another 2.5 hours later arrived at ChongQing  and bus stop. On the way passed over a flyover and glanced left to see lots of blocks of flats that looked just like Birmingham!). Unfortunately our transport to the harbor was at another bus stop. Waited a while and it found us. Boarded cruise ship. Luxury liner it is not but we have ensuite and a window…….we just won’t be putting our bare feet on the carpet in the corridors that’s all. At least there is not the Titanic theme playing over the loudspeakers (yet!).

Dinner and shopping to stock up on goodies and snacks for our cruise. Chinese pot noodles for dinner as eating on board is quite expensive to say the least! I have gone for ‘roasted beef’ while Martyn has two different variations on ‘hot n spicy’. We’re thinking we might mix them together. We’ve unpacked all our food onto the little table in our room. We seem to have half a supermarket but I’m sure we’ll make an effort and eat it.

Wow – cruise has literally just started. We checked in at 3pm and got our rooms and then went out for dinner. Its 9.30pm and we’ve just left the dock. Not bad really, when we asked what time the boat left it was anytime between 8.30 and 11 depending on when the last person arrived!

So we’re off, never done a cruise before. Should be interesting. Its dark outside. I wonder what we’ll see when we wake up………

The Great Firewall of China!

Yes, he’s done it.

 

Did you ever doubt it.

 

You’ll notice some pictures in the blog posts now.

 

I’ve told him he’s very naughty!

 

Hopefully they will let us leave when its time to go!

 

Apparently there is a box at home somewhere called ‘Slug’ its working very hard. I think it needs a new name!

Monkey Magic and the Big Potato

They were right – the pancakes for breakfast were amazing, Martyn ate a whole double layer pancake with chocolate, honey, apple and banana!!! I think the next Shrove Tuesday will be a little disappointing for him.

 

Martyn very happy. He came down at least half of the 1185 steps from the temple with our local guide ‘Nathan’ who knew all about ‘Monkey Magic’ with Monkey, Pigsy, the other one (can’t remember name) and Tripitaka! Much reminiscing over story lines – well Nathan reminisced and Martyn realized that only now he’s had it all explained does the series actually make much more sense!

 

After that he had a lovely conversation with Jerry our main tour guide. Martyn said he was going to walk with ‘the big cheese’ for a bit. Apparently they don’t call the boss that over here – they call him ‘the Big Potato’.

 

Anyway, back down more steps, narrowly avoided the Gangsta Monkeys again, forged a small stream, visited temple we didn’t stop at yesterday with red ribbons and padlocks – apparently couples in love bring their wish on the red ribbon and padlock it to the chain so their love never splits. Cynically Martyn wondered if someone comes and unlocks the padlock and throws it away if there is a divorce. I hit him.

 

At that point we split up. 5 of the group carried on straight down the hill. Martyn and I opted for the extended walk with Jerry. He said another 4 hours, very nice. I lost count at about 2200 steps. I thought they would never stop. I am never going on the stepper machine in the gym again. We have calves of steel and thighs of jelly now. Or is it the other way around. At least the knees held up. Jerry walked at the back all the way up. I swear once it was just the three of us someone released a catch somewhere coz he shot up the steps like a rocket. My only consolation is that when we stopped he was sweating as well. He was good enough to tell us that usually with other groups he stops two or three times on the way up but he knew we could do it in one go…….I think this was a compliment, I’m not sure my legs agree!!

 

It was a lovely walk though. More temples swathed in ethereal mist, lots of forest and best of all – only 5 tourists (and they were locals) for the whole time. Very nice!

 

Back down in time for lunch, repacking, buying of snacks for lunch tomorrow and other important things and hopefully a good nights sleep!

 

Maybe no blog for a few days again as we are off to start our Yangtse River cruise tomorrow!

 

 

Gangsta Monkeys

Each evening as we write this, it has pretty much got slightly colder and wetter. Last night we had quite heavy rain, and awoke to a misty sky. Our guide suggested an alternative route for our mountain (hill) walk, which involved slightly less bus riding and more walking (including 1185 steps apparently) according to Kay’s counting – I gave up as we were 6 steps out by the time we reached 400!

The 1185 steps were the last ones up to the temple where we are staying tonight. They came after the 4.5 hours of walking, including ‘thousands’ more steps we had already done. Fun though – well we enjoyed it, not quite sure our group did but we all made it here!

Got here via Wannian temple, lunch, another smaller temple and a nunnary. Oh and also via ‘monkey road’ – had to pack all our stuff inside our bags for this bit, not allowed to take anything out our bags or pockets for two hours as the Tibetan Maaques are very wily and try to get at food and drink. Our guide said most of them are okay, but some of them are ‘gangsta monkeys’!

Up Emei Shan mountain we progressed. Several years ago it was designated one of the 4 sacred mountains in China. This one being ‘Good Luck’, the others Longevity, Wisdom and Good Health.

Currently sat in bed in temple where we are staying at the top – Electric blanket is on maximum power. I am wearing all the clothes I have with me (including hat, but not gloves as they are not typing compatible). We are only at about the same height as Snowdon but it is a tad chilly. The others who have been in China with us a week from the UK say it is just like at home, and are in fleeces only. I am freezing! I do so love acclimatizing. Very glad we have lugged our warm clothes around for 4 months, as we nearly sent them home after Chile.

