A'right, its London, innit?

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We have been in London for about two weeks, after a heart stopping immigration interrogation that gave us the distinct impression we were about to be put on a plane back to Beijing. They really hate it when you don't have a return ticket... Luckily we're filthy rich so they let us in.

Arriving felt a bit like coming home. We were welcomed at the airport by Kali and Mark, everyone spoke English (aw wite, innit?), and even if you have never been here, you know all the street names and have seen so many of the buildings its all eerily deja vu-ish.

Having nighttime options other than karaoke would have been enough to delight but of course there is a myriad of things here to keep us entertained. After realising our first tube ride cost as much as a whole day in Laos, we decided the secret to having a good time was to be blissfully ignorant and never do another mental currency conversion. This strategy has worked superbly and we have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves for a couple of weeks.

Between the hail and thunder we have managed to get to plenty of entertainment, starting with a stand-up comedy show where the best part was the comedians ripping into a group of conservative Americans in the audience. So what if they were school kids? They should learn from an early age that such attitudes deserve vehement derision. The Lord of the Rings musical was a spectacular show, with the most expensive set ever built. It was money well spent, although a little more could have been used towards the song writing.

We have made it to the Natural History Museum (dinosaurs etc), Science Museum (Apollo moon orbiter etc), and the National Gallery (Van Gogh, Da Vinci et al). All are absolutely huge and the buildings that house them are as impressive as the contents. Yesterday was a boat trip down the Thames to Greenwich, were East and West are divided. We had a mean time, and celebrated by going to what, in one respect, must be the first Mexican restaurant in the world. There was a great display of the evolution of clocks, as one man gave his life to trying to invent a clock that would work on a ship (the old school pendulum ones aren't so good in rolling seas) to use to determine latitude. One of his five attempts alone took 19 years. But he got there in the end so perhaps we can draw on that in darker periods on our next leg. More on that soon.

Too much to cover but of course we have wandered the streets around some of the justly famous sights like Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square (Tiananmen Square would eat it alive), Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Covent Garden, Soho, Camden Market, and on and on and on.

Its hard to tear ourselves away but after eating all of Kali and Marks food, making some international calls, and lounging all over their house as they leave for work, our welcome must be precariously thin. So tomorrow we are catching a train with our bikes down to Cornwell and the southernmost tip of the UK - Land's End. From there its 1600km (1000 miles innit?) north to John O'Groats, the tip top of Scotland. That should take us a month or so. We bought a tent and cooking gear and plan to camp as much as possible to avoid the crippling accommodation costs. No doubt there will be some tales to tell along the way, and we shall do our best to keep things interesting, so stay tuned. PLEAAAAAAASE!

Baked potata ya mingers
C&D