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Michael and Nicola's Travels!
No other pictures to choose from for where we are so Great Wall again i'm afraid.
Since the last time we wrote we've been to Shanghai and are now in Yangshou with two overnight train journeys inbetween (one of which was 29 hours long - i read a LOT!).
In Shanghai we did a lot of walking to see as much as we could on the first day so were absolutely knackered by the evening. Rushed to get to the Jimao (not sure if that's how you spell it) Tower by 5.30 ish so we could be up on the 88th floor observatory for the sunset. Excellent views across the city, especially when it was all lit up after the sun went down. Went on a cruise down the river that evening too.
The next day in Shanghai we went to the zoo with some of the others in our group. The usual animals to see with the added bonus of a great panda but the way the chinese acted throughout the day ruined it a bit for me. They were chucking food over the fences for the animals, especially the bears, climbing over the front safety fences to hand feed monkeys and actually climbing up fences to hand feed giraffes! Couldn't see any keepers who looked after the animals or to tell people not to do such stupid things and some of the enclosures were pretty minging. The worst thing was a huge turtle that was in a tiny pond and all the chinese were chucking money onto its back, maybe a good luck thing but it was pretty horrible. The spitting wasn't confined to the streets either - straight in the animal pools. Grouse!
Went to watch a cool acrobatics show that evening. Very impressive stuff.
Had a whole day travelling to where we are now, 29 hours to be precise. Not much fun but bearable.
Yangshuo is beautiful, surrounded by hundreds of weird shaped mountains. We went on a cruise down the river yesterday which was excellent. Saw lots of local fishermen on their bamboo rafts and water buffalo grazing all around. Watched a huge show set over a lake last night which has hundreds of locals performing. Different to anything i've seen before, quite a spectacle but it was a bit of a bloodbath as we were sat outside by a lake so there were just millions of mosquitos swarming all around!
Me and Michael are taking a chinese cooking lesson this afternoon and going cormorant fishing tonight with some local fishermen. The cormorants are trained from birth to do the fishing for the men so should be interesting!
Michael says he'll definately do the next entry so hold your breaths for a comedy fest....
Nicola xxx
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