The countryside from Lao Cai to Sapa is amazing enough to keep us awake all the way there. Lush green bamboo forests hug the sides of steep hills, interspersed with precipitous paddy field terraces. Instantly we like this place and check into a room with a mountain view & en-suite. Happy days. The room comes with free breakfast and being rather hungry we opted to take advantage right away. Helena has an amazing pancake with banana and chocolate sauce and ...

We arrived in Kunming after taking a hard sleeper overnight from Dali. We arrived at the Cloudland Hostel around 7am. First impressions were that it was a typical Chinese big city and for the most part we weren't wrong. We spent most of our first day acquainting ourselves with the number 22 bus. We both now know the route of this bus well. After catching the bus in the right direction we bought bus tickets at the East Kunming Bus Station. First two tickets to He...

Chengdu to Dali.Staying in the old town of Chengdu was a great location if a little odd. There was a french restaurant and a "pub" called Scent of a Woman in amongst the usual Chinese restaurants, street vendors and ear cleaners (ok not so usual).We walked quite a bit of the city centre passing the Mao statue many times. Most of the walking was due to our inept attempts to find the Schezuan Opera House. After poor directions and false information we eve...

Waiting at Beijing west train station is not the place to need the loo, especially if you think the suspicious meat you have recently eaten may want to exit quite quickly... i ventured to 3 rest rooms within the station and no cubicles had doors that locked, it's one thing hovering over a hole in the ground it's another to multi task by hovering and aiming as best you can whilst straining to make sure the door stays shut... i decided i wasn't yet that desperate a...

Ok, so first blog.... what to write... We arrived in Beijing Tuesday morning, sussed out the subway quite easily and found our way to the Sunrise Hostel trying not to get run over by cars, rickshaws and cyclists. They have zebra crossings here but i think these must just be for show, i read that you are supposed to have a confident walk to cross in front of traffic on zebra crossings... we are working on that :/ Next we wandered around Tiananmen Square and the F...