Ho hum, only have to go back down 185 steps to get dinner then back up again to electric blanket! – yum.

Have watched afternoon Monk chanting – didn’t think we’d make the 5am session – thanks.

Better go, I need to use the bathroom, and they are ‘interesting’ even for me. Hole in the ground, no door, no curtain, just a concrete wall to make a cubical and all of them face the entrance. I don’t think I’ll be having a drink with my dinner tonight! – still If I time it right, I might get the loos’ to myself.

Strangely, we all skipped the showers as well in favour of a wet-wipe. I finished with girls changing room showers a long time ago, and its also not quite warm enough to get wet!- Having washed my hair in the hotel in freezing water this morning (no hot water for some reason) I am chickening out!

Bright side is that apparently the pancakes for breakfast are divine!

Man made Panda baby and the Happy House

Guess what we saw today!!

 

Ace.

 

Saw Red Panda as well but obviously picture is of Giant Panda. Totally amazing.

 

Lovely guide (Echo) spent some time explaining to us how the Panda Breeding Centre makes ‘man made panda baby’. She also invited us to use the Happy House – we were all very confused until she said ‘toilet’.

Obnoxious Odour

‘There really is a most obnoxious odour coming from my bag’ said Martyn.

‘Oh dear, umm I don’t think there is anything in your bag that could smell that bad is there?’ said Kay

‘.. then again, it could just be me’ mused Martyn.

I haven’t gotten that close to him since then!

Arrived in Chengdu hotel about 2.30am wearing a jumper and shivering. Fell into bed, 8 hours later the world was a much better place – sleep is an amazing thing!

Brunch at 11, la-de-dah, brunch ha. Ha.

Sichuan dishes – nice and spicy. Breathing through my stuffed up nose suddenly became much easier!

Walking tour of Chengdu to some little old streets, the peoples park, and then the main square to see a statue of Chairman Mao in ‘hailing taxi’ stance.

Back to our hotel for an hour before dinner – Martyn has discovered that we have free internet and is therefore making the most of this, currently he is:

1)      Preparing more blog pictures for you to enjoy

2)      Downloading episodes of Battlestar Galactica to watch on our upcoming 8 hr bus journey

3)      Rigging up something at home remotely to allow us to get round certain.. ah .. restrictions.. from the country we’re travelling in.

Off to see a show this evening, Not sure what, something to do with masks apparently.

By the way, Pandas tomorrow!!- have I mentioned before that we’re seeing Pandas? – Really we are tomorrow. I’m not excited at all!

 

New Pictures

China blocks access to the Blogger website, so we can’t get to our blog directly in china and therefore can’t change the slideshow on the right to add our first set of China Pictures.

Here is a link to them instead:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25677427@N05/sets/72157626774904412/

Enjoy

[Edit: The carosel has been updated above, so you can see them there also 8-) ]

Rudolf the red nosed tai chi studebt

Doesn't quite have the right ring to it. I have to go and buy bore dishoos! Ah well, never mind.

Right, started today with brilliant tai chi lesson - 10 steps

1) collect energ
2) make tai chi ball (yin)
3) protec lef sigh
4) make tai chi ball (yang)
5) protec rye sigh
6) two han pull dow
7) han together push up
8) push away social movemen
9) han fla turn away
10) collect energ

We know what it means!

Then it was break time so we went and checked out, then Chinese calligraphy lesson. Left handed calligraphy is not easy (but then neither is right handed) although forming the characters left to right meant Martyn had to draw them all backwards or risk very inky hands! Just like handwriting practice in school and we were both still quite rubbish - it's good to feel we have progressed so far with our education!

Wandered around town for a bit, wrote last lot of postcards - 10 - got arm ache, navigated post office having tried to buy stamps in one bank and one mobile phone shop. Changed the Hong Kong dollars Martyn found in his wallet last night - doh.

Late lunch / dinner. Now awaiting bus for flight to Chengdu.

Hoping our posts are reaching the blog, as we dont seem to be able to check it!

Extension cable and a condom?

Forgot to mention - had to laugh earlier, we' ve been blatting the odd mosquito in our room for the last two days.

Today I saw what I honestly thought was a condom packet on top of what Martyn had assumed was an extension cable.

After a moment or two of confused picking up and turning over we worked it out!

Condom actually = mosquito tablet thingy
Extension cable = burner / heater thing for mosquito coil.

Quite reassuring really as we didn't think our tour company would have booked us into that type of hotel!

Backward Train and a Plastic Boat?

Wow - confusion , awoke to the expected limestone scenery BUT the train was going the opposite way to when we went to sleep. We decided it must at some point have done a switchback without us realising as the scenery proved we definitely had not returned to Guangzhou!

We were at Guilin. A quick bus ride later and we were at Yangshuo. Breakfast - very proudly presented as western style - Martyn enjoyed his bacon! And then a quick walk around town. Dash to supermarket to buy water and snacks and at 12 noon left for bamboo rafting down the Li river.

Bamboo raft was interesting. Bamboo pole was used to push raft out of the 'raft car park' but raft was made of large White drainpipe with an outboard motor. Scenery stunning though (even though I slept through a good portion of it - ooopsie - you never sleep as well as you think on overnight trains)

Same same but different to the limestone karsts of Vietnam. It's sort of bigger and more spread out here. Very nice though. Darker greens than Vietnam.

