Raindrops keep falling on our heads.

So we reached Vietnam. We left our friends in beautiful Yangshou and accompanied a German across the border. Crossing was relatively painfree and although we do not enjoy buses as much as trains at least we get a more detailed view of the country you are wizzing by.

Vietnam is definately not China (no shit huh?). Everyone actually does wear the cone shaped hats and cars are replaced by motorcycles. It's more layed back as well since people aren't as militaristic about their work and such. The weather is warmer and stickier . We also found bubble tea in Nam! Oh the bliss!

We stayed at Hanoi backpackers Hostel which at first an almost frighteningly large place. But we soon made friends and blew off the hostels rip-off deal of a tour to Halong Bay and went with the dodgy-ass tour agent down the street for half the price. Halong Bay is like Yangshou but in water and since I've already bored you with drawn out descriptions of how I enjoy poscard-esc view I'll refrain this once. We rode around the island in what they called a "junk", which can best be described as something like the wooden rivercruisers that they use in swampy places like New Orleans or the Disney movie "Bernhard and Bianca". Foods included (yummy fresh squid!) and you stop ever so often to inspect a cave, visit a fishfarm or simply to give us enough time to jump off the roof of the 3 storey tall boat and into clear and warm ocean. The weather was warm and amazing.

But only for so long.

Two nights later we're back in Hanoi and there is literally a thunderstorm over our heads. I've never seen such thick heavy rain go on for such an extent of time! you couldn't step out the front door without being drenched. It was so humid that the clothes that I wet after swimming in Halong Bay didn't dry even after 4 days of hanging on the end of my dorm bed. They are lovely and moldy now, thanks for asking. Yet we could not leave Hanoi! The rail tracks were floded and the constantly sulky weather made us so down that we couldn't be bother to move or motivate us to do anything. So we watched dvds. Lots and lots of dvds. It was just what we needed cause after reaching half-way through our trip it was so nice just to chill out and sort out or impressions and just do nothing. Be bored for once! Boredom is awesome.

We're no in Hoi An, sort of the middle of the coast of Vietnam and we're heading on a 20 hour busride to Vientiane tomorrow. But such adventures will be told at another time. However, there is a spoiler .... IT DOESN'T RAIN ALL THE TIME IN HOI AN!!!!!! HALLELUJAH!

You Know You're in China When...

- the appropriate wear for your toddler is butt-less pants instead of diapers.

- you go for an innocent bike trip and end up fallen over in a rice paddy.

- bubble tea is from heaven and should be consumed always.

- dumplings is the only true form of breakfast. But beware of the sugar ones!

- you're not a tourist until you and your friends have matching colourful hats and a tour guide waving a flag in your face.

- Chinese think you are part of the tourist attraction when you go swimming in a picturesque river, and show up in dozens to take your picture.

- your chest hair is so impressive strangers feel the need to come up and tug it. (Thank you, David, for giving us many laughs!)

- the best thing on the menu is 'the boiled water explodes the vegetables' and 'pigs hotter in sauce'.

- anything is edible, including chicken feet, pigs' ears, and live turtles.

Bragging.

I sometimes have to pinch myself that what I see is real. On a bamboo raft cruising down the river with this gorgeous film-like landscape in front of me. The big dramatic hills often seen in Ang Lee movies or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It's amazing but also so fun! I shared my raft with this new found friend and amazing entertainer named David who can sing "Hit Me Baby One More Time" like no other.

I think Yongshou has been the highlight of my trip so far. It's incredibly tourist, the main street reminding me at times of the night market in Chiang Mai at it's worst with horrible singers bawling out from one tackily named bar after another and epileptic lights. But that does make it quite homey as well. The closer we get to Thailand the more I hear myself talk about it. We even rode motorcycles today! Best thing ever!!!

Tomorrow we plan to mudwrestle in the Moon Cave and afterwards swim to our hearts content. It's so rough living in 30 celcius of heat! =)

In the Politically Correct Far East

Blogging is currently stressing me out a little bit. See, I had a dream last night that I kept typing and typing and everything just came out dyslexic on my screen....sort of what is happening to me now! Oh well...Chinese keyboards are a weird one anyway.

We have now traveled for about 4 weeks and we're not bored yet! Beijing was great and we wish we could have stayed longer. If Mongolia was the era of the aussies then Beijing was definately the era of the Brits. A whole bunch of them had arrived from their own corner or travels and together we hiked the Great Wall. It was amazing! So beautiful everywhere you turned! We trecked the 10 km hike along the wall from Janling to Simatai which tooks a good 3 hours since certain parts of the wall are a good 80 degrees steep.

We've also seen the other tourist classics such as Tianamen Square, the Forbidden City, rented a boat on the lake by the Summer Palace and had Beijing Duck! Tasty but yes, a little bit overated.

We then headed down to Hangzhou to visit our good friend from high school Jennifer who's there visiting her grandparents before she goes to Honkong for her internship. It's so nice traveling with someone who speaks the language. Somehow, things becme much easier. She showed us teh beautiful West Lake which is surrounded by beautiful Pagodas and took us to a vegetarian resturant where everything looks, smells and tastes like meat but isn't! Hilarious.

We also did our fair share of shopping and barganing. Clara and I are getting better at being agressive with out digits of 1 to 6 since those are the only ones we know.

