So it is regarded as Southern Chinas mostrevered monasteries, the largest in Yunnanand is 85 Yuan to visit. Excitement for the 1618 built Zhongdian highlight dims slightly while cueing in the rammed ticket office, which is a huge palace sized money launderer in itself. As I disembark the tourist bus my first endeavour is to avoid the crowds. Like a mob a chinese tour group will storm the main attraction so opting to walk away from the walled grounds and complete ...

Heading back to Shangri la we congratulate ourselves on managing to achieve an expenditure of only 900 yuan between us in 5 days, that means a mere 15 dollars each per day. Now, call us scummy backpackers but with that money we have visited two of Yunnans highlights, eaten like kings (well a fried egg sandwich is as good as it gets for breakfast) with pumpkin soups, garlic strewn eggplant plates and the lovable spicy lotus-root dish, which we still manage to atta...

Think around 80 buses, each with a whopping 40 people inside, each one having to pay the enterance fee of 65 yuan (11 dollar) and you can just about do the math of extortion for one of natures beautiful places... well before you include all of the hikers taking the mountainous trail of course. This morning I have woken with chest pains, there are shy whispers of a form of asthma induced by climate changes, exercise and smoke (think hefty fires in the cabins on...

Shangri la in Tibetan stands for 'Land to sacredness and peace', now thats a pretty tough reputation to live up to but I will admit driving through a complete blank canvass within the clouds is definitely one of those outer worldly experiences... with the exception of a crashed truck as a reality check. When you arrive in the pouring rain and there are touts demanding that what you really need is a taxi to a different town another 200 km away you think here we g...