I know that I've been really slack keeping my blog up to date but between tourist attractions, travelling on long distance busses, bad internet connections and the odd hangover it feels like keeping your homework up to date! Will do better, I think the saying goes in all my report cards. Anyway from Hanoi I took a two day excursion to see the sights of Halong Bay. you basically join about 15-20 others on an old boat cruising round the area stopping off at variou...

I got into Hanoi Wednesday and arranged a pick up from the airport. This is the easy option I know but for $14 to take me to the hotel that I wanted without all the other hassle I think it was worth it. I didn't do much on my first day apart from have a look around and get my bearings. This is what I do on the first day in every city. I genrally just write the day off as a walk and wander. I actually ended up in a pub quiz on this Aussie couple's team. It's as go...

I arrived in Hong Kong via the Kowloon - Canton Railway which crosses the border from Schenzhen on the mainland. It was a pretty horrendous bus journey from Yangshou lasting 18 hours due to a 6 standstill traffic jam in the middle of the night. I was staying at a friend of mine from my ICL days, Chris, who was currently in London but had kindly left his keys with a mate for me to pick up. After the negotiating the very easy metro system to Central Hong Kong, I t...

This place was great. It is a tourist town for both Chinese and Westerners but there's loads to do and the sights are pretty special. I took a 5 hour coach from Dali to Kunming and then the hard sleeper train from Kunming to Yangshuo. I'm getting quite used to the 18 hour travelling days between places, and the trains are really good. The hole in the floor toilets that release straight onto the track are a novel idea as well! I got a bike on the first full day a...

Dali for me was just about chilling out and relaxing after the last few days in Deqin. I'd read that Lijiang was a preferable spot to Dali but I disagree and ended up staying for 5 days in the end. Lijiang old town looked all the same to me, and whilst Dali is similar it's got a bit more of it's own character I hardly did any tourist stuff whilst here with the exception of a trek up to the Zhonge temple. I went up there with a couple of lads that I'd met at the...