Hadn't really expected to do a blog from here - but this is how it goes. Left the cruise boat at 8pm slightly behind scheduled and piled on to a bus to Yichang 30km away. Went through enormous tunnels of at least 8km long through the mountain sides. Our guide had promised to help us get on a bus to Wuhan when we arrived and so we thought we would be travelling with Mike and Pam for the next 5 hours or so. The plan was to get to Wuhan and see if we could get o...

Having diverted our trip from Xian and the Terracotta Warriors we had hoped to see something instead - unfortunately the weather blotted out all of the landscape and we could only just see the other side of the Yangze. We decided not to go on the first excursion which started at 7am and got up about 8 to have our oats and fruit (No 2 declared she loved Oats - not having had them before) but by the time we were dressed and ready everyone else was returning on boa...

Here we are - amazing that we got here and such a good journey too. We booked the plane flight 2 days ago and thought it was all done only to receive an email asking for passport copy, credit card copy signature etc etc. So had to go off and find a photocopy shop. All done though and ready to go. Arrived in Chongqing after a short 45 minute flight (would have been 17hrs on bus). Now needed to get booked on a Chinese passenger ship asp. Luckily as we walked ...

We're going to China - it has been in doubt a little bit due to the difficulty of getting a visa and sorting out travel. But yesterday on the third visit to the Chinese Embassy we picked up 5 visas. In the afternoon we made our way back to the train station to sort out a ticket from Hanoi to Guilin (20 hour journey). The lady at the counter did not want to speak to us for an hour - but finally we got our tickets - saving $100 from the greedy touts! So we're ...

Ninh Binh - we made our own way there on the train for 70000d (about £3) on a train with hard seats - literally - a wooden bench seat. But for only 2 hours or so it was fine. Fortunately we didn't order anything from the on train buffet as even the local people next to us had trouble biting through the meat & slop. Strangely there were no hawkers when we arrived and the streets were quiet. We walked along the street and came across the Queen mini hotel w...