Well the time came for us to move on from Hong Kong, I really enjoyed it there. By the time we hit Hong Kong we had been traveling for 2 weeks and I think it had actually started to really sink in that my new life had started.
Hong Kong is an amazing city, you cant help but find yourself looking around in complete awe at the amazing skyscrapers!! The Hong Kong skyline by night is completely breath taking and looking out from the peek over the whole of Hong Kong gave me loads of inspiration and motivation to make some changes.
I went to sleep that night thinking about all the missed opportunities that had occurred in my life mainly due to the fear of the unknown and decided that from the following morning that I was going to start putting positive foundations down so that I wouldn’t miss any more amazing opportunities.
The following day we met up with an old friend who lives in Hong Kong and he took us out for a meal with his family. We went to a sea food restaurant which is my worst nightmare!!! I have always avoided sea food, I really don’t know why because I haven’t tried sea food before, well apart from the usual fish like cod and salmon so when we turned up at this restaurant where you have to actually go and choose your food out of the tank before they cook it I was completely thrown out of my comfort zone especially since we were also meeting our friends family for the first time as well. I decided to just go for it, this may sound really stupid to some people but for me this was huge, it was something that I had avoided all my life and I don’t have a clue why because I really enjoyed it. I ate pretty much everything that was put in front of me except the fish guts soup!! although I did try it but it really didn’t taste too good. Andy was amazed and couldn’t quite believe that I was eating some of the stuff that I was.
I have started to speak my mind as well, Andy is not so happy about this, I have decided that I have spent far to many years doing everything that everyone else wants me to do and now its my turn. If I want to do something I will if I don’t then I wont. I’m working to my timescale now, nobody else’s.
We are currently in phi phi chilling out in paradise, we have our own bungalow on the beach front! it literally takes us 10 seconds to get from our bed and into the sea. We are away from the main area of the island but still within 15 min walk of it. Its much nicer, the main area is a bit dirty and very noisy, where we are is really quiet and peaceful which is good for me but Andy has started to get a bit restless and after reading all his books he has now started on mine!! He wants to go out on tours and stuff where as I’m just happy chilling on the beach, drinking cocktails, swimming in the sea and having massages 
Right then I’m going to go now, I’m far too busy doing not a lot 
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Hong Kong October 16th, 2009
I’m loving this place!! What an amazing city! I would live here tomorrow if I could! I haven’t even been here a whole 24 hours but I have fallen in love with the place!!
Were stopping on Hong Kong island and our hotel is on the side of a mountian, well actually the whole of the island Is a mountian and it’s covered with sky scrapers! To get down to the shopping area from our hotel you have to use a bank of escalators that run for about 2 miles up and down the mountian! It takes about 15 mins to get from the top to the bottom!! It’s crazy but works really well. Andy and I were so shattered today after yesterdays travelling antics (long story) that we litrally had breakfast and then spent a few hours exploring the shopping area and finding a starbucks we then went swimming and spent a couple of hours chilling out by the pool. Were just getting ready now to go out for some food and then I think were going to chillout in our hotel room and use the free wifi to research a way to get us to Thailand. I think tomorrow were going to get a ferry across into mainland Hong Kong and see some of the tourist sights!!
I’m really loving travelling! The first week was a bit up and down while I adjusted to it but I’m really loving it now. It’s going too fast though!!! I don’t want it to end, I’m really chilled out and stress free!! I’ve almost forgotten what my life was like before I started travelling it’s weird but this just feels right!! I’m loving it!!!
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Yep you guessed it, today we went to see the pandas!!! They were very very cute!! I wanted to take a baby panda home!!! I was a bit dissapointed though as I didn’t get to hold one!! Apparently you can but it’s really expensive and you have to pre book your time slot in advance!! It was still amazing though! I really enjoyed it!! They had two pandas there that were just a few weeks old! Very very cute!!! I would love to work somewhere like that!
Just starting to really chillout now, were on the move again tomorrow mind you! First stop is a plane to Shenzhen (a bit of a dodgy place) were not stopping there thankfully as we are going to try and get across the border into hongkong via bus! It should be fairly easy but then again everything is easy in principle!! I have also convinced andy to stop in a proper hotel instead of a hostel. It’s a 3* hotel so not quite my usual 5* but it’s better than another hostel. We are there for 3 days at the moment but this could change depending on what flights we can get to thailand.
