Chengdu is the capital of the Sichuan province and home to the Giant Panda. The pandas are amazing creatures, they’re big, cute, fat, lazy and stupid, and pretty much everything I would want to be if I were an animal. The cubs we saw at a couple of months old and less than two weeks old were especially adorable. I did have some resentment about them though. So much effort and time is going into prolonging the existence of these animals when they are dying out t...

The overnight train lasted for 12 hours. It was plenty more comfortable than the overnight buses in Vietnam and thankfully the baby in my compartment stopped crying after two hours. We arrived in Xi'an at about 9 and after booking into our hotel next to the bell tower we went to see the terracotta warriors. Walking into the first pit is a great experience as underneath you appear thousands of staring warriors standing in battle formation. The statues include gen...

I woke up in the apartment at 6am, I had only got to sleep at 4am after having some drinks for Jordan's birthday so as you can imagine I was pretty sleepy. I was also very reluctant to rise as it dawned on me that I was awaking to solitude. Not before seeing Brian and Laura in January would I see another person I knew. I realized that for the first time ever I would be completely alone and if I was being honest it kind of scared me. I also knew however that I h...