Yangshuo

We travelled from Guilin on a bus for a few hours to a place called Yangshuo, which is pretty popular for backpackers because of its scenery. We stayed there for a week, which was nice and we didn't have to rush around so much or see a sight and leave for somewhere else the same day.

The day after arrival we went on a half day rock climbing trip, which was absolutly amazing. Dave managed Very Severe (VS), Sam managed Hard Very Severe (HVS) and Jack managed an Extreme 2 (E2). In the English gradibg system, after HVS they go from E1-E10, so for our first climb outdoors it was pretty good.

The nexy day we did a bamboo raft trip fown the Yulong river, where we saw some great scenery, then we did a boat ride down the Li River, which was more or less the same as the raft apart from you were on a boat instead. Then for the next 2 days we just hired bikes and went to see some of the local sights like Moon Hill which we climbed to the top of up soem very muddy clay formed path. On the first day we hired the bikes Dave and Jack decided to hire the 'tandem' bike and the lyrics 'dont you look sweet upon a seat of a bicycle made for two' springs to mind.

Then we travelled back to Guilin to get the sleeper train to Shaghai the following day.

Guilin - Guangxi province in the South

We arrived in Guilin late on a night so we just chilled out in the hostel, also equipped with dvd and pool table and Sam and Jack got a bottle of the local 53% spirit, which according to the look of Sam the next day really did the job. Guilin is a strange place because if you can imagine a city like Manchester and then you turn around and see a flat landscape with huge peaks just rising out of no where you get quite a sense of amazement. The reaks arent part of range of hill or mountain they are just huge mounds that rise up and each peak in Guilin has at least one cave because of the way that they were formed so the south is a really nice place to take in some scenery. The next day we went to see Reed Flute Cave, which is just a massive cave inside a hill tht has various roack formatins inside resembling things like mushrooms, curtains and then you have got the classic stalagmites and stalagtites. Also we went on short bamboo raft ride on a nearby lake which was good, we got to steer and there was a guy on the banks playing a chinese flute type instrument and eventhough the day was slightly gold and the usual overcast gray sky the guy playing his flute was really easy to listen so so we enjoyed the raft alot more. Tomorrow we head off for Yangshuo which is only a short distance from Guilin, which is meant to be a popular hang out for backpackers and its more senic thn Guilin.

Chengdu, Emie Shan and Leshan - Sichuan province

When we arrived in Chengdu we went to a so called hostel calld the loft. This place rivalled the boulder for sheer coolness of accomodation. Free internet, pool table, ps2, dvd player ll in a converted loft space that was just the absolute business and all for 1 pound a night! In Chengdu we went to the Giant Panda Research Base. Seeing pandas just chilling out eating their own weight in bamboo was pretty cool. We also saw the Red Panda, which is more closely related to the racoon, where as the Giant Panda is more related to various bears.

We also did a trip to see the largest seated buddha statue in the world at 71m high in Leshan, that was certainly a neck strainer. Also from Leshan we went to Emie Shan where we didnt climb as much as Hua Shan, it is more jungle like rather than rock like Hua shan, instead we just walked around going into various temples and seeing the wild monkeys that ravage you for food. Then we made our way back to Chengdu where we stayed at the awsome Loft again as the next say we left for Guiylin, in the South in Guangxi province. A 36 hour train journey was quite fun.

Climbing Hua Shan, near Xi'an

We set off to climb Hua Shan quite late so we got to the bottom at around 6pm, at that point we proceded to climb with our backpacks for 4 hours in darkness, only with our torch to lead the way. Most of it was more or less vertical chains in which you grab onto to haul your self up the rock that has steps probably 2 inches deep. So Climbing the '1000 foot ladder' on an empty stomach in the dark was pretty tough. We managed to find some where to stay which was maybe the best place we have ever stayed in...literally a boulder that some poor person has bothered to chisel out the entire middle of. We finally settled down and at around 10pm or so and then had to be up the next morning at 4am for an hours hike to the East Peak where we could see the sunrise. All the hard work the night before was well worth the view. Then we had to get the cable car back down and the bus back to Xi'an becvause we had a 30 hour over night train to catch to Chengdu.

Datong (Shanxi province) and Xi'an (Shaanxi province)

Datong city is pretty rubbish so we only stayed there 2 nights. We went on a tour of the Yungang Caves and the Hanging Monastery. The caves were great, there is about 21 of them built into a large section of cliff face with over 51,000 Buddha statues carved out of the rock inside. They took 40,000 people 64 years in the 5th Century to build it. The biggest statue was 17 meters high, but we still have to see the world's tallest seated buddha in Sichuan province at 71 meters high.

Then we saw the Hanging Monastery. It was built on the cliff face due to the vally always

flooding and destroying houses. So the monks had to absail down the cliff with what climbing equipment they had then in the 5th Century. It was home to Buddhist, Taoist and Confusionist

monks because they thought that with the power of 3 religions they could control the floods below.

After the sights we had to wait another day to catch a coach to Xi'an in the next province. The journey was 15 hours, but it was at night and it was full of beds not seats. The beds wern't exactly spacious, but they did the job to pass the time. Today after getting here at 6am we went to see the Terracotta Warriors. 6,000 pot men all with individual faces in what looked like to be an aircraft hanger was quite the sight. We also met a Japanese guy in the dorm in Datong so he came along to Xi'an so we all went to the Terracotta Warriors.

