Yo dudes!

*** just to let you all know i now have an Oz mobile number - +61404266682 - ilost my phone about two months ago so have also lost all my numbers, text / ring / email me ur number if u want me to have lol haha ***

You shall all be glad to hear (well apart from those who are so jealous of my adventures they wish me to be arrested and sent away for life) that i am alive, well and in Australia! Yes, i arrived in Sydney today! So since i last updated this yoke i have been travelling through Hongkong and China and i have to say i have had some of the best weeks of my travels,

China is amazing, being also slightly weird made it even better! We spent three days in HongKong and loved it, the city is pretty cool, very clean and very western! We stayed in a hostel in the centre which on the bottom floor had what i can only describe as a little india, it was full of indian stalls and shops which was cool. Unfortunately while in Hongkong the weather was awful and we even experienced a level 8 typhoon (or however it might be spelt, its basically a shed load of wind and water). So we got completely soaked on a few occasions but it was all fun. Surreal moment as i sat having a beer and some grub in a cafe near the docks, on the tv was the news and they had a reporter at the docks talking about the weather, he was wearing a red hard hat! Haha id love to see them if they visited ireland for a winter! In Hongkong we did all the cool stuff like going top of mountain on HongKong Island, boat trip across river, space museum and all the usual stuff.

Beijing I had been looking forward to this for most of my trip, as many of you know me best mate Leddy Bear was gone be there when I got there, he is basically in love with china and I can see why (although leddy if ur reading this as im sure u are, the one good thing he taught me was the whole 'Awwwwhhh' but this can only get you so far when trying to talk to someone in china haha). We met Leddy Bear a few times over the week and he showed us alot of great stuff. This included watching a mental American dude singing Chinese love songs rock style, brilliant! Then a few random bars you would never find without the local knowledge. We also went to see another dead body for the craic and all the usual touristy things in Beijing, its brilliant place. But being honest the highlight of China and in the top 3 of best things I've ever done was walked the Great Wall of China, it was unreal. We did a 10k trek from the least tourist area and least rebuilt part and it was breathtaking. To top it off we got a zip line from the wall, over the river to the car park, great!

Nanjing Myself and leddy headed off on our own for a week as we were to attend a Wedding, yeap that right a traditional wedding. Leddy'smate Logan who I had partied with many a night in Belfast was getting married, he has lived in china for 3 years. So we had to make our way to the location and made a few stops on the way. Nanjing was pretty interesting, its steeped in history from the Japanese War where over 300'000 innocent people where raped and killed. They have an amazing museum there and we had a really good few days.

Hangzhou My favourite location in China, its known to the Chinese as 'Heaven On Earth' and they are not far wrong. The city is beside the famous West Lake which is beautiful, we spent two days here and then I returned on my own for a few days which I spent walking around the lake and generally sweating like a madman which being asked by about twenty people if they could have their photo taken with me! Ow the joys of being a white guy in China, great craic chatting to them tho. They were always very amused by my pronunciation of my limited Chinese vocab.

Angie (Wedding Location)

The Wedding. All I can say is this was again one of the best experience of my life. A traditional wedding in China, I was honoured to have been invited and made feel like royalty. We were put up in 4 star hotels, fed the most amazing food and sat at the top table at the wedding, all for free and continuous amounts of whiskey and beer thrown at us. The traditions of the wedding are so different and I got to be part of it all. Logan and Emma are an amazing couple and I had such a laugh. I think the last thoughts of the night where while dancing with a room of Chinese people while singing karaoke and drinking too much beer! It was a truly amazing experience, I had one of the best nights of my life, never mind of my travels and the weird thing was I spent it with a load of Chinese people who couldn't speak any English, brilliant! I could tell a million stories about it but I'll save them till I can chat over a pint or two.

Yellow Mountain I met up with the group again and Leddy headed homeward bound so we went and climbed the Yellow Mountain, it was also spectacular, a tough climb but again such an experience. We stayed in a hostel, which was completely awful at the top and got up to watch the sunset in the morning before setting off a 4hour trek down the mountain, basically climbing down thousands of steps, carved out of the cliff and about 1metre wide, it was so scary but such a thrill!

Our trip concluded in Shanghais, another great city in China, we went to the usual tourist spots and bars! One of the best things was watching the acrobatics show, I really don't know how these people can bend in these ways, I don't think they are human. I had a great time in Shanghai and I always seemed to get stopped by people who wanted to talk to me because they can speak English, I enjoyed it most of the time as you can have the craic with them.

China was unreal, really was the best way to finish my 6months travelling through this part of the world. I would recommend anyone to do it, it really is a place you have to visit. Its alot harder to travel around as many people do not speak English but you do get by, pointing at random pictures in cafe's and hoping for the best usually does the trick.

So I got to climb the great wall of china, climb Yellow Mountain (World Heritage Site), sit at the head table at a Traditional Chinese Wedding, learn to use my chop sticks (took a while), learnt a few words in Chinese and partied with the locals. I think I just about did as much as I could possibly do.

Now then, the new adventure begins, we head to Brisbane tomorrow to try and find work and accommodation until Christmas! Fingers crossed! Il update again when I can be assed and I will put photos on face book in the next few days! I'm going to get a mobile tomorrow so I will try and get my number to everyone! Hope all is well at home and everyone is working hard in my absence.

Tommy xxxx

P.s I think I want to be an adventurer when I grow up!

P.ss Congrats to AmyMay (wee sis) who got 4 A's in her Alevels and is going to be doing medicine in queens from September - your amazing pet!

Also to Ann Noble (my manager) on your birthday and getting married, ya mad man ya! Im sorry to have missed that piss up. I could have thrown you down those stairs again hahaha. Goodluck with it Ann!

Mum - im still alive and havent been arrested yet, i hope your proud!