Hello hello.

First opff my location is all wrong, getting confused with where i have been am and am goiung now!!! in Lizhou not yangshou but cant change it!!!

Well here i am in china, for the second evening actually. Crossed the border yeaterday but we spent last night in the middle of nowhere in tiny huts on stilts!!! quite entertaining if for nothing else then for the size of the bugs flying around and the snakes!!!! while it was picturesque and some what random (kareokee in the jungle anyone?) i was kinda glad to see a city and a hotel this afternoon. Not for long though, tomorrow we head back into the wilderness and stay the night in a traditional wooden dong village!!!

Amnyhow, Hanoi was pretty crazy in traditional vietnamese style with mad traffic and a crazy busy atmosphere., Halong bay was beautifull and our night on the boat much more comfortable than i expected!!!! once we dropped anchor me and david grabbed a kayac from ontop of the boat and persuaded the boatmen to let us take it out, so we had a little paddle round the islands, very peacefull it was too!!!

Cat ba island was everything i expected and more, l**** the setting of jurassic park! Once we arrived 5 of us took a motorbike and driver around the island, it was the best way ever to see the place and ended up being a brilliant day with the beach in the last few hours of sun and then drinks on the roof top bar at the end of it!

The next day was travelling to the border and an early night at the border town, had an awesome meal there though!!!

Today we arrived her in Lizhou, its a massive city but with absolutely no tourists, feels very odd!!! no one speaks english, none of the signs are in english and they dont have doors on the squat toliets!!!! talk about a culture shock!!!!!! i'm determind to remember the chinese characters for ladies!!!!!!

We went into the food market to get our dinner and it was gorgeous food but everything was sooooo spicy, much more than thailand even!! Everyone stares at you and when you smile they dont stare back or if you speak to then they look scared!!!!

It feels weird, like tourism gone back to front!!! is quite funny though!!!

We didnt have trouble at the border or anything although they did hand search the entiore contents of all of our bags, even putting our cds into their computers to check them!!! The TV is showing non stoip coverage of the earthquake zone which is awfull and seems to cover a huge area but its hard to understand it all being in chinese!!! and the entirew country is olympics mad!!!!

Someone told me i will be able to get a copy of the new sex in the city movie here so that is my mission for tomorrow!!! Havenmt bought anything since i'e been aay and now ifeel the need to since i dont have to carry it too far anymore!! Will be really sad when this finishes, i'd love a few more weeks in thailand and to head down to malasia, so jealous of the people going on to russia!!! Still i look forward to not sweating every minute of the day, western toilets, not eating noodles for breakfast and many many other things!!!

Dad -- tell mark mcgovern if his mates lost weioght here its because they had the s**ts and not any oither reason!! hehe., i lost weight when i was ill in cambodia but the sticky mango rice of thailand and the amount of condensed milk these people use has put it all back on!!!! They diont even sell diet coke!!!!

Mum -- thanks for your message, i was gonna try and move it to the day or two before dads bird of prey day? would you beable to do that fopr me? let me know via text! and thanks for scaring me with your missed \call the other night ;oP

Anmyway, i'm off, no internet for a while now i think so if you need me text or call and where i get recpetion i'll have my phone on!Love and huigs to all

Leanne

xxxxx