Hello again everyone, yes i know that's mt. fuji in the postcard picture but i'll change it when i can. when itai and me left maerkang we also left helena, she needed to go back to chengdu, we went onto danba about 7 hours south by rickity bus. when we got to danba we realised why not many people go here, it\'s a hole! so it wasn\'t long before we got a ticket out of there within the an hour of arriving there, not before having a shouting match with the taxi driver for being a compulsive liar! he said he would take us to the bus station but insted he took us to a taxi rank knowing that our bus wouldbe leaving very shortly and that we would probably just give in and take the more expensive taxi to kanding, we didn\'t!! we shouted for a good 10 minutes before we got that idiot (i could use alot harsher language, but i wont) of a taxi driver back in his taxi and got him to put his foot down to get us to the ticket office and then the bus station. we made it with minutes to spare. the next bit was fun! it wasn\'t a bus as such, it was more like, no exactly like a crap old sandwich van with 8 of us rammed in there for good mesure. but the ride to kanding was worth it. we drove through a beautiful valley all the way to kanding with towering mountains either side of us and a huge rushing river below us. i didn\'t take any pictures of kanding (which is odd for me) because there wasn\'t much to look at and the weather was crap, the main reason for coming to kanding, other than having to to get onto the rest of western sichuan, was to extend my chinese visa which was rappidly running out. i did this with no problems atall. after which i said goodbye to itai because he was heading off back home and then i booked my bus ticket out of there to go to ganzi. i arrived in ganzi yesterday after a 12 hour bus ride from kanding which was more like a roller coaster with all the lumps and bumps in the road (dirt track), i spent about 20% of the time in the air after hitting the bumps and then a good 30% of the time rubbing my ass better after crashing down on the seat again. there are no 2 ways about it, the buses in china are crap! but this one was especially s***e! there was no leg room atall so i spent the trip with my legs spread wide open on the back seat, and everybody around me was smoking. smoking never usually bothers me but when it\'s that close and in that confind of a space it\'s bloody horrible! but on the plus side the ride was beautiful. towering mountains, rushing rivers and medows full of different colour flowers made it worth the pain. ganzi sits in a valley at 3800m and is surrounded by the chola mountain, some of the mountains even have snow capped peaks which look amazing. ganzi town it\'s self is a lively market town which has really friendly people always saying hello to the foreigner and as soon as you show a smile they smile right back and usually start to giggle to whoever is next to them (it\'s the same all over china), but a couple of days is enough here because the town is actually a bit of a dump. today i went to a lamasery just outside town which i saw on the way in from the bus. with the snow on the peaks of the mountains behind it the towering white lamasery looks fantastic, it would look even better if the weather was better. it\'s been raining on and off all day, so when the rain stopped it was out with the camera to take a few snaps and then back under cover before it pissed down again. i\'m leaving ganzi tomorrow to go to dege which is right on the tibetan boarder and the bus ride there is ment to be 10 very frightening hours, apparently it\'s not uncommon to see the occasional bus over turned out the window. oh dear!! worst of all, i\'ve run out of books to read! i finished my last book yesterday, john grisham: the testament, a very good and well worth a read. so now i\'ve had to go back to mccarthy\'s bar, the first book i read on my travels, which a mr. mathew slater gave to me before coming away, and i must admit i don\'t mind reading it again atall because it\'s with out doubt the funniest book i have ever read! thanks buddy. well not much more to report other than HAPPY FATHER\'S DAY DAD!! i didn\'t think i\'ll be able to find a computer but if you try hard enough anythings possible, even finding an internet connection in the ass-end of the back and beyond of china! well, better be off, got to be up early again to catch that bus to dege. cheers all, speak to you soon. christopher