Another sleeper train, another destination, this time Kunming. We arrived around 5.30am so after a short orientation walk we headed to bed for a couple of hours before heading out to find some breakfast. It was a lovely warm day so we walked to the Green Lake Park and wandered through on our way to the Yuantong Temple, admittedly we got rather lost which didn't help as it was getting hotter and Pete's neck was starting to burn, which he blamed me for not packing ...

After another appalling night's sleep on a sleeper train we arrived in Kaili where we left our big rucksacks and headed out to a Minority village for two nights. The first village was clearly geared up for the tourist industry with lots of shops and stalls and lots of new building work going on. It is fascinating to see the wooden houses being made and the intricate patterns of the window frames and doors. We stayed in a simple guesthouse with seriously hard beds...

The last few days we have spent in the truly magical Longji rice terraces, staying in these two amazing villages, with no vehicular access, set high amongst the terraces. The walk up to our first village took about 40 minutes from the car park and yet again the temperature was causing us slight sweating issues. We arrived at our guesthouse built in the traditional wooden style. We had a bit of a shock when we saw our en suite had a squat toilet instead of a ...

Hello again, Kung fu apprentice speaking! Well almost, as Carla said, I tried Kung fu for the first time on Thursday morning, and tried to master basic 20 moves that all beginners have to learn. We Started at 9am and by 10am i was a wreck. Doing anything in this heat is tough going, and not being built for hotter climates, i was struggling. After all that exercise i decided that the next logical thing to do was to buy a stupid hat, i thought it was rather cool an...

Same picture again I am afraid as we haven't been able to upload our pictures yet. What an amazing day we had yesterday, after writing our blog we had a look around the shops and market stools and I managed to do some bargaining on a bracelet.In the afternoon 10 of the group got a mini bus to a quieter part of the Li River where we got in our Kayaks and headed out, it was obvious from the start that we were not going to end up dry, as everytime you lifted the oar...