Back to hotel, check in, shower, out for dinner - then to sound and light show which we were going to skip but are very glad we didn't. It was directed by the person who did the opening / closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics and was really really good. Over 600 people involved in performing and lots of sound and light (strangely!).

In bed now with sore throat and stuffy dose! Have been infected with a cold. I've told it to be gone tomorrow !

Oh and the lady of 20.1 kg bag fame was getting the hotel to do some laundry today! Perhaps she brought her own bike for tomorrow?

Still, sleep needed now, playing catch up from train and starting early tomorrow!

School Trip Mode

Left Hong kong on time in bus at 8.15am on the way to Chinese border.......very exciting.

We were let in no problem.
Lady with heavy bag also fine
Anthony - welsh contingent also good
Paula also alright.

Lucy and Collette had organised their own visa - they got a single entry visa and someone gave them the wrong stamp when they flew in to Shanghai before connecting to Hong Kong 8-(

It took three hours to sort out visa issues in customs at the border, and took lots of phone calls! Our bus left without us, so did the next bus. In the end Jerry (guide) organised private car for us - bit of a squeeze, 8 of us plus big bags in a people carrier but we made it.

Oh the joys of group travel. Still - we got to read some of our books while we waited!

I know it's been a while since we did serious group travel but later we also gave lessons in adjusting the straps on your brand new rucksack. Apparently peoples new bags only checked in at 9-10 kgs but after walking to the train station were really digging in to shoulders. I nearly offered to swap bags!!!!

Bless them all, Martyn and I have already stopped 'school trip' mode once - we discovered I was walking at the front and he was walking at the back, every so often we would check we hadn't lost anybody. After a while we remembered we had Jerry!

Quick lunch - at 3.30pm and then off to night train. Pickled turnip and spicy tofu for dinner on train! Break out the Pringles and raisins!

Should arrive somewhere else tomorrow - Guilin I think and then a bus to Yangshuo for some Chinese limestone karsts ! Oooh, just read itinerary, pandas soon..... He he he. Bike ride for my birthday apparently.

Martyns Birthday or China Trip Day 1

Well actually, when you read the itinerary its China trip day 3 for some people but they got on a plane on day one and landed here at 1am on day 3 so they spent day 2 on a plane or in an airport somewhere.......they're an interesting bunch, the others in our tour group.

One lady has a bag that weighed in at 20.1kg. She has apparently bought 5 pairs of shoes.

Maybe its just that they all look very clean and pressed and we definately do not!

Anyway, we all met up at 09.30 and went for breakfast (2nd breakfast for us as Martyn forgot to tell me the tour guide had told him about breakfast yesterday so i went and bought his birthday breakfast goodies. Consequently Martyn has two birthday breakfasts - yogurt and oats followed by dim sum. Interesting combo!).

Quick return to the hotel for a briefing from Jerry our guide (who seems to have completely missed the fact that we are land only and have been travelling for 5 months as he keeps asking for paperwork that has obviously been posted to us in England!)

Forced route march to the base of the peak tram on Hong Kong Island. This was apparently our 'orientation tour'. I'm not kidding. A speed walker would have trouble keeping up. Down to the ferry, on the ferry, along to the base of the tram at which point Jerry said something along the lines of 'here you go, you go up, I go now'. So we went up the tram and saw.......you guessed it, us and things high up - we saw the cloud! Had to laugh.

Depressingly (VERY depressingly) our lovely tour group then decided they needed a drink - beer in Bubba Gumps. We managed not to cry (just) and in the interests of fitting in went with the flow. After their beer we went down in the tram. We lasted another 10 mins of 'what shall we do now then' before we plumped for going back to Kowloon to see the China Revolution exhibit we had missed in the museum the other day.

Error - museum closed on Tuesdays. Thats the trouble with travelling for a long time - you have no idea what day it is and even if you do know what day it is you completely forget to look up the opening times and just assume everything is always open when you want it to be!

Ho hum, wandered back to hotel a different way and packed.

Met group for dinner and watched Symphony of Lights again - but saw much more this time due to cloud clearing!

So, China here we come. Not sure what will happen with this blog from here on in - we'll try to keep it going but what the heck, in 18 days we'll be home. CRIPES. Just actually worked that out. This has to have been the fastest 5.5 months of our lives. Given everything we've done China has a lot to live up to. We think it'll give it a good shot though.

brithday breakfast

you have to laugh.

breakfast stored in little fridge over night.

oatie biscuits fine
yogurt needed warming up
bananas - frozen solid
lemon squash - fizzy lemon soda

ooops. ah well, 2 out of 4 isn't bad.

Better go - have to meet the people on our China tour.

What a grey day

Grey and rainy and just about scraping 28 degrees. Just wanted to let you all know it hasn't all been glorious sunshine for us! Rain was quite novel really. We had to use our umbrella and everything - its all a bit much really....

I confess that due to the rain we wimped out a bit. Not like us I know but it is the first wet stuff from the sky we've been exposed to for a while (apart from the deluge in Vietnam but we were in a car then). So we paid for a days internet and uploaded the rest of our Vietnam piccies to the blog and sorted out some email before we head off the China.