China - Beijing

Nihao, we are now in Beijing. On our 1st day we arrived we just slept at the youth hostel (nice and cheap) we are staying and later on that night we went and had some proper peking duck, which was fantastic. The next day we went to see the Great Wall of China at Badaling and to the Ming Tombs where 13 of the 16 emperors of China are buried. On route in between the 2 places we went to a chinese medical research centre, which we had read in the book is a scam that tours take you to where you get diagnosed things and you have to pay for expensive medicine. It was all a bit of a waste of time more than anything, we got there and it was up to you whether you let the chinese doctor examine you. Sam tried it out, the examination consisted of the doctor putting 3 fingers on each wrist where your pulse is. Each finger apparently could tell how an organ was functioning. Apparently they can tell whether you are having too much alcohol by one finger being able to see how your liver is doing. This was the case with sam, the doctor advised him to dramatically decrease his alcohol intake as if he were an alchoholic. So predictably no medicine was bought for this supposed liver mistreatment lol. Aside from that the Great Wall was good, but it was very misty and cold so we couldnt see it winding all up and over the hills.

The Day after we went to see Tiannamen Square and the Forbidden City. Tiannamen square was absolutely huge, we strolled through that for 20 mins, where Sam and Jack bought Chairman Mao waving comical watches. Then we entered the Forbidden city through the gate you see with a big picture of Mao above the enterance. We hired a guide and he took us around there for a few hours anf then we went to a local park to kill sometime before going into central Beijing to have something to eat from the street stalls where Dave ate a grasshopper kebab!

The following day we got a 6 hour train to Datong, where 1/3 of China's coal is produced so parts of the city are a little polluted, but also where the Yungang caves and the Hanging Monastary are.

Cambodia

Hi, we are now in Cambodia. We got a bus overland to the border from Bangkok that took about 4 hours and cost about 4 pounds...which wasnt bad. Then we had to get a taxi to get to Siem Reap province, which is where all the Temples of Angkor are. That was an absolute killer, us 3 were in the back because we found some other english guy at the border to share it with. The roads are the worst we have ever seen. We passed about 5 people changing their tires because the road was so bumpy and rocky they had blown. We finally got in the evening after travelling overland all day and the hotel was good so it wasn't all that bad.

The 1st day we went to see a land mine museum where a man who used to be in the army has now devoted his life to clearing land mines from all the things that had happened during the vietnamese war, Pol Pot's reign and the Khymer Rouge. He clears about 300 mines a day and there are supposed to be 7-10 million mines still left in Cambodia. It was good to go and see because at one time Cambodia was all so different.

The next day we hired push bikes for the 3 days that were going to visit the Temples of Angkor. Then we set off for the famous Angkor Wat, built around the 9th Century. It took us all of 40 minutes to get around it, but the architecture was amazing.

The following day we went to see Angkor Thom, which was far larger than Angkor Wat, similar to a small city. The architecture was quite similar, its just that theres more of it and it shows different things. Plus it has the Bayon, a temple with many 4 sided faced statues.

On our last full day we went to visit Ta Prohm, which is more famously known as the place where the Tomb Raider film was filmed. Throughout the whole of the temple huge tree roots had over run the ruins and attached them selves to most of the ancient walls. They are'nt doing the allready crumbling temple any good, but they are a great sight to see.

Phi Phi

Today is our last day on Phi Phi as we leave for Phuket tomorrow morning by ferry. Today We all went on the half day trip on the schools boat. We went Snorkelling around Bamboo island where Sam throught he saw a shark, but the water was pretty deep so he wasnt sure. Jack Got some shells fromthe bottom and pretended to have food and had a feeding frenzy with about 100 tropical fish all swimming round him, it was really spectacular.

Then we went to Monkey Beach, which was really tiny and we were thinking what so good about this place? Then about 10 mins later there was a rustle in the trees about 20 monkeys burst out onto the beach. They let you get extremely close (as you may see in the pic) as people have them fruit so they must have been used to people standing round. It was amazing to be able to get so close to wild monkeys without them getting scared and running off.

Thailand...Koh Phi Phi - The Andaman Coast

Sawadee, We spent the 1st night in Thailand in Bangkok, which was interesting going out at night etc, lots of bars, everything was opn the move. Now we are in Koh Phi Phi. Sam and Jack took a half day snorkelling trip to Maya Bay on Koh Phi Phi Leh (where the beach was filmed) and to Bida Noi, a small island off it. We didnt see anything spectacular like a shark or an octopus or anything but it was fun. Then the next day Sam and Dave went to Maya Bay just to chill out because we had been there with Fallibroome, Jack wanted to chill out in the room. Its 33 degrees on average everyday which is nice...Tex now organises activities for the children at the Phi Phi and Krabi school as he doesnt have the orphans anymore because they now live in the community.

Sam and Dave went back to the school today to take some pictures and too see if anything has changed. Cutting to the chase...the path is still there! The sun was reflecting off the perfectly level concrete in all its glory that it was left in. We met up with the headmaster and he took us into the office and he was looking in the book that all the voluteers at the school have written in for the memories and by sheer chance he was reading Sams entry.

He then took us round the school and explained all the building work thats still goin on. They are moving the nursery block to make room for a secondary school, so they had to take out the play ground that we put in, but its been put in another place so the kids can still use it. They also have a new gate that goes all the way along the entrance to the school. The headmaster was really please to see that we had come back, he remembered us from when we last came with everyone Fallibroome. He was so pleased in fact he offered us a free ride on the schools longtail boat for the whole day tomorrow to go to Monkey Beach, Bamboo Island and Maya bay (The Beach) again, which was fantastic. We kept offering to do something at the school, but he insisted on the boat ride as we had already done work there, but we are sure we can do something.

There is the full moon party on in Koh Pangyan tomorrow, but we wont be there unfortunately so the 40,000 people that will be should have a good time on the beach. On Monday 5th we are leaving Phi Phi for Phuket and spending the rest of our time there and not going to Koh Samui because of time and its on the opposite side of Thailand to what we are on now.