So our first taste of Chinese trains was an overnight one from Beijing to Shanghai. There was an option to take the bullet train, but being rational the time saved didn't warrant the extra costs, even if the little boy inside of me (no I'm not a cannibal) wished we had taken the super fast choo choo! However the train we took was by no means shabby - comfy and our own TV at the bottom of each bed showing Rambo...in mandarin but what Stallone film actually needs d...

We were excited and nervous in equal measures about going to China. Everything we had heard and read told us if you don't speak any Chinese then you need to book a tour. We tried but they were seriously expensive and not on the right dates. We thought perhaps when we got to Beijing we would be able to sort something out and we did consider not going to China because it was so hard to sort out visas. The flight over was great as we had free food and our choice o...

You may have already guessed by the lack of recent blog activity who's turn it is to write a blog. However this time it hasn't been due to sheer laziness, but more so that my role of being Head of Logistics has taken precedent, since transport in China is a challenge to say the least (but not for the reasons you would expect). Anyway that's a another story, for another time, in a later blog. So Sapa, apparently one of the coldest places in Vietnam, is most easil...

Hanoi was broken up into 3 parts because we did 2 excursions from there and then came back to explore Hanoi. The first excursion was a trip to Halong Bay, the eighth wonder of the world and a UNESCO world heritage sight but probably most famous for that Top Gear show in Vietnam where they turned their bikes into boats to go on the water in Halong Bay. Everyone says a trip here is a must and it's difficult and no cheaper to attempt it yourself so we booked a tour ...

I've been given the lovely task of writing about Hanoi since Bryan only likes to write nice things and so he has little to write about for Hanoi! After the all the traffic madness of Saigon we were dreading what Hanoi might be like, assuming it would be worse since it's the capital city. Although it was still crazy by most people's standards, it wasn't quite as bad as Saigon. Having said that, I was still petrified of crossing the road and pretty much had to ju...