Yangshuo was our last stop in mainland China before Hong Kong and it was here we marked our 2nd month of the journey.Our journey to Yangshuo took 24 hours on buses and trains from Yichan, near the 3 Gorges Dam. Not nice! Yangshuo is surrounded by these giant limestone boulders (see pics for details) and these make the place look very strange. Kind of like another planet.We spent one day cycling in the Chinese countryside among the giant boulders. We climbed amo...

Hong Kong was our last stop in China and was quite a big different to the rest of the country. It´s a very modern and cool city and the view from the Kowloon island onto the skyscapers of Hong Kong island is amazing. While we were there, we stayed in Mongkok, which is on the Kowloon. The area around our hotel was packed on every single street with shops and neon and people - I really don´t thing there is anywhere like it in London or any other city! Compared to...

Yangtze River, This was probably the least exciting part of the China trip. Things weren´t helped as both of us were pretty ill at different times on the boat...still we managed to enjoy some of the experience. Our river cruise covered 3 days starting at Chongqing. What to say about Chongqing...30 million people apparently,and the pollution to show for it! Most of the Yangtze river is similarly polluted and at timesit can be difficult to see the buildings and p...

Our last four days in Japan were in the hustle and bustle of Tokyo and we stayed right near the heart of things in Ueno. I loved the atmosphere in Tokyo and the lights and strangeness of it all. Our first day we wondered around the Skinjuku station area. I was amazed by all the buildings full of arcade games (Enda, you would have loved it!) and all the people in suits playing then. Rick got to play Street Fighter but I stuck to taking photos. As it got darker,the...

To reach our next stop, we crossed the country with a 6 hour train journey from Kyoto to Nagone and then through the Japanese Alps to Takayama. We spent two great days there, staying in an actual temple. Our room itself was a brilliant experience - it had Japanese style futons on the floor, a dressing screen, sliding doors without a lock and a Japanese garden right outside. Actually there were no locks in the whole building, even on the front door, which shows ho...