The Three Gorges cruise we had booked with Victoria Cruises (via Wendy Wu in Sydney) was our first exposure to 'organised' Chinese travel. I think 'organised' must mean something else here judging by the farcical nature of our transfer from Yichang Ferry Terminal to the boat itself. We made it there through luck rather than by virtue of any information provided - the 'embarkation' at the ferry terminal eventually turned out to be not to a boat but to a bus whi...

The slow boat to China arrived into a fog-filled Shanghai at about midday on Sunday and we sailed through immigration - only to have to wait for nearly an hour for our luggage to be brought off the boat. Definitely not in Japan anymore. The benefits of not being in Japan were immediately obvious when we took a taxi to our hostel for the pricely sum of £2.20. We stayed near People's Square, about twenty minutes walk from the river front - or at least we woul...

So we have made it to our next destination, but now have no access to facebook / phones. Please contact us via email (btinternet addresses) or this website. Thanks!!

From Hiroshima we took the train to Kyoto, the birthplace of traditional arts and crafts in Japan, and until relatively recently, the Japanese capital. In fact some argue that the capital of Japan has never legally been changed to Tokyo, merely that the Emperor has moved his residence there. There are over 1600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto shrines in Kyoto so it's not easy to know where to start, or in fact where to end. By the time we went to Nara for t...

Japanese rail is a wonderful thing. Bullet trains that can take you from one side of the country to the other at twice the speed you can travel round Europe. Men that give you little slips to hand to your employer if the train is delayed, because train delays are so unheard of in Japan. And the JR rail pass, only available to foreigners, and bought outside of the country, but a little passport to explore as much of Japan as you can fit in to seven days. The ...