Then we went for a walk and turned left instead of our normal right thinking we might find something different. We did. More shops. Different ones. They all had the same stuff in them though. We found some train stations as well. They had shops in too.

We found a market in a different place to the last one we went to. It also stocked a wonderous supply of chopsticks, waving cats, t-shirts, jewelled phone covers, fans, leather belts, silk tops, tea sets and all sorts of other rubbish there has been in many of the other markets we went to.

It was so grey and wet Martyn decided to use some of the internet we have bought to download a movie so we're going to watch that next! He's very excited as its his birthday tomorrow. I've been and found the supermarket so he's got yoghurt, banana and crushed up oatie biscuit for his breakfast - all safely stored in our little hotel fridge. He is very much looking forward to his birthday breakfast.

Its the little things you know - here's a thought for you all today - find a little thing, only a very little one and do it, go on. Buy some strawberries with double cream - you know you want to (and at least they should be cheaper than here), or that chocolate bar (ooops, we have one of those as well), buy a gerbera in a pot and stick it on a window sill, smell the roses, if on a tight budget give a hug go on - a big rib cracking squeeze (well, not literally rib cracking but you know what I mean - free and better than any of the aforementioned!) - life is good! Log your comments to let us know what your 'little thing' was!

Luxury items

Yes, I am so enjoying this moment! My luxury items are always a standing joke. This trip was no exception, one travel pillow and three pairs of pants later my luxury items were packed and as usual Martyn was in hysterics at my additional underwear. Not today. Retribution was mine. Martyns underwear has gone religious. Yes, he has holey pants - and not where there should be holes either!!!

He declared he could not survive another three weeks on four pairs of pants and that he needed more. Then he saw the M&S and declared those were the pants for him. I have not told him how much his three pairs of imported pants cost. Needless to say he is no longer allowed to laugh at my luxury items and next time we go away he will be packing extra pairs.
Oh I did enjoy today!!!

So after that little shopping spree we caught the ferry to Hong Kong island with grand plans to possibly ride on the peak tram, visit Aberdeen and do some other stuff. Instead we got lost.
Hong Kong island is a weird place. It's all shopping centres and walkways. I swear we got trapped in a mall for at least half an hour as we couldn't find an exit and then when we did get out we walked around in circles on the various walkways for ages until we could get down to road level to work out where we were.
In amongst our confused wanderings we made it to where the grand handing over of HK back to China happened - basically like the NEC but with a big golden flower ad obelisk outside.
Lucky enough to catch a parade of the fishing fleet going along Victoria Harbour - not quite sure why there was a parade (if indeed that is the correct term as applied to boats - i think a 'flotation' is better but hey what do i know) but it was quite spooky to watch them all appearing out of the fog!

On the way back we happened across another computer mall which Martyn assures me was entirely accidental (like I believe that). He still hasn't bought anything though - I think he is ill, either that or he does know how much his new pants cost!!

Then we got lost a bit more and ended up in some gardens where women in tribal headressrs were dancing, some other women were dancing with glasses of water balanced on their heads.
Quite odd really, we are fairly convinced most of the female population of HK spent their Sunday afternoon camped out on bin liners an cardboard on all the walkways between the shops. They had their own little picnics and entertainment (dancing, singing, cards, ribbon folding, beading and bingo!) No idea where the men were though.

Eventually we found a sign for the ferry back so being as we had been 'lost' for about five hours by then we decided to head home!

Wife cake and a sideways giraffe

I'll start at the beginning - this could be a long one - make sure you have time!
Last night - air con switched off, blanket on bed, pyjamas on me. Best nights sleep. Thought something was wrong the night before but couldn't quite wake up enough to work it out.
To top that off I've had goose bumps all day. It's 28 degrees and I am really quite chilly. I may have to resort to jeans tomorrow but I'll try to hold out as even after 5 months even I can't make 1 pair of jeans last 3 weeks!
Ooops, I've digressed - sorry, back on track...,,
Breakfast stop at bakers - three Denmark twists and a wife cake. Denmark twists had yesterday and very nice, wife cake just had to be tried! All I can say is that whoever made it had either never been married, was very unhappily married or had undergone a particularly acrimonious divorce. Why anyone would fill dried up flaky pastry with wallpaper paste I don't know. We should have known they were bad from the number left on the display!
Quick stop for a drink to return our saliva levels to normal after the wife cake. This involved crossing the road at a nice safe zebra crossing with a little green man as well. Martyn decided to cross when road was clear but little man was red. Another little man in an official looking uniform told him off when he got to the other side. Yes, the police here apparently police the pedestrians and not the cars - maybe we should try this at home?
Once safely across the road and having pulled the 'oooopsie sorry I'm a tourist' card with the policeman we headed off on our planned day.

