17 February 2007 - Goodbye China, Hello Civilized World.

When we got off the bus to Yichang, we looked for a taxi to take us to the hotel. Same old routine with the taxi's-crowds gathering to see where we're going, drivers not wanting to do short journeys and/or wanting to take foreigners but finally found a guy who said he would take us. This guy turned out to be a complete and utter legend. Don't know what we'd have done without him. His name was Mr. Mao. He told us that our hotel was too pricey and there were nicer and cheaper ones closer. He came into the hotels with us to help us book a room and we eventually found a really nice place near the center at a really good price. Next stop on our trip was Hong Kong. When we told him this, he was phoning up travel agents to get the best deal! He told us that really it was much much cheaper to get a bus to nearby Wuhang and fly to Shengzen which shares its boarder with Hong Kong. He took us to the travel agent and did all the booking and got a great price for the flight which would have been about 3 times more expensive had we naively flown straight out of Yichang to Hong Kong. So anyway, hotel and flight sorted there was one other item very much on our agenda-some decent healthy food. Hadn't eaten anything but dried noodles from day one and it was really getting us down. Mr Legend Mao took us to an amazing restaurant which served some much missed western food. Vick got the salad hit she had been craving for weeks. Mr. Mao said he'd pick us up at 12 the next day and take us to the bus station and that we could settle up with him then. He charged so little for all his troubles so we gave him a decent tip. We got on the bus to Wuhang the next day. It was (as always) awful, but it was really cheap and only 4 hours which was just about bearable. Wuhang however wasn't so we didn't stay there any longer than we needed and got a taxi straight to the airport. The flight was at 8pm but was really delayed and we didn't get off the ground till gone 10. I'd accidentally left the treasured penknife Mr Mike Barrett lovingly bought me in my hand luggage which caused a bit of a stir when going through security. Had already checked in the main luggage however, but went back to the desk and the woman took it and said it would be waiting for me at the other end. Convinced i would never see it again, i went back through security pretty gutted-that penknife had become a bit of a 3rd member of our group. We arrived in Shengzen and surprise surprise, no sign of the penknife. We spent about an hour at the Shengzen help desk trying to locate it-they phoned Wuhang airport but nobody had a clue. To be honest, we never really felt confident anybody understood exactly what we were saying anyway. Felt totally gutted and had to indulge in a comfort McDonald's which was ideally located at the arrivals gate. Got on the Airport bus to the city and Vicksta started feeling pretty crook. Must have been all the traveling coupled with the new hot climate, she had to get off the bus early and we ended up checking in to a really posh hotel on the outskirts at about 2am. The next day Vick although still feeling rough showed how much of a soldier she really is (!) and said she was prepared to do the journey across the boarders to Hong Kong..