Back to normality

Hello all ! Feels like I went away for AGES but its nice to be back in my own place with my things and the internet (the internet in China is restricted to big proportions, practically the only thing I was able to do was check Gmail, what is most worrying about it is that a lot of them don't realise its heavily censored).

Had an ammmazing time, the sleeper train was really fun, mostly because it reminded me of the train cabin in Harry Potter and also because I knew that it meant lots and lots of scrabble!
Our hotel was nice, the weather was pretty good and the food was really yummy, I had the BEST spinach & Aubergine lasagna, ughh just thinking about it makes me salivate a little.
But the highlight was definitely the bamboo raft ride down the Li River and/or the day we hired bikes, got to see so many beautiful sights (and some strange ones) I was totally in awe of nature there, those peak mountains are everywhere and at night they were lit up which I know sounds horrible and tacky but it was pretty cool.

I did feel at times like I was about to die from being ran over because people don't stick to driving on the roads and its generally a little chaotic compared to what I'm used to anyway.
And some of the motorbikes were electric (and often without lights) so you don't even notice them coming and the day we hired bikes was really fun I kept twitching in bed that night because of all the fear / adrenaline of the 5 hour bike ride, my parents wouldn't of approved of that bike ride. at. all.

Will pop up some photos soon!

Travelling essentials

Shot an hour before leaving, made me really excited!
If you go to flickr you can see my notes of the contents :D

eeeee !

We're all going on a summmmer holiday

Going to be away for a week as of tomorrow because its our birthdays (1 year & 4 days apart!) and originally he was going to take me to Phuket or somewhere beachy but I declined based on
1) increasing fear of flying
2) wanted to go somewhere new (last 2 trips were to Thailand)
3) living near the sea has striped away some of the attraction of a beach type holiday (although they are hardly comparable because the beach nearby ain't exactly fannytastic)....

SO we instead got ourselves visas (£120ish - ouch!) to go to China because we can get a choo choo there, I'm excited but nervous because I've never been on a sleeper before, I'm hoping we won't be put in a cabin with smelly, snoring, space invading men and I've been told they play annoying music throughout the train hmmm need to get some ear plugs...

Well looking forward to a week of abnormality without technology, just essentials plus some playtools - travel scrabble, some dicey word game, books & sketchbook.

We are planning to go to Guilin & Yangshuo via Shenzen then to Guanzhou before heading home but we'll see how that goes because you can't buy the train tickets in advance in Hong Kong so relying on the hope it won't be booked up !

Bling keyrings

Bling Bling Bling!

Pika Package sneak peak!

I've finished all of the artwork for my contribution towards the 'Go Travel' Pika Package project and hopefully will have the product finished in hand by tomorrow, I am pretty excited about this one!