We are now in Guilin and will be heading foy Yongshou tomorrow which is supposed to be one of the most picturesque places in China. We're very excited about renting bikes and going to a crazy bar named Monkey Janes! Jennifer is joining us for a few days here so I'm sure everything will go wonderfully smooth. We aim to hit Hanoi by Oct 26. Wish us luck!

What to do five days in Ulan Bator!

Following popular demand, and Annika standing by the computer chanting 'Update, update, update!', I've decided to take my responsibilities as blogger seriously and let everyone know what we're up to.

This afternoon we arrived by train to Beijing and are now staying at the slightly disturbingly named Red Lantern House, which luckily is not a brothel, but in fact very nice. Arriving to Beijing was fantastic after spending two weeks on trains and the cold of Siberia and Mongolia. It's sunny and warm, and best of all it's an actual huge city, which is a nice change from staying in nomadic gers in the countryside! Maybe I'm too much of a city girl, but I'm looking forward to going to having more than two food options (and actually being able to order vegetarian food in restaurants instead of just a double sideorder of french fries!), going to nice bars and all that jazz.

But I'm getting ahead of my story! We've spent the past five days in Mongolia, which was a country some of you may know I was dreading (I think my exact words may have been: "WHAT are we going to do for FIVE days in Ulan Bator?"), but after hearing exciting stories from other travellers who'd been there, we were both very much looking forward to going to such an exotic country, and it completely lived up to our expectations!

We spent a few days in UB with our three Australian friends and two new Danish acquaintances. Looked at a Buddhist monastery. Went to see a Mongolian song and dance performance, that included absolutely crazy contortionists that could bend in ways that no human should be able to. Got happily pissed on Chinggis beer with half the hostel at a local pub. Wandered around the enormous black market with a tight grip on our valuables, and stocked up on plenty of winter clothes, as Mongolia was quickly turning out to be the coldest country of our trip.

After a few days of leisurely exhausting UB's tourist attractions (which to be honest are not all that plentiful), it was time to head out to the countryside! A night in Terelj national park with a nomadic family, where we got to stay in a ger with a couple of others from the hostel. We arrived at about nine-thirty in the morning, just as a biting cold snowstorm was gearing up, and were led into the main family ger, where an enthusiastic Mongolian man gave everyone an enormous shot of vodka and instructed us to drink up. Bizarre, but it certainly helped against the cold. The rest of the day was pleasantly spent hiking in the beautiful snowy landscape, and horsebackriding, and the evening spent warming up by the stove and playing cards by candlelight with the other travellers.

Good times. Some day we'll go back to Mongolia and spend more time there, see the Gobi desert and ride two-humped camels. But for now it's all about enjoying the sun and the city life, and getting used to Chinese characters!

You know you're in Russia when...

• you hear the T.A.T.U song as someone's mobile ringsignal
• a murial of Lenin is watching over you as you buy tickets to the metro
• polite phrases are a waste of time
• showing both cleavage and bellybutton isn't too much
• you order a Russian beer with your lunch and you get a complimentary shot of vodka
• you look up from washing your face in the bathroom only to find an older woman examining you with a burning cigarette dangling from her lips
• rollerblading is the cool way to glide (even old men with walking frames use them!)
• fake scaffolding is a good alternative
• you need to plan in an extra 10 minutes to your metro journey for the ride up/down the escalator
• you recieve square sheets for a rectangular bed and there is a big hole in your duvetcover
• when you never can get "Winds of Change" by the Scorpions out of you head.

Leg one of journey completed.

One train later we're in Irkutsk, somewhere in Siberia next to Lake Baikal, the worlds deepest lake and fresh water reserve. Though groggy from very little sleep, arriving at the trainstation at 6am this morning was amazing. As we walked to our hostel we kept exclaiming things like : "There is no time limit to how much fresh air we can have!", "OMG! Can you believe we've walked for 5 min without having to open and slam closed a single door?!" "Clara Clara! No more noodles! We get to eat on plates today!", which got "I think being able to drink tap water is the best thing about Irkutsk!" as a reply.

So how was the train journey? Well, anyone who thought riding on a train for 3 days can go stuff it. Adapting to a new culture is definately an emotional rollercoaster, and especially when most of your energy is dedicating to find something (which might or might not be where it is supposed to be) and communicating. Despite all this the trip went fairly well. We shared a cabin with 40-something couple called Lena And Sergej and were Irkutsk locals. They spoke as much English as we spoke Russian and still they managed to teach us a card game (which we still don't quite understand the rules of but Clara in her never endig talent managed to win anyway) and we taught Lena how to make friendship bracelets in return. We shared food and laughs and they definately thought we were mental for volentarily exploring Siberia. Lena did start to get on our nerves trowards the end though as her motherly instincts got a bit to much. Enough said.

At the of the second day when Clara and I were just starting to feel a bit shit about this whole train thing we stumbled upon an Australian on the platform! oh the joy! Clara and I were starved for english speaking company and wanted nothing rather than to hug him then and there (thankfully we refrained.) So we spent an evening with Russ, Liam and Michael in true Russian style which we were severely punished for the next day. Surprisingly we're on the same train to Ulan Bator together so that will be fun.

Right. Of to the market to grab us some food. Clara's and my stomach haven't been at it's greatest of late so we figured we'd cook our own food tonight. Cheers!