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Yay! After a horrible start to the day we left the sleeper train and headed for our hostel. After doing the basics 1. Water 2. Food 3. Sleep and 4. Washing we took a look around! We booked ourselves on to a panda tour for tomorrow and I’m really hoping I will get to hold a baby panda! Then we booked our plane tickets to Shenzhen! The sleeper train was around 50 hours and the plane was only 2 hours and after last night I don’t think andy would have got me back on to a train! Also it only really costs about £50 extra and if it means that we get to spend more time in the next place then that’s good! Although were hoping that when we arrive in Shenzhen that we will be able to get a bus straight into hongkong on the same day! Were not booking any hostels yet and are just going to see what happens!!
After sorting all that out we needed time to chillout so we rented a movie!! I love my movie nights and really miss them, even though it’s only been just over a week since we left!! We watched the longest yard!! Give me an Adam Sandler film any day!! Feeling loads better now! It’s nearly 11pm now and have to get up a 6am to go and see the pandas so I think it must be bed time!!
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Wow! What a difference to the first one!! I’m currently lay on the bottom bunk listening to my iPod. Thank god for iPods! This is really horrible! The last train was modern and had proper western toilets but this one just has a hole in the floor!! I have a whole 14 hours of this and I really need a wee but I really don’t want to go!! Traveling is not very glamorous!! Yeah ok you get to see the world but doing it by backpacking is hard! So far I have slept on 2 trains! Stopped at a mosquito infested hostel. Warn the same pair of jeans for 5 days and even slept in them!!!! I had to wash them in the sink using shampoo because there was no other way to wash them! I’ve only just started out as well. My god I hope it doesn’t get much worse than this!!
I’m going to close my eyes now and listen to my iPod and try to imagine that I’m somewhere else other than here!!!!
Update- it’s now gone midday the following day! I still haven’t used the toilets and I’m not going to! Had a really bad nights sleep last night, I kept thinking the train was going to crash!! It’s the worst train I have ever been on in my life!!!! It sounds like it keeps coming off the tracks! I’m guessing it doesn’t but it sounds like it! Just really want to get off here now and get to our next hostel. The next sleeper train we need to get is over 50 hours long!! I think I might convince andy to fly! Concidering I really hate flying I think I would rather spend 2 hours on a plane than 50 hours on a train!!!
Well only another 30 mins or so and I will be off this train!! Then the fun starts! Trying to find our hostel in a city we have never been to and don’t speak the language! What great fun that sounds lol.
Oh and one thing we have really noticed! As we have started to get further and further away from Beijing, very few people speak English! There are also very few signs in English! On our train which has 20 carriges not a single person other than andy and I speaks English! It’s been really difficult.
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Ok, been a bit of a mixed day today! I’m not feeling too good today, I can’t wait to get out of our hostel, our room is not very clean it has Mosquitos everywhere! Even dead ones squashed on the Walls! I’m covered in either mosquito bites or I’ve been bitten by bed bugs! I’ve been wearing the same pair of jeans for 5 days running and have no other clean clothes to put on! I’ve even slept in my jeans on the sleeper train but there is nowhere to wash any of our stuff!! Xi’an is really dirty and smoggy and it hasn’t stopped raining since we got here! Our bedroom in the hostel is in the cellar and the bar is right above us and so there is constant noise all night long so I can’t sleep very well. I’m really not liking this place very much!!
We went to the Muslim quarter today which is amazing and nothing like anything I’ve experianced before but even though I loved it I hated it at the same time! There was this really cute dog just like any normal dog you would see in the uk! It was stuck in a cage smaller than the cage I used to keep my hamsters in! It couldn’t even stand up!! I know over here they eat dogs but just seeing it stuck in such a tiny cage really upset me!! I wanted to buy it and set it free!!
I’m currently sat outside starbucks having a much needed caramel latte and watching the world go by!! It’s a very different world to watch over here than back at home!!
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Xi’an October 9th, 2009
Well I’m now in xi’an. Took a sleeper train last night from beijing to get here!! It was actually much better than I thought! We shared a room with 2 Chinese ladys who didn’t speak any English so it was a bit difficult to comunicate but we managed! We had top bunks which was interesting!! Took me about 10 minutes just to get up!! The toilet was typical Chinese and was litrally a hole in the bottom of the train! I refused to use it and after a bit of searching I found a nice western toilet!!!
