From the quietness of Kata Hill, we're back in the hustle & bustle of city life in Hanoi, and from not wanting to be on the road again, we're enjoying it. The old quarter is noisy and traffic chaotic, we had to get used to once again dodging motorbikes and cars, which weren't really in abundance last time I visited seven years ago. There are no pavements as such as these form shop frontages or parking spaces for motorbikes. Even though chaotic, like Thamel in...

We are loving doing nothing other than getting up from our big comfy clean bed, having coffee on the veranda, venturing to the restaurant for a hearty breakfast and then flopping by the stunning pool, hidden up in the hills above Kata. It's a killer calf burning walk up the driveway! At the bottom of the driveway about a ten minute walk away are lots of cheap eateries and a fruit market where today we bought custard apple, oranges, passion fruits, mango and rambu...

Yangshuo has been fab and much needed. Nice to finish China on a high note too. We stayed at Sudder St, a new guesthouse only open for 4 months and whose design is up for some awards. Our room with floor to ceiling glass window opening onto a balcony overlooking rice paddies and fishing ponds, with the ubiquitous karst formations in the background, cost us £12 a night. One of the cheapest rooms we've secured whilst here. The downstairs communal area was a great ...

Well, it's been a little warmer here than Beijing, but also very very wet! Our arrival didn't go too well either. For the second time in two months, Tony's bag never made it. Thankfully the airline delivered it to our hostel the next afternoon. Hopefully this will be the last time our bags go missing! Guilin doesn't really offer much, the sites it does have, an extortionate entry fee is charged. We walked along the river and as w approached a rock where a natural...

Xi'an, Pingyao and Beijing. 23 Nov - 2December Heading towards the end of our China travels, flying from Beijing to Guilin to sample rural China with rice terraces, cycling through little villages in the countryside, bamboo rafting down the Li River and the stunning karst scenery the area is famed for. We could have caught another overnight train and whilst I don't mind them, the thought of spending twenty hours cooped in a cabin with two strangers and tons of b...