Hi Everyone My last night in China after about four months here was spent in a weird little border town called Mengla on the way to Laos. Like most border towns it was a bit sleazy and as I could not find any hotels from my guidebook I just stayed in one near the bus station. However, from the pornographic content on the bathroom tiles and the group of women all sitting around in the reception area I suspect it must have been a brothel. After little sleep I then...

Hi Everyone Since my last entry I have been seeing lots of exciting things, including what have to be some of the highlights of any trip to China. I have spent the past few days in Beijing and although there are some downsides such as a tickly cough from the pollution and having to occasionally fight my way through the crowds, on the whole Beijing is an amazing city. I have been to the biggies such as the vast Tianneman Square with its dynamic revolution s...

Hi EveryoneI am now in a lovely little town called Pingyao, which is halfway between Xian and Beijing. It is a Ming dynasty walled city that is the best preserved of its age in China and is really wonderful to go exploring all the tiny narrow alleys that take you past ancient buildings and courtyards with locals sitting in playing mah jong, dominos or cards. I am staying in a hostel that is the former Ming Governers residence and has a central courtyard, rooms wi...

Hi Everyone   I'm still playing catch up with my blog, but am now getting there...slowly! I have tried putting pictures on honestly, but am having great difficulty with this and may need to put aside a whole day in an internet cafe to get this done.   I last left off in Xian where the first section of my Dragoman truck tour had just finished and we'd had some terrible weather for a couple of weeks. Therefore we left Xian in an extremely damp a...

Hi Everyone,   I've been incredibly bad at keeping this up to date lately and have not posted any photos for ages. The reason at least partly for this was trying to find internet cafes that a) can support this website, b) will allow you to put discs in and c) you can actually see the computer monitor through the thick fog of cigarette smoke that seems to be a feature of internet cafe's in China.   Therefore, to recap... After leaving Lhasa we t...