I joined my first group tour in Beijing - there are twelve of us plus a trip leader and we'll be together for the next 20 days as we make our way around China to Hong Kong. It's a fun bunch of people, aged 19 to 35 - Jill and Neil from from Limavady, Catherine and Tom from Cork, Vicky and Dave from Liverpool, Mel and Brad from New Zealand (but living in London), Sara and Tim from Australia, Emily from America and our trip leader, Bobo, who's from a village about ...

Who should turn up in my carriage on the train from Ulaanbaatar to Beijing but Ludwig, who left DB the same day as me, also to spend a year travelling - what are the chances?! Mel, Pav, Tom and I were hanging out in the ornately-designed Mongolian restaurant car with Ludwig and his friend Bjorn from Norway. At Sain Chand station (about eight hours after we left UB) we were joined by Killian and Aoife. We had great craic and got through a lot of beer... which made...