And then our plan to visit hong kong Island went to pot. We wandered past some museums and discovered it was International Museum Day so all entry was free. It was grey, a bit damp and I had goose bumps so when we happened across the Hong Kong museum of history in we popped. What a complete bargain - this place was really good. 8 exhibitions taking us through from prehistoric times, different ethnic peoples all the way to the handover back to China.
Two different approaches to foreign trade:
Portugese - see Chinese traders in India, head to Macau and lease some land from there to give you a foothold to trade from.
British - import lots of Chinese tea but export very little to china. Balance up the economics by trading opium until 10 million Chinese are addicted. Take offence when the Chinese try to stop you trading your highly addictive narcotic, go to war, win Hong Kong!
Oh dear.
Interesting displays on the Japanese bombing and occupation of Hong Kong during WWII as well.
Quite fascinating. Five hours, lunch, sore feet and full heads later out we popped blinking into the still grey sky.
Couldn't quite decide what to do for the rest of the day so had a cake (well small pastry) - Martyns lemon and raisin Danish beat my blueberry pastry hands down! Then wandered along a bit further to see what was on at the cultural centre - nothing, but we did find the Space Museum.
Also really good - and free - and warm! Apparently there is a Chinese belief that the earth was formed from a little old dwarf and when he died his sweat formed the rivers and seas and other bits of him formed other stuff but I've forgotten - sorry. Gyroscopes, telescopes, space shuttles, rockets, moon walks, science fiction, stars, planets etc later out we popped with even more sore feet and even more full heads.
Realised at this point that there was not much point in getting ferry across to hong Kong so went and found dinner in shopping centre food court. This was after a quick look around which resulted in Martyn realising just how un-cheap Hong Kong is - after working out what the GBP price of a TShirt was he uttered the immortal phrase (and I have never heard him use this before and have no idea where he got it from...)
'you're havin' a giraffe (dramatic pause) - sideways'
I thought for a moment, got it, and then the laughter ensued. If anyone has any idea where my lovely husband picked up this phrase from please can they let me know. Honestly, you think you know someone .......,
Anyway, after all the yummy food and fresh stuff in Vietnam we craves some fruit so headed to supermarket. Unfortunately they had special offer on Durian. Held our noses and made it to the fruit. Then had to hold on to each other to stop ourselves falling over - more giraffe statements followed. This is not a typo ..... £10.80 for 12 strawberries.
We left when we could walk again and found a frozen yogurt that came with a topping of strawberries so had that instead!
Finished yogurt just in time to watch the Symphony of Light display and then back to hotel.

Something is a bit odd...

We have been out walking around since 11am and we are still dry - no sweat, are we acclimatising? I fear not - 78% humidity but I think only about 26 degrees here - positively chilly. Then there is the air con which here, rather than simply making the temperature bearable instead turns every building into a freezer!
I don't know - just no pleasing some people is there. Ah well, I'll just dig out a jumper then!
So why the late start - 11 am for goodness sake - we lost half a day....
Yes well, we saved up our laundry as we didn't have time left in Hanoi to do it. Unfortunately the laundry here is priced per item instead of per kilo. This is not good. So the sink and the shower were put to good use. Of course we then had to clean the shower and the sink and ourselves! We may not be perfectly clean but at least the clothes don't smell so bad (we hope).
After laundry morning we set off. Quick stop at bakery for breakfast - total cost 90p and very yummy! Then along Jordan road and down Nathan road to the star ferry terminal to work out things for tomorrow. Wandered around shops for a bit. Found some gadget shops so Martyn could research! Realised we were in what must have been Kowloons Knightsbridge given the number of posh shops! Quick trip to Avenue of the Stars for the view of Hong Kong island skyline and then back to Temple Street night Market for dinner.

Phew. More tomorrow when we head to Hong Kong island - of course we have only done half the laundry so it might be a late start again !

Tam Biet Viet Nam

Well, after a quick walking tour route of the Temple of Literature (oldest university in Vietnam), the One Pillar Pagoda (big swizz - the one pillar is now made of concrete!), a view of Ho Chi Minh mausoleum (not going in on principle - they supposedly love this guy, he wanted to be cremated and they pickled him!) and the presidential palace we treated ourselves to another crumble for lunch so we could sit in the cafe and sort the rest of our Vietnam photos. All organised now and ready to load up if we ever get the time/bandwidth!

And now we are sat in the plane awaiting the 'next bit' again!

On reflection we rather like Viet Nam. Ours is not a Vietnam of beaches, conical hats and highway one cities. Ours is a lush, fertile Vietnam, a verdant, vibrant green land growing a multitude of crops; a place of waterfalls and lakes, of mountains, limestone and hard work. A country of backroads and alley ways, of noise and flavour, of miniature plastic chairs on street corners. A fiercely independent nation of battlers. Of bikes (motorised or not) and boats. Of 'bo hai bee zoooh', of 'haallooooh' shouts and high fives. A place of history and lessons. Ours is a Viet Nam of memories. So goodbye for now to the land of the soaring dragons and the people of the south but I think we might be back!

Ooops, take off.. Next bit!

And the rain came tumbling down

But fortunately not until we had finished our trek and were in the car on the way back to Hanoi!
Awoke to the sound of gibbons again - ace - but it was 4am so i went back to sleep! This time we were not in the national park but were staying in the house of a White Thai family. Sheet of foam on bamboo floor is surprisingly comfy. No fan but we had air con - we took down the bamboo screening from the window holes. Didn't make any difference though. Actually we both slept quite well. I think because we were looking on the bright side and were just grateful we were sleeping on something reasonably solid and not hanging in a dodgy hammock in Borneo!!! They were good times too though!

