The honeymoon continues... Xi'an...

As promised, here's the first installment of the rest of our trip in China!

So, where were we? Shanghai... and an overnight train to Xi'an. Thankfully the trains in China were the best of all our overnight journeys. This may have had something to do with a certain wife saying she would not sleep in a 'hard' sleeper again (well were on honeymoon afterall!!!), so we had the luxury of 'soft sleepers'. Hurrah!

The train journey passed super quickly with a pretty good nights sleep, and we were able to check into our hostel early, shower, spruce and head out to explore Xi'an. To be fair we didn't get very far in the sweltering heat, and Starbucks may have been visited to cool off in the shadow of the Bell Tower. We crawled at a snails pace around the night market in the heat, heading back to the hostel for an early night before (what we were here for!) our trip to the Terracotta Warriors!

An hours drive out of Xi'an and we arrived in 'rip off central'. Of all the tourist traps we had visited on this trip, the Terracotta Warriors was the real winner. £1.50 for a Magnum ice cream????!!!! Shocking, I know. Thankfully after a 20 minute walk through numerous tacky souvenir alleys we were rewarded with our treasure, along with 10,000 other people! It was all elbows to get to the front and get the good view - luckily I'm small and nimble, and this wasn't a problem. And, wow, it was a good view when you did get to the front...

This was the third of the three pits which have been dug so far, and the biggest, which we saved until last. As you can see it is absolutely MASSIVE!!! It was completely awe inspiring, and once you were able to get past the mass scrabble of people you could really take in the enormity of it all...

My only disappointment was not being able to see the warriors up close, this was as close as you could get... behind glass...

...and this is how busy it was around these few warriors that you could get close to... (!)

...elbows out! How much more amazing would it have been if we could walk around next to and amongst a section of the warriors in the pits? Even if it was a reconstructed part. Niche market here I think?!

All in all though, a thoroughly amazing experience to go and see them... and we even brought home a little mini one for our mantlepiece! Hehe! A HUGE thank you to my Uncle Anthony who gave us this experience as a Wedding Present :)

Next stop Beijing!!!

x x x

Bling a ling...

... very happy to have my gorgeous engagement ring back with it's perfectly fitting friend :)

x x x

I spy...

...with my little eye:

1 honeymoon Paloma plate

1 TWG 'Weekend in Hong Kong' tea

1 TWG 'Tea Party Tea' also from Hong Kong!!!

x x x

The name's Jackman... Kat Jackman...

...and back to the reality of work at Pinewood Studios! *Sigh* This time last week we were on a train to Xi'an (photos soon!).

x x x

London calling...

Alas! It is true! We are back in London! A few weeks ago I was contacted regarding a job, and after ticking off all the pros and cons of cutting our trip short, we decided to go for it!

We decided that the Trans Siberian would always be there for us, and have promised each other that we shall return! So our last few days of the trip took us from Shanghai to Xi'an and Beijing... but fear not avid blog readers, my posts will continue with piccies of our highlights of the above, and onwards into married life! Ha!

It is great to be home, and back with our families and friends... and of course Boots...

...it didn't take long for him to get over his sulk and give me lots of cuddles and purrrrrrs :)

x x x

Shanghai Sun

Sweltering in the Shanghai sun, we actually managed a fair spot of sight seeing over the few days we were there... after seeking some traveller tips from Tom (skyscraper and general China travel guru!) we headed to the waterside - to 'The Bund' with it's old colonial style buildings which overlook the newer and ever growing (sky high) financial district of the city, and by night has some very fancy bars with great views of the glowing boats and luminous skyscrapers…

Tunnel under the river!

Drinks at The Hyatt

38 degrees is pretty hot. Pretty much every 100m walked ends with a gallon of water being drunk and a bucket load of sweat dripping from us. Glamorous I know. I've taken to fitting in with the locals with my UV umbrella... this includes decapitating anyone in my path ;)

...well, if you can't beat them, join them! This last pic was at a beautiful garden we visited just outside of Shanghai... we were pretty impressed with ourselves manoeuvring our way across Shanghai and onto a local bus to a Water Village an hour away (Luckily I didn't have to resort to charades and making train noises, aka "choo choo" this time - don't ask!). The village was stunning, looking back at the pictures I almost forget just how hot and sweaty it was... almost ;)

And so to summarise…

...next stop Terracotta Warriors!

x x x

Hong Kongers!

