Suzi 03/06/06

Firstly, apologies to all of you who have left us a comment on the blog over the last few weeks and not received any response. Whilst the internet itself is not banned in China, we did discover that certain sites are and that included our blog!! Could not therefore read any of your notes until now (probably a good thing!). Can confirm that fingers may be uncrossed (Dkins, this means back to work unfortunately!) and that Mimi passed all appropriate veterinary checks following our cuddle (Jez, you are now officially off my christmas card list!!).

Everything in Wanzhou went like clockwork, we were so surprised! One of the staff in the hostel in Chengdu wrote down the Chinese word for "docks" for us and we simply got off the train, found a cab and showed the driver the bit of paper. 30 minutes later we were sitting on the hydrofoil on the Yangtze River ready to go! We really enjoyed the trip, was only 7 hours in total, but the scenery was amazing, really dramatic and very pleased we got to see the Three Gorges before they disappear under water. At some points the river narrows so much between the steep cliffs on either side that you think, right until the last moment, that the boat will not actually fit through. We also saw the Dam itself on the way back to Yichang. Its huge and extremely ugly but quite an amazing feat. The hydro-electric station they have built will provide just over 10% of china's electricity, its just a shame it had to be at such a high environmental and social cost.

We treated ourselves to a 4 star hotel in Yichang and was lovely (was still only 25 pounds though!). Had a bath for the first time since Berlin (although have to add I have showered since then, before any cheeky comments come rolling in!) and was really nice to be a bit pampered for a while and eat dinner with a knife and fork. Following up my earlier blog, we have now mastered chopsticks (and are now experts at squat toilets, having used them at high speed on the train and hydrofoil!) but was a real treat not to use them as takes ages and all my t-shirts always get covered in sauce, no matter how good I think we are getting! Visited one of the only Anglican churches in Yichang and was really interesting, bit of stark protestant architecture made a nice change from the colourful Buddhist temples elsewhere. Was quite funny being in Yichang though as its a bit of the beaten track so we were constantly stared at by everyone for being different, a very strange feeling and will try never to do so to anyone else ever again as now I know what it feels like and it's not truthfully all that nice, although a novel experience.

Headed back to Beijing for one night from Yichang, to ready for the off to Hong Kong. We shared a compartment with 2 really friendly Chinese guys, who could speak a tiny bit of English (Chong however had a new nokia phone with a built in dictionary so we communicated by writing messages into the phone for a while too!) and decided to teach s Chinese for the last 3 hours of the journey. needless to say, we were rubbish but was really funny and if anyone ever needs to count to ten or know the word for monkey in Chinese, I'm your man! China overall was fantastic, we're definitely going to try come back, friendly people, an amazing country with an incredible history and great transport links and t-shirts for a pound, what more can you need!! The only thing I'd change is the spitting, its a national problem and is truly disgusting, there is no need for it whatsoever. There is a campaign to stop in on at the moment so will see what the future brings!

We're now in Hong Kong and having a blast! It's a fab city and first impressions of the skyline, particularly at night, really blow your mind. You are perpetually looking up as all the buildings seem to be at least 20 storeys and there are more shops here than anywhere else on earth!! We're staying in Chunking Mansions (if you've seen "In the Mood for Love" it's as bad in person as it looks in the film!) and were greeted yesterday by a thunderstorm that put the airport on red alert and meant we had to circle for nearly an hour before we could land! Great welcome; as we left the airport I commented to Thorsten how nice the water feature leading to the bus station was, turned out it was the windows, the water was coming down so hard it looked like a waterfall on the glass!! We went to the top of the Peak this morning (most of the way by the tram/funicular, which was so steep it felt like we were sitting at 45 degrees as we went up, and then walked the rest of the way to the old Governor's residence gardens). Was really misty so could not see much but felt like we were in the middle of the rainforest, was really fun! We have also been up the mid-levels escalator, which is the longest in the world (or actually the longest sequence of escalators, with gaps for crossing the road in the middle of each) at 800 metres. Huge amounts of fun!

Tomorrow we're getting up late for a dim sum brunch and then off to India, immodium and malaria pills in hand! Take care all xx