Still up early - ish for our trek so we could do most of it in the cool. I thought this might mean 4am but apparently 8am is cool - 34 degrees is cool!!!!! Beautiful walk over some mountains, through a bit of jungle through more clouds of butterflies and on to where we were having lunch. Martyn was glad it was dry, some of the path was quite narrow with a drop on one side and a bit of mud. He had Mount Elgon flashbacks!!! (if this means nothing to you then ask us when we are back!)
Again didn't get hot enough on walk (ha ha) so after 20 min rest we got on bike for an hours tootle around. Very nice.

Quick vietnamese lesson using childrens vocab posters for animals, vegetables, trees, fruit and insects (my pronuciation of mosquito is better than martyns) then lunch and drive back to Hanoi through thunder, lightening and rain of monsoonal proportions! Driver did very well to keep the engine going through the floods!

Have failed in attempt to do no more laundry before return home - have had to seal up clothes from last 5 days in order to be able to sleep in hotel room tonight - whiffy!! Apologies in advance to laundry service in Hong Kong but that will definately be the last lot!!!
So we leave tomorrow - will no doubt manage last Vietnam blog from the airport but no idea what will happen in Hong kong or China so we will wait and see. Even if we can't post them we'll still type them all in and then upload them later or something. Not signing off yet though - just warning that there may not be many more posts!

Kays day

Started with being woken by the sound of gibbons calling. I love that noise, even when it's almost still dark! We spent the night in Cuc Phuong National Park.

Went back to sleep again having found blanket for feet - air con very effective = cold me!!!!
Up for breakfast and then a half hr drive to a two hr walk through the jungle. Butterflies everywhere and especially a lovely deep blue / indigo one we have never seen before. Huge swathes of butterflies flutterbying by. Stunning!
Walked up a large hill (many steps) to a one thousand year old tree and then back down other side of hill (many more steps).

Lunch in national park headquarters followed by a visit to the Endangered Primate Research Centre. Lots of langur monkeys rescued from poachers and as pets, they try wherever possible to reintegrate them back into the wild so we were only really allowed to see the ones that can't be released for some reason.

We did get to walk past the fence of the 'semi wild' area though and, just as the gibbons in the cages went a bit mad as it was lunchtime, a gorgeous female gibbon swung by and sat in a tree watching us. Wow. Probably the closest we'll ever get to a wild one! Oh oh ohhh the funky gibbon!!!!

Then onto the Turtle Conservation Centre (same sort of thing as the primates but for turtles - obviously!). My favourite - soft shell turtle from China (I think) it has a cute little snout!
Car journey along very bumpy roads to Muong Khen for a walk and then on to Mai Chau where we are staying the night in a local house. Yummy dinner whilst sat on bamboo floor watching Vietnamese 'who wants to be a millionaire' quite surreal. (120,000,000 dong being the top prize - $6000 to you and me - puts things in perspective)

Now lying very still trying to sleep whilst the sweat drips off us! No air con tonight so at least i wont get cold.
Personally I'm still recovering from removing the very large and exceedingly heavy BLANKETS kindly laid out for us on our piece of floor. I ask you - 36 degrees, so humid you sit still and sweat and the lovely people are giving us blankets to sleep in...... They are all wrapped up in them. I'm dripping in sweat having just pushed them to one side!!!!! Martyn went for a shower, walked from the shower to our room and wondered why he had bothered with the shower!

And then there were two....

We started with five on our tour two days ago, then we went up to nine on the boat. Five people left after the boat to go back to Hanoi so we were down to four. Today Claire and Sarah left for Hanoi so it is just Martyn and I now for the next two days and it's my bit coming up!

Today was a kind of intermediary day in between our two choices! Despite this it was a great day.
Started at 8 with breakfast, then a one hour walk around the valley of sunshine - not kidding with the name either, at nine thirty in the morning it was 35 degrees. Phew it was another hot one! Stunning walk amongst limestone karsts and paddy fields.
For some reason we decided that we weren't hot enough after our walk so we drove to another village and did a 1.5 hour cycle ride. I have to say though this was possibly the most beautiful bike ride on the planet. Absolutely stunning and well worth the bucket of sweat we each emitted!

Then lunch and another short drive to our boat ride along a river, in bits of shadow from the karsts (please is there more shade?) - we 'borrowed' our drivers umbrella to get some shade on the boat. Visited a temple and a pagoda and were rowed through 6 caves (nice and cool - please are there more caves?)
Found ice cream on return - never eaten ice cream so fast , it melted before we'd got the wrapper off so it was more a sort of 'slush cream' but it was cold.
Thank goodness, one hour in car with air con - the relief. Had bag of crisps and Martyn had a pineapple jelly kindly donated by Julie our exceptionally tiny guide.

Ready for my day tomorrow - just waiting for dinner then sleep - have air con tonight but not tomorrow night so we're making the most of it!

Martyns choice day two

Up at 730 for breakfast - noodle soup again - yummy. Seriously considering noodles for breakfast when home - very filling. Not sure I'll be able to cope with cooking it though!
Short cycle ride to lovely wooden temple and then cycled to our first proper Vietnamese beach which was lovely and empty apart from us. Had a paddle, got caught out by wave so got wet trousers but that didn't make any difference as it is so humid our clothes were wet this morning when we put them on.

