I'd gotten into Kobe far earlier than the meeting time with my first couchsurf host. Couldn't have my first reference being tainted by dodgy punctuality... I was pretty surprised that without any references, the first person happy to host me was a young local girl, Chisato. She'd given me some pretty decent tips on things to do in Kobe, so the next morning I went and climbed Mount Rokko. I was told by my host and a few locals that once I reached the top, to ask w...

After the madness of China, arriving in a place that plays bird tweets out their speakers on train platforms and where cab drivers wear white gloves was pretty dreamy. My first hostel in Japan had a traditional set-up with a thin mattress on a layer of tatami. To match the rest of the country I had a pretty peaceful one for my first night in Japan. The next day I headed over to the museum of Osaka's history and walked around their castle which everyone advises n...

One of the guys on the trans tour was travelling through Siberia to get to his new uni in Shanghai. So after I reached, we'd met and he took me over to his halls. The week I was in Shanghai was a national holiday in China so everyone gets the week off and it's madness! All prices are ramped up and hostels were rolling out on Centre Parcs prices! So I stayed in his halls. He was actually off to Inner Mongolia for the week as it was his break too, but after he'd le...

I got to Guilin pretty late in the day, so had a meander round town and a pretty quiet one in the hostel. Next day I got up to catch a bus that took me to Li River, where we'd hop on our bamboo raft to Yangshuo. There wasn't actually any bamboo on board - just PVC - but was a nice trip spent with a Chinese girl and her parents. After the scenic journey they offer you another tour down the 'best part' of the river, on actual bamboo. We had a bit of time before tha...

Again the hard seat on the overnighter paid off and I managed to get a fair chunk of sleep in. For the English guy opposite, Johno, it was a different story. Boombox must've kept him up... Johno and I went and met the others who were in their sleepers and made plans to meet later for a hotpot. For my first day in Chengdu, the only thing really on the agenda was pandas. They've got a big breeding and research centre nearby and I ended up spending the whole day the...