NEVER AGAIN! Thats all we can say about our experience on the train. It was horrible - but one of those situations where to just have to laugh or you'll end up crying. We were stuck in our seats. The train was getting fuller and fuller at every stop and alot of people hadnt paid for seats, so they try and squeeze onto your seat or one near you, so you cant stretch your legs out or get comfortable. By around 2am we tried to get some sleep, they had turned the air con off so it was so hot! there were no windows so we just had to sit in the heat, there was no air in the carriage as there were that many people in there. We darent move from our seats at the same time as we probably wouldnt get them back! I think we managed to get a couple of hours sleep which is good! A woman got on the train about 4 hours in. So funny! She had all sort of snacks and food in her bag, and a metal tea pot with tea leaves in that she kept going to fill up and slurrrrrped it down every five minutes. At one point i think she put some noodles in there too! She was pushing everyone out the way so she could lie across 3 seats all to herself and put her feet on the opposite persons chair, digging into their legs haha they were not happy! There was a porr lad opposite us who was about 14 and he was squashed up against the window while she lay comfy as ever!! He didnt budge from his seat the whole time and he was on the train for about 10 hours, he didnt even go the loo - i think he was too scared! haha When it got light we didnt have a clock or a watch on us, we started to see what looked like the start of Guilin so we thought oh good maybe we're nearly there... 4 hours late we still wernt there. We were really getting fed up by now. About an hour past and finally got ther after 22 hours. We were still laughing despite hating every moment! ha!

Finally we were off the train and could breathe fresh air! We'd forgotten to find out were our next hostel was so we went to a big hotel opposite the train station and asked cheekily if we could borrow their wi fi. They were really kind and helped us out. Matty used their loo while i checked out the hostel. When he came back he said the toilet was on the 3 floor and that there were all different rooms on the floor with different groups of people in the rooms all getting pissed singing on the kareoke! haha

We decided to get a taxi to near our hostel, the hostel advises to direct the taxi to Wangfu Huayyuan building and get out there and walk a short distance. So we got the recptionists to write that down in chinese to give to the taxi driver. We flagged one down outside the hotel and he seemed happy to take us. It cost us 10 yuan (£1) not bad! The hostel wasnt exactly were the directions described but after asking some locals we soon stumbled across it.

We checked in - we were staying here for 4 nights. GuiLin is in the south of china its situated near the Li river and has some of the most famous scenery in the world. So we were looking forward to a kind of non-city type of stay more like a mini holiday. Our room was HUGE! we were made up. Oh and there was the cutest kitten ever in the lobby it was teeny!

We got a nice hot shower after our stinky train ride and put on some clean clothes. We headed to the restaurant downstairs and ordered a pizza and 2 well deserved beers! It was the nicest feeling to feel clean and fresh and have something to eat. We hadnt really eaten much since the day before. We decided the next day we were goign to book our next train tickets out of GuiLin in advance and book a tour around the Li River and Yangshou.

The next day after a nice long sleep, we did some washing sorted out our bags and got the bus to the train station to buy our tickets to Guangzhou. We need to get to Hong Kong but there isnt a train straight there so we have to stop in Guangzhou which is right on the coast of China and get a bus for 2 hours to Hong Kong. So not to bad. We queded for a while in hot station sweating so much.. got to the window and she could speak slight english, yes!!! we went to pay for our tickets ... but we'd forgotton our passports!! Noooo!!! In china you have to book your tickets with a passport or the chinese use an ID card or you cant buy them. So we had to leave it and head back to the hotel! So annoyed! Oh well. We walked along the busy centre of GuILin on our way back and jumped on the bus back. It only cost 1 yuan and just goes straight up and down the road. On the walk back from the bus Matty bought some street food and got some mutton yakitori's. Back at the hostel we booked a tour for the next day for a bamboo raft tour of the 4 lakes in GuiLin. We also booked another night at this hostel and sorted out 1 nights accomodation in Guangzhou.

Our tour guide Shan Loo (or KFC as he liked to be called ??) ha picked us up around 10 from our lobby. He asked were we were from and told us that he thought the english version of the office is alot funnier than the american version! He also listed all the famous things he knew in England in his kind of camp chinese tour guidy type of voice! He was really nice though! We got on the bus and we headed down to the pier to get our bamboo raft. It was about and hour and a half drive and the scenery was gorgeous. You can see these mountains from the roof terrace at the top of our hostel. We were driving through the karst mountains and hills and down towards the pier. Its called a pier but it was a tiny little port on the side of the river with bamboo boats bobbing up and down. We got chatting to an american couple and they ended up in our boat. There were only 4 people to a boat. The driver handed us a life jacket each before pushing us away from the bank. He turned on his rickety engine and we started heading out into the huge green lake surrounding by huge green tree covered mountains. KFC had told us what we would see along the river so we were looking out for all the things he had told us. There were a few houses along the river with steps down into it. It must be so remote living out here. We sailed along the river for about an hour before we stopped in from of "Nine horses head" A huge piece of rock that had erroded over time and the chinese belive there a nine horses head visible in the rock. - We could only see 2! After stopping here for a few minutes the boat headed back down the river towards were we came from.

Back at the pier, KFC told us we could get lunch from the small local noodle bar near the water. They gave you a tub with noodles in and you added your own ingredients, meat, nuts, chillis, veg and a black bean type of stock. We sat with locals and one of the woman was laughing at matty and gave him a lesson on how to use chopsticks properly.

After lunch we were back on the bus and heading to a small local village about half an hour away were they live completely self sufficient. When we got there we were guided through, it looked as though they had built a small tourist area for a bit of income for the village, where they showed you how they live, their traditions and how they make their own clothes, shoes, paper, food, chopsticks, and souvenirs to sell to tourists. The scenery was amazing and we took a little boat through the village through a windy lake. The village had huge vegetable patches all around, lime trees, apple trees etc. - I was taking notes dad!! Hey and they also made their own jesus shirts - but they wernt for sale sorry dad! haha After an hour or two touring round we got on the bus and he took us to a famous location in GuiLin that has been used for the windows xp desktop background. It was amazing. Theres a picture on our album. The bus then headed to Yangshou but after reading up on it we thought we'd give it a miss as the scenery was similair to GuiLin and apparently was full of tourists and quite busy. We headed back towards GuiLin. Theres a saying in China which we read a couple of days ago "East or West - GuiLin sceneary is the best" or how KFC translated in his chinese accent "The western and eastern - guilin scenaary bests". Matty fell asleep on the bus and was dedo as i was recording him as his head was hanging in the isle of the bus, but he didnt even wake up haha! The bus stopped at GuLin station so I woke him up and we asked the tour guide if we could jump of here to finally get our tickets to Guangzhou.

We got in the que at the station and thankfully there was a turkish man behind us who could speak chinses and bought our tickets for us! Thank god as the woman didnt understand us and we would have had to join the massive ques next to us! We walked back through the busy centre and grabbed some tea before heading back to the hostel.

Its been raining really heavy over the past 2 days and a few places have been flooded. We've both been a bit ill too so its been nice just recovering and playing pool in the hostel. We went for a walk down to the river today but again it started raining so not long after we headed back. This morning we checked out and checked straight back in to our other room that we booked the other day. This room is near the roof terrace and a bit smaller but still nice. Tommorow we've got a 12 hour train journey to Guangzhou before heading to Hong Kong on Sunday! So thats were we are up to at the moment. Oh and biggest news of all iv persuaded Matty to pre-buy our Hong Kong DISNEYLAND tickets!!! Yesss!! We go on Tuesday I cant wait!

We'll update again when we are in Hong Kong!