Back on the bikes to cycle the back roads to the harbour to get back on the boat. Cruise back through Bai Tu Long bay past more stunning scenery. Great lunch on boat - fried squid, beef and garlic chips - wow.
Followed by 6 hour drive to the location of our next days activity. We've seen the limestone karsts in the sea so now we've come to see 'Ha Long bay on land' we are at Tam Coc in Ninh Binh province.
It was almost dark when we arrived but there was just enough light for Martyn to run and take even more photos. No doubt we will see more tomorrow!

Goat, pineapple and bitter banana rice pancakes for dinner with rice and beef and pineapple - and the most dangerous rice wine we've ever tasted - swear it was almost pure alcohol, didn't manage to say 'no thanks' in time ( well we did but the compromise was that we would only get a 'lil bit'). Sipped just enough to cover taste buds and boy did it burn - very rough stuff!

Oh and we've found a gecko that says 'geck- oh' again - hes just outside our room (which is very nice - we think the bathroom is about the size of our whole room in Hanoi!)

Fancy meeting you here

We said to Clare and Sarah. We met them yesterday over lunch as they asked who we had booked our trip with. We told them and they booked on the same one so we met up again this morning! Hope it's not rubbish - we feel kind of responsible now!

Anyway, we had three things we wanted to do and only really time (and money) for two so we picked one each! Today was the first of Martyns days. Well not really true - I changed his mind a bit but he says he is very pleased I did. His choice was Ha Long Bay - for the classic picture of the limestone islands (karats) and a go on a junk. We negotiated and instead headed to Bai Tu Long Bay which is virtually exactly the same scenery but has about 50 tourist boats that mostly Vietnamese use as opposed to the 600 boats that Western tourists use of Ha Long bay.

5 hr drive to get here, best trip lunch yet on boat, kayaking around limestone islands, making our own spring rolls for dinner (we are experts now!), stunning scenery and way too many photos later it's time for bed so we can be ready for tomorrow. Whatever that may bring as we explore the land of 'the children of the dragon' some more - Ha Long means mother dragon and Bai Tu Long means 'dragon children'

Oh and have discovered that in vietnamese my name means tree. It's spelt cay but pronounced the same!

The Gods were looking down on us...

Wow - don't ask how much we paid - it was extortionate for here but a complete bargain if at home. Yesterday we posted about our 'what food we're missing craving' one of which was apple crumble and ice cream. Today in Hanoi our lunch place had pineapple,papaya,mango and ginger CRUMBLE with ice cream. We have died and gone to heaven!!!!

(note the 'protective' hand over the crumble - dont mess with this.)

Before we found that though we sorted our plans for the next few days and got slightly lost but then found ourselves again in the old quarter. By the way, our plans mean we might be 'off grid' again for a bit so maybe no blogs for 5-6 days but we promise no more motorbikes parents! 8-)

We also wandered around Hoan Kiem lake and admired (sort of) the preserved giant tortoise of a species that supposedly lives in the lake, trouble is no-one has ever proven there are any more in the lake.

Afternoon saw more wandering of the old quarter - we saw 'engine and welding alley', 'shoe alley', 'haberdashery alley' and numerous silk shops and tailors.

(welding, and machining alley 8-) )



Then onto the water puppet theatre. This was very cool. A stylised version of entertainment the rice paddy farmers used to provide. Although I tell you, having been ankle deep in a rice paddy in Cambodia (and therefore speaking with some experience), they are full of dung, crabs, frogs and biting ants (I still have the scars around my ankles). There is NO WAY I would ever stand knee deep in them to wave some puppets around.

The stylised version however involves nice clean water, a theatre and puppeteers wearing galoshes and was generally much less smelly than rice paddies actually are so that was alright. The puppets themselves were great - fighting bullocks, dragons, fish, horse races, circles of fire and flaming torches all came in to play along with traditional music and singing.
Martyn was fascinated by how the puppets worked as there were no strings from above - it was all done with horizontal poles - very clever.

(Camberwick Green had nothing on this, they had dragons and fire and everything)

Have to go and pack for the next few days now as it's up early in the morning!

Fred the frog and food

Last day in Hue today. We have very much enjoyed our chill out time here!
Off to the Forbidden purple city inside the citadel this morning. The bits that hadn't been destroyed by war or natural disaster were very beautiful.

We rescued a tiny little frog we called Fred who was hopping around on some very hot slabs in the sun. Silly Fred. Well, I say 'we rescued him' actually Martyn scooped him up and put him in the shade under a large bronze pot - but I did some excellent rescue mission directing!! Then we both realised we had checked out without saying goodbye to Gordon the gecko in our room - he was very noisy last night for some reason.

We realised last night that the geckos here speak a different language to the ones in Cambodia and Bangkok as well - there they say 'Eck-oh' and here the just say 'eck'. These things are important we feel.
Afternoon by the pool for the last time and horror of horrors - when we got their someone was sat on our sunbeds under our umbrella - the cheek!

And there the inevitable happened. On all trips there is almost always that moment when someone says 'oooh I would really like.,....' and then finishes with some item of food from home. We've been away longer than usual so the list was longer. We started with a sandwich from the bakers down the road, then flapjack, indian, roast beef and roast potatoes and apple crumble and ice cream..........,5 hrs later in the airport and we're still salivating.......

Kind of appropriate

Sat in bar in Hue waiting to go to airport later. In a display box are some zippo lighters, some US Army, some Vietnamese. No idea if they are real but they look old.

