Okay big slap on wrist for me! I haven't been able to update for quite sometime so here we go! Last time I updated I was just leaving Xi an to travel to Chengdu which was about a week ago, we took a flight that day and got delayed for about 2 hours boo! We didn't do much that night but we did have a Sichuan hotpot for our tea which was brill. Next day we were up bright and early to go see the pandas!!! We had to go early so that they were awake, they're soooo cute and fluffy lol, I counted 6 babies and about 5 adult we saw in total, we were so close so i got some great pictures! After that we took a 2 hour bus drive to Leshan visit the Grand Buddha it is the biggest stone Buddha in the world! We walked all the way around it from head to toe! Then drove to Emei Shan where we would be staying. Note - we should have been staying in the monastery here but it is a religious festive at the moment so unfortunately our plans have been changed, but we stayed in the nicest hostel so far. It was at the foot of Emei mountain and i would gladly stay there again. The following day we went for a 5 hour hike up Emei mountain, it nearly killed me but was outstandingly beautiful I fell in love with the place. We saw lots of temples and the monastery where we would have stayed also monkey valley where Howard got ambushed by cheeky macaques! After the hike we paid for a treat and went to the natural heated onsens which were all different flavours including wine, lush! When we came back we found out Karen had to fly back home to Australia because a friend of hers had died very suddenly so we had to say goodbye to her :( The following day was a transfer day 8 hour drive by public bus to Chonqing where we caught the boat for our Yangste river cruise. We spend 3 nights on the boat, one day we visited Ghost City, the next we transferred to a small bamboo raft to go sightseeing down the tributaries which was awesome. We had a lot of time to kill travelling on the boat so we played cards and got taught how to play mahjong. It was thundering and lightening when we docked in Yichang but it was just another transfer day. We took the bullet train to Guilin to then catch the overnight train to Wuhan. That was yesterday, when we were getting off the overnight train Debra, Cheryl and Gareth had got struck down with a vomiting bug, but we still had to make a 2 hour bus journey to Yangshuo which is where we are now! They had a terrible day and went straight to bed! Last night I went with Kevin to go watch local fishermen go cormorant fishing at night it was really magical! Ok and finally back up to date, today me, Debra, Helen, Julian and Howard ( the fittest!) went on a bicycle ride in the countryside with our guide farmer Tang! We climbed up moon hill visited his farm and paddy fields, I think it might be one of my favourite day so far!!! We cycled 25 km but it has been glorious sunshine! The others are feeling much better and we are all going out for tea tonight, we have one more day here and then Hong Kong, hope all is well on the western front! xxxx