Hey hey....well things are good...its the 3rd day of the group stuff and iv been busy busy...plus the weather has been alot better (28-32C). On wednesday I met one of the girls from my group..she's swedish and from the same area as mum so thats cool...we went to Tian'amen square and down to the temple of heaven...Gudrun (Goodie) is mega blonde so we got alot of looks which is just plain funny now!!! Wed night we went out all as a group to a hutong (beijing local back alley but really lively) and had the best peking duck you've ever tasted. Yesterday we went to the summer palace but unfortunately missed out on some really good photo ops as the sky was really smoggy and dusty from the gobi dessert and the sand that blows down :( The summer palace was fantastic...lots of walking, buddhas, wood carving, intrinsic wooden painting and amazing temples!!!

Today we had tour round the forbidden city and saw yet more temples...god these emperors knew how to live...they even had up to 12,000 mistresses and ladies in waiting!!! Plus the amount of bedrooms that are there would take an emperor 27 years to sleep in all!!! Our guide took us down a VERY local hutong and we had really nice dumplings and beer...you eat 'family style' here and as beer costs sometimes less than water and pop you just split the bill evenly...all in all 10 Yian...which is about 75p!!! We then walked up a hill made of all the soil dug out to form the moat thats round the forbidden city and as today was really clear we could see for miles (plus there was a nice breeze up there which was lush!!)

The group is nice and mixed and consists of an Nz couple, a danish guy, a swedish girl . a german girl, a south african londoner, 3 brit guys and 2 brit girls. And the group leader is american. The south african ans\d one of the brit boys are following the same route as me so thats really cool that i'll now someone on the 'circuit'. We're all getting on good and already talking alot about our toilet habits and getting use to someone spitting there food out.....if i have learnt one thing is to expect the unexpected when taking a bite into anything!!!! I bought a roll with melted cheese on top....you'd think pretty safe right...no no it had a sunday dinner in it...bits of meat, gravy and veg!!!! Then this morning i had a toasty that had 'fur' in it...its flaky fish supposedly and shane (the south african) had seseame rolls with coconut paste in...that wasn't such a disgusting surprise!!!! They also sell the weirdest food stuff on the street and as for the butchering technique...health and safety in the uk would have a fit!!! Oh i forgot to mention the custard tart...it smelled nice but the custard was curdled yum yum not!!! Notice we're eating alot of pastry...none of us can cope with eating rice or noodles for breki yet and generally your pretty safe at the sweet section in the bakery.

As for the toilet stuff...its a squat job when you'e out but the hotel has western loos and one of the brit guys made himslef ill by not being able to go to the loo (number 2 like) when we were out the other night...i suppose you've gotta to throw caution to the wind when doing this travelling stuff! Its a culture shock all round...lil children have grotch less baggy trousers and their parents place them anywhere and i mean anywhere to go to the loo...whatever number!!!

Some of the girls on the tour are tall and fair so attract alot of attention...two of them nz nicloa and brit carly are having a competition on how many times they have there pic taken with chinses people. Carly even got a baby flung in her arms and had her pic taken with a large family.  Chinese from none tourist areas in the other provinces may not have seen western people, esp tall, fair ones and they are fascinated. sometimes groups of people stop to look at our group and point in speculation....thank god no one has looked at my bum again ha ha!!

We got to see our final itinary the other night...its ram packed. Tomorrow we are trekking an isolated part of the Great Wall...its abit over grown so have been advised to wear long trousers if we don't want to get cut but most of us are hard core and wearing shorts as it will be reeaaalllly hot n sweaty stuff plus you got to think about the tan...we're walking for about 15k which isn't too bad and then a few days after we do a mega long bike ride (he hasn't told us how long) through all the paddy fields!!! Lots to think about and lots of fun to be had..... Right best go.....facebook awaits tee hee xxx