One has the following engraved on it....

'When the power of love is greater than the love of power then there will be peace,'

Lessons everywhere you look!

Whats cooking?

Well we did - a little bit, but fortunately it was much cooler today - only 31oC. Thank goodness as slaving away over a hot gas burner really takes it out of you!

We had a choice today - Demilitarized zone or find something else to do.

We didn't much fancy another day tour with lots of time spent in a bus and we kind of felt we had done all the 'war' stuff we could cope with - there is so much more to this country.

So we mooched around for a bit yesterday and pondered our options. The lovely lady in the hotel suggested two things

1) limestone caves (again a drive away and we've seen quite a lot of stalagmites and tites in our time so didn't really fancy this)
2) Hot springs spa (Martyn about keeled over - on average 35oC and the suggestion is that he gets into HOT water?!!! this option was not for us)

and then we found a cooking class. The only mistake we made was having breakfast before we left! Fortunately however they did doggy bags so we've just eaten the spring rolls we made for our dinner - very yummy.

SO yes, Masterchef here we come. We started with a trip to the market, which was great because although we've visited a fair few markets this time we were actually buying stuff. We came away with bags loaded with beef, pork, shrimp, rice paper, dried and fresh noodle, peanuts, sesame seeds, salad and some other stuff. We managed to avoid the pigs snouts and buffalo tail fortunately.

Then the cooking started. We made Hue style pancakes (one each). 10 fresh spring rolls and 10 fried spring rolls and beef noodle soup. Oh and some peanut dipping sauce and a chilli sauce. All very yummy. We had posh aprons and tall white chefs hats and everything.

Raymond Blanc has nothing on us......although I suppose it was a bit more Ken Hom.

Back to hotel for a small nap (oops) and a bit of a Hanoi planning session followed by a cyclo trip around the Citadel. We haggled for our fee and eventually got what the hotel owner had said was a good price. We were supposed to get an hour but after half an hour we got off and walked - we felt really bad for the guy who was pedalling us around. At least Tuk Tuks have engines!

Please help

I am sat by the pool under an umbrella. It is 37 degrees in the shade apparently. I am sitting very still in the shade and still the sweat drips......

Martyn says I am not hallucinating. A more mature lady of European descent has indeed just walked passed me wearing jeans and carrying - A COAT.

Seriously, an orange padded jacket ...... Please help!!!!

Not bad for the price of a Happy Meal

Not that we are entirely sure of the cost of a Happy Meal but we think it is somewhere around what we paid for our day trip today.

We had heard that there are two types of Vietnamese tour guide
1) very nice
2) never going to see you again so don't care

Have been spoilt by our week with Wing and Tin Tin but feel we definately met option 2 today!

We also decided that we have obviously been travelling in SE Asia for a while now as on principle when told we had to pay to get in to some gardens we had been told were free we

1) objected pleasantly to the tour guide
2) didn't bother going in
3) worked out it would have cost us less than the price of a 2nd class stamp!

But hey we've seen lots of gardens and by the time we had worked out half the group were objecting as well, the other half had been in and come out again!

Still it was a busy day and very enjoyable. Having decided to ignore the guide completely (apart from 'when do we have to be back') we saw the Royal Tombs of Tu Duc, Ming Mang and Khai Dinh. All very different - Ming Mang very peaceful surrounded by water, Khai Dinh quite imposing on a hill with lots of mosaic work and Tu Duc was a bit sad really - he doesn't seem to have been a very happy chappy. Also saw a pagoda somewhere but I forget its name.

Got to the tombs via a dragon boat cruise along the river - lunch on board - much nicer than we were expecting!

Back for dinner and a bit of a planning session. We've been scuppered by the holiday season again. Having worked out we could fly from Hue airport to Hanoi to save some time the airport is closing and is only operating one flight a day at 10pm. Due to holiday all flights full until 5th May. Of course could do bus or night train but we have loads of those coming up in China and lazily couldn't be bothered (and I confess, the locals do not travel well and my ability to cope with more ill SE Asians on any mode of transport is reducing dramatically!). Consequently we have another three days to fill here and a bit less time in Hanoi than we were planning on. Never mind, we're going to the pool again tomorrow and enjoying the 'chill time' (and the western food - ahem, ooops) a bit before we pick up the pace again from Hanoi to the end.

Did I mention we are now on the last page of our big trip calendar??? We got the China book out today and started to read a bit of it....... Did I just mention 'the end' ?????? Oh the trauma.

By the pool

All day by the pool - very nice. Under umbrella for all bar 2 hours - prime sun bathing time = 930am to 1030am and then 1430 to 1530, too hot apart from that. Still, for the first time since ummmmm, our honeymoon I may actually have a tanned midriff!

Martyn took advantage of the attached spa to get himself a haircut, nicely done although now he has another hilarious tan line around his neck where his hair was longer!

Hotel food and drink very expensive so we shared lunch as it was £8 which us an absolute fortune here, we have struggled to spend that in a day during the last week. Still, without Wing and Tin Tin we will have to get used to paying tourist prices again!

Somewhat depressingly we have just crossed out the last day of April on the little date planner we've been carrying around. This means we are on the last page ...... Crikey. No more slacking by the pool then, better go see some more stuff tomorrow!