Well we set off on the rather tortuous, 6hr bus journey from Tianshui to Wudu in which was really more of a minivan than an actual bus. But we arrived around 9 o clock in on Monday evening to be met by Danni and her 12 year old cousin (who she is teaching english to). We marched back to her house with all our bags and had a late supper after meeting her parents and granny again. We hit the hay after this knackered from our journey.

Tuesday we were up early and had mi pi for breakfast. Mi pi is cold steamed water and rice flour cut into rectangles with vinegar/soup, spice and sliced cucumber. Much tastier than its noodle cousin called mian pi which quite frankly is disgusting! Then we met the 5 students who Danni is giving extra lessons to everyday. They were all 14 or 15 years old apart from her cousin Jack (who picked us up from the bus) who is 12. They have mostly just finished Junior school and are going into middle school at the end of the summer. There were 2 girls and 3 boys plus a friend of the girls who was the same age but spoke fanatastic english. We chatted and taught them how to play Stop the Bus which the boys were awful at but the girls tried hard!

In the afternoon we had a nap and then met one of Danni's (many) cousins, called mi mi, to have hotpot with her and her friend. After hotpot we went to the friends house to play mahjiang, passing some dancers in the town square on the way. We played Sichuan version of mahjiang which, for those who know how to play, excludes playing with all dragons, winds and flowers making it far simpler to play!

On wednesday Danni had lessons again in the morning while Suse and i chilled. Then a couple of guys that mi mi knew came to visit us and meet the foreigners basically. They were only 16 years old so we played a card game with them (a chinese game called Kings and beggars- good game!) until lunchtime when we went downstairs to have potato and sweetcorn at Danni's grans place. That night we were invited to KTV with mi mi's friend's friends. Confusing i know! We'd had hotpot with mi mi's friend on Tuesday night so knew him but not his friends. One of the friends was EXTREMELY annoying. He was called Ardu and the first thing he said to us was, "I love you!". Erm tip Ardu if your trying to make a good impression with new foreigners and only know a few words of english...DON'T SAY I LOVE YOU THE FIRST TIME TO YOU MEET THEM! He pretty much epitimised all annoying chinese men being loud, annoying, forcing us to eat and drink and sing and saying he wanted a foreign wife. Well don't look this way mate! So KTV wasn't great fun but we got through it and headed away reasonably early having managed to avoid the "dancing" they attempted to make us do!

Unfortunately on Thursday they invited us out for lunch and afternoon frivolities. They took us up the South hill in Wudu which afforded us amazing views down the valley Wudu is in. Thankfully the frivolities were mah jiang and cards. Suse and i played mah jiang after to lunch with a couple of chinese men...and slaughtered them i'm very happy to say!!! We were each given 10 points and at the last count I had 27 of them and Suse the other 13 meaning the chinese men had to "buy in" to coin a poker expression!

After a walk up the hill and a banquet with all the men that were there we headed down the hill and bought some trainers for Suse and a haircut for me! We planned to leave for Jiu Zhai gou lakes the next day (friday) and Danni was going to come with us which was really exciting but unfortunately on Thursday night it absolutely POURED down with rain causing floods and landslides all over Northern Sichuan and Southern Gansu (basically round Wudu and Jiu zhai gou area) so we decided it was too dangerous to get the bus there. Good call from us as Danni heard later in the day that the road south was closed due to accidents and landslides. As the rain continued and more reports of HUGE floods only 8km from Jiu zhai gou appeared in the news Suse and i decided that we were already pushed for time as it was so we changed our travels plans...completely! There has also been an earthquake and major floods in Yunnan province where we were headed after Sichuan. Clearly the god of rain is against us!

So having decided to change our plans we headed back to Tianshui on Saturday in order to catch a train south instead of a bus. On friday and saturday morning before our bus home we played another chinese card game with Danni and her dad called Shen Ji or Upgrade. It seems to have no limit to the number of rules but after a few games Suse and i were gradually grasping it...slowly! Danni also taught us how to cook tu dou su, spicy potato strips which are really delicious! In the evening Danni gave me a chinese name which finally i actually like! I've been given quite a few over the year but none have really appealed to me...until now! So my chinese name is, Xiao Kai which means, Small (as in short as in Shorter) happy, joyful and cheerful! But Kai is more choosen because it sounds like K!

Now we are back in Tianshui after another Lovely (heavy sarcasm) bus journey! Here are our new travel plans:

Feng Huang

De Hang (both in Hunan province)

Guilin and Yangshuo (in Guang xi province)

and anything that catches our eye while we are there!

So next time lets hope no more natural disasters have inhibited our travels any further!!!