Arrived In Guangzhou – the train actually took 27 hours and with the added delays of missing the first train, it was a long journey indeed. Even so, I think it is my favorite way to travel. The beauty of hopping on a moving vessel that comes equipped with a comfortable bed and a picture window that allowed for me to see so much of a country as vast as China. The Kunming – Guangzhou line cuts across the whole of southern China and the landscape varie...

Some travel days just don’t seem to end. It seems that whenever I make plans, I wish immediately I didn’t. I can’t seem to learn this lesson.In Shangri-la, after learning I couldn’t do the overland route to Tibet (altitude), I found a cheap $50 flight from Ligiang to Kunming. Because I had already done the fabulous overnight train on that route, I figured I would fly and just get on with my travels and get to Kunming in order to go some...

Mama Naxi's Guesthouse – what a difference from the place I stayed when I was first in Lijiang – that place was eerily quiet, yet beautiful. Problem was I felt like I was intruding in the hosts life rather than a welcome guest. Mama Naxi’s – wow, what a wild place. Mama Naxi is a Naxi (Minority People tribe) and runs a crazy, loud, full operation. Naxi women are the ones who run a Matriarchial society, can have affairs outside of ma...

Woke up from under my huge Duvet – looked out to the mountain vista anticipating a bright blue sky and……..the mountains were gone and the sky was not. It was raining! My worst fear – slippery rocks. Just the day before, the New Yorkers and I were saying how impossible this would be to do in the rain…..the path was difficult as it was, add rain and paths would turn to mud and the bare rock parts would be too slippery to walk…...

Tiger Leaping Gorge – Day 1  Tiger Leaping Gorge is pretty much the reason I came to China. Last September, October, my friend Hilary – the Aussie who started the home in Cambodia for girls rescued from sex slave trafficking, did a 6 week backpacking trip with her 15 year old son. They did Vietnam, Cambodia and China and she posted her fantastic pictures, as well as detailed travel information, on her blog. I was home, working again and living vic...