Today we woke up naturally at around 9 am. This is extremely unusual for me as I hate mornings. It's also good Melissa is here because as soon as I hear her stirring I am up and in the shower. It will be interesting to see how things change when it's Becky I am travelling with. Haha. We showered and headed to the supermarket to pick up breakfast and a picnic as we were headed to 7 star park ; a big nature area. I bought watermelon and yoghurt and crackers and sweet bread. And a plate. And a fork. And toothpaste. How my shops have changed! Ha. We ate breakfast at the hostel and cut up our fruit to pack our lunchboxes. The hostel staff kindly told is what bus to get again and we hopped on the number 3.

A short ride later and we were at 7 star park, with a 90 yuan entrance fee. Rip off!!! But it was worth it. We entered the park and immediately there was a beautiful waterfall with peacocks just dandering past. It was lovely. Further down there were monkeys just casually swinging on trees and coming down to steal people's food. They actually scared me a little bit! We walked around the park with the number one priority of finding a sunbathing spot. Sadly the grass was like barbed wire so we settled on a concrete bench. The sun was blazing which usually means the Chinese are inside hiding or have umbrellas out! I stuck my headphones in and just faded into my own little world oblivious to what was going on. About an hour later Mel shouted 'Debra look up', and to my surprise there was a massive tour group of people just watching me and Melissa sunbathe, completely confused about what we were doing. People were trying to get sneaky photos and everything! We were in stitches. Two cute little Chinese Kids came up and asked me for a photo and there mother seemed all excited. At first it was a novelty thing but now it makes me quite uncomfortable, they are just the same as me and I don't want to be thought of as better than someone else just because of the colour of my skin!

After photo madness it was lunch time so we found a spot in the shade and devoured our packed lunches. And made sure to drink loads of water. We noticed that each other was glowing with a tint of red so we headed back to the bus stop. We got into the hostel and chilled for a bit updating instagram and talking to families. Tonight was dumpling night at the hostel so we made no effort to go out and get food and just relaxed.

7.30 arrived and it was dumpling time! We Had a big group of people this time, maybe about 12. Gradually we all started talking and having some craic . The dumplings looked terrible on my part but I knew they would taste the same regardless of presentation haha . The dumplings were taken away to be steamed and we got talking to a couple who have just started travelling for a year, an awesome Aussie girl called Katie who is hilarious and an Irish guy called Conor. Conor recognised my accent and immediately high fived me. Turns out he is doing the boat ride down to yongshou on Wednesday and crossing into Vietnam around the same time Mel and I are. Katie is a legend and I immediately liked her. She is a really funny girl. She asked if she could join Mel and I for the night market tomorrow and we said yes immediately. Conversation was flowing and next thing it's half 11.

We headed for our room and at 12 at night two Chinese girls checked in, had showers, dried their hair, chatted on the phone! Casual as anything.