Leaving beautiful Halong Bay and Hanoi behind, we headed back into the skies towards Hong Kong to stay with Sophie & Richard Ivey - also fairly recent newly weds!

Their amazing pad in central Hong Kong is sky high on the 28th floor... don't look down!

We revelled in luxury, dipping in the pool, and relaxing in the jacuzzi & steam rooms. The latter seeming rather pointless as the heat of the sun beat down and the humidity climbed upwards... 34 degrees and counting... phew! Sweaty!

Never having visited this side of the world, and lacking any knowledge of the geography here, I was amazed... Okay, hands up who knew Hong Kong had a huge green and leafy peak behind it? And who knew Hong Kong is 80% national park? And who knew there are lots of beautiful islands you can hop skip and jump across to?! Well, not me that's for sure! It was such an exciting place to be, and all my expectations were completely surpassed (not difficult when all you are expecting is a gazillion skyscrapers!)

The Peak, viewed from Sophie and Rich's pad...

Hong Kong Island below us with the mainland across the water.

We spent an evening heading across to the fifth tallest building in the world by ferry, to watch the light show and have some drinkies in the sky...

(The one on the left!)

108 floors later we were up in the clouds with some sky high prices too! Nevertheless, an amazing view, justice cannot be done with this pic!

Armed with some excellent maps, we explored the city...

...buying some silks in the market, perusing the antiques and, of course, discovering yet more stunning temples...

We also managed to catch up with my chum Boglarka, 'B', who Ciaran and I met whilst travelling in Australia - she is now a radiographer in Hong Kong! It was great to catch up, we dined and then waltzed along the Avenue of Stars on the waterfront...

We even found a 'Law' on the way!

Pip pip! Shanghai calling!

x x x

Halong Honeymoon

Arriving in Hanoi rather jaded from our overnight bus, we immediately set to arranging our trip to Halong Bay. We needed something to look forward to, and FAST! Less than 24 hours later we were en route to yet another World Heritage Site :)

With 2000 islands (although we did hear another rather tenuous version that there are 1969 islands which is the year that Ho Chi Minh died?!) rising up out of the emerald waters, Halong Bay is truly a breathtakingly beautiful place. Halong means 'where the dragon descends to the sea', and legend has it that a dragon gouged out the islands with its flailing tail, finally collapsing into the sea, filling the bay with water, leaving only the peaks visible. Well, you have to love a good dragon tale, eh?!

With gazillions of tour boat operators, it seems to be rather a minefield when it comes to picking your cruise. Luckily we had a very lovely wedding present from Steve and Jean to put towards our trip here, so we were able to take our pick from the rather more luxurious cruises - swit swoo!

The Paloma tempted us with her traditional junk boat style, honeymoon suite and gourmet food. Well, we did have a terrible journey from Hue and we are still on honeymoon after all! Here she is in all her glory...

Our own balcony too!

We spent 3 days and 2 nights cruising like kings around Halong Bay and the surrounding areas, visiting a floating village, the 'amazing cave' (no joke), kayaking, squid fishing, spring roll making (and yes I got a prize as mine were so good! Hehe!), sipping cocktails at sunset and eating more food after more food. We also had a surprise in store for us on our second night...

Cue lights, cue the crew singing Unchained Melody, cue psychedelic cake, flaming cocktail, flowers and a china plate...and the whole ship chanting "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!"

...one for the mantelpiece! ;)

We felt very lucky, and made some great friends along the way too...

Pearl farm at the floating village...

All in all, it was just perfect - thank you Steve and Jean!

x x x

P.S. A BIG thank you to Maddy who has helped me post this blog! Due to China's internet restrictions I can't access my blog from here :(