Ni Hao

Since we left you all two days ago it has been really crazy and frustating.Yesterday we had no loose ends to tie up so we sat around the hostel chatting, eating and biding our time till 3.30pm till we had to leave for our train. Mel was on the internet and let out a loud gasp and I wondered what was wrong and she told me that Heath Ledger had died. I thought it was one of two things either our internet bank account had been cleared or Barry Manilow had died!!!!

We loaded our packs on and headed off to find a taxi to the station and within seconds one pulled up but refused to take us, after stopping 6 more cabs who all refused to take us we worked out they did not want to go near the station as it was busy, we ended up taking the really overcrowded bus to the very overcrowded station.

Until you experience a Chinese train station near Chinese New Year it is impossible to imagine how crazy and busy they are (maybe India is busier!!) Before we made the door we had been pushed and pulled around and had our toes run over by some bad driving from a guy with a trolley who also crashed into our shins for good measure.

We had about a 30 minute wait till we boarded the train then found out we were not even sleeping near each other, Mel grabbed the attention of a nice young man who helped us to find our beds, his English was excellent and he translated for us to ask the attendant if we could upgrade to Soft Sleeper. An hour later the lady appeared and we then walked through 10 train carraiges to our new home for the night bashing into a few bodies and heads on the way down!!!

Wang Yue, our new mate then sat and practised English with us for a while before heading off to his carriage complete with a list of English girls names for his friend. Both Mel and I had the best nights sleep yet on this train and woke feeling fresh at 7am to get ready for leaving the train in Nanjing.

As soon as we left the train and started to exit there was a lot of commotion and we passed a dead guy on the steps, it looked like he could have fallen down the steps but he was certainly not alive. Both of us were a little shocked as there was blood everywhere and the train guard had not even covered the body.

After a few warm days in Xi'an it was back to a freezing cold hostel where the windows don't shut, we dumped our things told the hostel and they kindly pulled the blind down and gave us an extra blanket!!!!!

To escape the cold we took the subway to the very pretty Wuanxu Park and went for a walk around. Seventy percent of the park is water and you can walk between the 5 islands here, which we were doing and having a lovely walk till we bumped into someone having a poo in the park, which just goes to show it ain't just bears that sh*t in the woods!!!!

Just to let you people who think that travelling is glamourous just try to picture Mel and me in a cold room with all our clothes on with two duvets over us trying to keep warm, we have even had to make a makeshift draft excluder for the door from my old boxer shorts!!!!

To top it all they should really rename Nanjing and call it Nothing as there really is not much to see but on the plus side we have managed to get some free tickets for the Chinese Opera for tomorrow evening which should be good fun.To end on a positive note the beer is the coldest we have had while here in China.

Must go we need to break the icicles off the ends of our noses!!!

Lots of Love

M & M

xx