Itchy Feet

So the day/night before we left for Sydney we were treated to a lovely day out at a Hot Springs in the city. We were expecting natural hot springs amongst a forest! We were instead taken to a 5 star facility that is built around the hot springs using the water for baths.We were treated to it by Eddie and his lovely girlfriend and her on came along too (an absolute cutie) two of their friends joined us too. So we lazed from one hot bath to the next and then we were brought in for a buffet lunch. Lovely relaxing way to end our time in China....we thought! After wed finished up they took us for a traditional 'Beef Hot pot' which I thought was like an English hot pie but its actually a table with a hob that you place a pot of boiling water on and order what you like to put in, for Chinese this includes all sorts of parts of the Cow including tongue, stomach  and god knows what else. They also threw in some spuds and ve...

Shanghai   We loved Shanghai. When we thought of a Chinese city we imagined it to be dirty, crowded, all sorts of meat hanging outside shop fronts, and a safe diet of McDonalds! It has the highest population of any city in China (and the world too im sure!) at 24.15 million!!!   Although the habits of most Chinese is quite gross (on the train the guy sitting opposite me was chewing rather loudly on a chicken leg, feet and all, any remants of bone or fat not edible was spat into his water bottle!!) the streets are very clean and well kept. The train from Fuzhou to Shanghai was 7 hours going at 200km/h but it was comfortable enough. Train system in China is so efficient and very modern so that's always good. We were lucky with our hostel. Great location, rooftop bar, and a restaurant attached that was cheap and the food was so goooood!!!!!   We were advised to visit the Bund which was the financial district that extended along the river. I was adamant we see ...