Xi’an has better air than Beijing but the smog today was the worst I have seen so far!! It didn’t help that it’s been raining on and off all day! It just looks like a haze of fog everywhere!
Our hostel is much bigger than the last one but I’m not sure that I like it as much yet!! Give it a bit more time and I might but I liked how small the last one was! Our room lacks charm as well and there are dead mosquitos all over our wall. I’m going to use a mosquito repelant tonight so that hopefully I won’t get bitten! It’s taking a bit of getting used to! I usually don’t do anything less than 5* hotels so I’m struggaling a bit but I’m just going to smile and get on with it! It’s all part of the traveling experiance!!!
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Humm ok then! Were moving on today from Beijing and going to xi’an via an over night train! It will take about 12 hours! We leave at 9ish tonight! Not too sure how I feel about it! I’m just feeling like I’m getting used to Beijing so moving on again and packing up our bags has just reminded me of leaving home! Feeling a bit unsettled at the moment! I guess I will have to get used to this as there will be a lot of changes over the next few months! I can’t wait till we get to Oz and we meet up with laura and my auntie!! Will be nice to see some familier faces!! I can’t believe that after wanting to go traveling for so long that after 6 days away from home I’m already missing everyone!! I think it’s because china is very hard going and your on the go all the time!! I think by the time I get to Oz I will be fine as it will be a bit easier going! Not sure how were going to get to Oz yet mind you!! We have a flight already booked from Thailand but at the moment we have only got as far as booking a train to xi’an and we have been looking for trains and flights to get us out of there and it’s proving either very difficult or very expensive!! What a nightmare!!!!!
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What and understatement!! It was amazing!! Im very glad that I did it!
We decided that after a day of people staring at me and wanting my photo all the time that instead of going to the local part of the great wall that we would go on a tour instead!! We went to the hiking part of the wall which was a 3 an a half hour drive away!! There were very few locals there and I can see why!!! It was extreamly hard!!!
We did 10k in 3 hours!! It was unreal in parts!! There were 90 degree parts to the wall with no proper steps that we had to get up!! We litrally were on our hands and knees for some of it pulling ourselves up!! It had massive drops down the side as well so one bad move and you were taking a flying lesson!! I can’t believe just how bad some of the areas were. But we survived it and my god what an experiance it was!!
Andy says he would never do it again but I think I would! It was difficult but at the same time looking back now it was a real achievement and I really enjoyed it!! Even though I can hardly move now as my body is in soo much pain!!
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Humm ok then, Beijing!!! What can I say?? It’s an experiance like no other!! Today I have been to the forbidden city, and tiananmen square They were both amazing places to visit. Andy and I hired a private tour guide for the forbidden city which was really good and would deffinatly recomend.
I got a bit fed up today because I couldn’t relax!! Everywhere we went I had people staring at me!! I know I’m different to them! At the end of the day Im nearly 6ft have blonde hair, green eyes and big boobs which is very different from the advage Chinese person but do they really have to stare at me??? People were even taking photos of me and asking if they could have a photo taken with me!!! WTF??? I really don’t understand what the big fuss is all about!! We have Chinese people in the uk and we don’t give it a second thought! Andy thinks we should get a tent and put me in it and let the locals pay for a photo with me!! Ha ha!! I can just see it now!! I would be sooo rich.
Tomorrow we are off to the great wall. We have decided to go on a tour! We are getting picked up at 6.15am and it’s a 3 and a half hour drive to the wall then a 4 hour hike and then the drive home! We could just walk the bit of the wall that is local to the area but apparently it will be packed out with Chinese people and I really can’t handle another day of being stared at. We were recomended the tour by the guy who owns our hostel. He said it’s where most western people go to walk the wall because it’s one of the best bits, just a shame it’s so far away! But still I’m really looking forward to it!
I have got to say that out of all the places I have been to so far Beijing is by far the worst when it comes to smells.. it’s extreamly bad in some areas and really nice in others depending on what’s being cooked and how clean the public toilets are!! Also kids don’t seem to understand what toilets are!! They just go in the middle of the street! I’ve also seen tons of people spitting which is just gross but it seems to be the norm over here! I guess it has something to do with the smog. It was fairly bad today!
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