Kowloon, HongKong

Will in theory put up pics from Yangshuo in next few days but in reality ... um ... prob won't get round to it cos we will be hooooome :D And i'm afraid to confess we don't have a single photo of hongkong - oops!

Yep thats right - we head out to the airport in about 1/2 an hour then tonight hop on a plane back to good old Perth! As always with these things it seems like we have hardly been away for anytime but at the same time it feels like aaaaaages since we've been in Oz!

Either way we are both looking forward to getting back and catching up with everyone! So, barring meteor showers, spontaneous human combustion and other likely holdups we will see you all soon :D

Love Meg xxx

Leshan, Sichuan, China

Spent the day today at Leshan seeing Buddhist temples and the 71m high Buddha. I swear i have never sweated so much in my life! Even walking up the mountains was dryer than this!! The temples that we saw were also really fascinating. Especially good was the hall with 1000 terracotta 'Arhat' (Buddhist celestial beings) which look like people. They are all life size and all have different positions and faces and facial expressions (some of which were really funny!).


The pics here are:
1) typical looking scene with river inlet, buildings etc we then walked down and across the the wall path you see here
2) Vera carefully reading and then rereading the info on the tombs cos it was really interesting (nothing to do with the fact it was 10degrees cooler inside the tombs of course ...) To be fair tho the ancient Ming tombs were pretty cool (in all senses ;)



3) The giant Buddha from above - note the teeny tiny people in top left corner to get an idea of size)
4) The same Buddha from below after we climbed down the cliff steps (along with half the population of China)









BTW we also went to see a Sichuan Culture show last night which had Sichuan Opera, puppets, fire spitting, face changing and music - VERY cool .... um but i forgot my camera :P

Oh and heading to Yangshuo tomorrow (fly to Guilin then bus to Yangshuo)

Also - only 1 week till we are home :D

Chengdu, Sichuan, China

This is a quick pic i just snapped (literally cos i just ran outside in my pjs to get it lol) of our hostel here in Chengdu, the 'Dragon Town Hostel'. Since we have stayed here 3 times now i and the building itself is really cool - typical Sichuan old style, i thought i'd put a pic up. Plus at night with all the red lanterns it is all golden red and glowy :D

Qingcheng Shan, Sichuan, China

We just climbed 2 mountains in 2 days!!! Ok they are very little mountains with steps all the way up but still sounds good we reckon :D

The first was Qingcheng Shan which we climbed the first day then spent the night in the Taoist Temple complex near the summit, then the second day we walked back down, caught a taxi to Qingcheng Houshan, then (when we eventually found the path) climbed about 4/5 of the way before we caught a cable car for the last bit, then caught a different cable car for 1/2 the journey back down. This was officially so we didn't miss the bus back that night - but unofficially we were just sick of climbing slippery stairs in tropical humidity! :P

Anyway we had fun - i only slipped over once and then only slid down a few steps (apparently only once is really good!) and of course Vera didn't slip at all :) Also had 2 short boat trips where the path runs into a lake and Ve is now in about a billion Chinese tourists' holiday photos! Had i only started charging 1 yuan per photo from the start we could have been rich! ;(

Finally returned to hostel in Chengdu that night (3 buses later) and thoroughly enjoyed our 'Liao's Bon Bon Chicken' for dinner (we got half a chicken cos it was the only thing we recognised and we were too hungry to be adventurous - though i confess neither of us wanted the half a head including tongue that was attached ... )

Mounigou Reserve, Sichuan, China

We visited this area during horse trek one afternoon. The photos really don't do it justice! The collection of lakes, streams and caves was only over a few kilometers but was just stunning. Also included hot springs, fields of wildflowers and lush dark forest.


Reflection Lake










Vera the muskateer (see the feather in her hat??) examining yet more wildflowers...











Erdaohai Lake








very clear lake whose name i can't remember - see the fallen logs lying at the bottom!











Another clear lake but with a limestone bottom this time

Songpan, Sichuan Province, China

Well back in Chengdu again now after our horse trek in Songpan (a veeeery long bus ride from north of here). Had a brilliant time on the trek! We went for 3 days, which generally involved riding all morning, then walking in the arvo. Our guides were great and the area is just stunning. Packed with wildfowers and streams and waterfalls everywhere! Anyway here are just a few pics (we took over 150 in 4 days!!!). I will put the ones from Mounigou Lakes area in next post.
The first pic here is just some of the stunning wildflowers we saw.




Vera with 2 of our guides. She now has an impressive number of adoption offers from all over the world lol












Vera with one of her many flower collections - apparently she does still want to be a geologist but said and i quote "if i lived here i'd definitely be a botanist instead" :)










Vera riding her horse along the mountain side










Our trusty steeds!










Misty mountain view - pic taken from horseback (and i didn't even fall off doing it!)








Vera having a lesson in working the animal skin bellows while our fellow trekkers look on










Pic taken from bus as we drove along cliff road above the river south of Songpan

Chengdu Panda Capital of China

We flew to Chengdu from Beijing and headed off the next day (yesterday) to see the pandas at the research sanctuary here. It is a fantastic place - very big and great enclosures and they have the most successful captive breeding program in the world.
(btw no idea why the above seems to want to be a hyperlink?? All instructions are in Chinese characters at the moment so no clue how to fix? Um yes this is one of the many reasons i'm ashamed to say i'm in IT lol)

See if you can spot the adolescent pandas gobbling bamboo here!




This pic looks fake i reckon but the pandas truly are that adorable!!!












Aaaaand once again he is eating :) It is pretty much all they do all day - not a bad life i reckon - so long as bamboo does it for you!