Village pond, Yangshuo Style.

Another wonky day which saw tensions & tempers rise. Internet banking and the WWW are wonderful, until things go wrong, and when you are abroad and they go wrong, watch out! Won't bore you with the details but we ended up having to reveal security information to a trustee in order to get money moved to a functioning debit card. HBoS don't come out of today looking too shiny. Be warned that in China you cannot rely totally on internet banking, and certainly not on just any one bank!

Anyway, once we got our mitts on some readies and established a line of credit, and forewarned by yesterday's failure to secure train tickets, we sat down and got booking. We now have our train from Guilin to Chongquing 1100km, our boat from CQ to Yichang 800km, our next train Yichang to Xi'an1200km and our final flight Xi'an to Beijing 1500km, all booked and paid for. Hotels en-route are a WIP, but no problem.

The end is getting all too close for our liking.

Packed up sometime this PM ready for the early bird bus tomorrow. Hours & hours to Longji and it's rice terraces. Supposedly spectacular - we shall see.

Good and not-so-good news today on the pending grand sprog front. Louise has been having some late term difficulties which dictate an early delivery, by planned CS. At least it is planned and will therefore be properly managed. Now scheduled for 19th, when we will be entrained, Yichang to Xi'an. Hopefully our Chinese numbered mobile will function at that time.

Hunger drives me from the keyboard.

Cheers,
G&S
PS: Distances above are very approximate, but much greater than we had anticipated. Looks less on a map!