Another 19hour hard sleeper took us all the way to Chengdu, not nearly as bad this time though, we knew what to expect, booked a night journey so we could spend the majority of the time asleep and took supplies of noodles and drinks to tide us over! We were booked into the 'lazy bones' hostel, a lovely central hostel with a little outdoor courtyard area and the nicest rooms we have stayed in yet (every dorm has an en-suite and curtains around the bunks) and bum...

just a a quick update as got some good(ish) wifi for a bit, in Chengdu now and loving it, the weathers really bad and got loads of rain, not conveniant when ive got me washing hanging outside! haha went to see the pandas yesterday with our own presonal tour guide, a chinese girl we met at a bar the night before and she also took us out for a hot pot, reknowned all over china and the local delicacy,some say the best food in china as were also in the sechuan provin...

Xi'an, 17th - 22nd October - After our manic journey, any place would have looked amazing but Xi'an really was. Debbie was there waiting for us when we strolled through the packed train station, huge packs on back and front, with a welcome banner for 'sissy, blondie and the pretty girl...' a long story but basically names we aopted in Beijing! Deb had already booked us into a hostel as she had arrived the night before - the 'Seven Sages Hostel, Xi'an'. Less then...

'That' train journey - 16th - 17th October. Qingdao - Xi'an - 'Hard sleeper' it cant be that... imagine sleeping in a zoo, and the animal side not the candy floss and paved paths side! we walked onto this train expecting something pretty bad and thats pretty much what greeted us haha na, it wasnt that bad, the beds were manageable althoug only 2 foot wide, stacked three bunks high and crammed 66 per carriage. The people would have been fine, if they hadn't const...

Qingdao - 13th - 16th October 5 whole hours we managed to blag a seat and table in the staff canteen in the end, quite an achievement I think, see, it pays to play the dumb English card every now and then! (works in Oz too eh dad?! Haha) So arriving in the coastal city of Qingdao (one if the main holiday destinations for the chinese) we get a taxi to our new hostel 'the old observatory' We had seen and heard some good things about the hostel from other travelle...