It's 6am in the morning and we've just arrived in Chengdu on the overnight train from Xi'an.  It looks a good city but first, some kip as we stayed up late in the train dining car having a few beers. Watch this space.E+M (18 Oct)Hello again!  Chengdu is included in the Wuhan PC.E+M (27 Oct)

Accommodation in Xi'an was May 1st - described as above a dumpling shop - but it was much more than that.It was very comfortable but was essentially a Chinese fast food place - which was extremely popular and very good. Everything was on display and had tremendous variety although some things we didn't test! The weather too had changed considerably - it was warm and humid - and as we discovered at our next stop food and drink had changed to winter fare - hot oran...

Arrived late Monday morning.  Our hotel, the Jin Ya, is in a good location in one of the Hutongs and seems to be in walking distance of the centre and main sites.  It's a traditional Chinese style building with the rooms set round a courtyard - all red lanterns and coloured lights.  The staff (all young women) are very nice but their admin/registration system is pretty quirky with lots of seemingly unnecessary form...

Arrived Ulaanbaatar on Monday 3 October 2006 and settled into our room in the Khongor Guest House - tiniest room so far, but good location.  Found our bearings, located the internet cafes (always one of the first things to do) and even managed to buy tickets for some shows (more later).  Next day, as there is a Laotian Embassy on the outskirts of UB, decided to see if we could get our visas.  So armed with the passports, plenty of Mongolian Togrogs...

We've just returned from an overnighter in a national park north of Ulaanbaator where we stayed in a ger with a herder family. Very, very interesting not least the arrival of snow today as first predicted by the Worcester Park world weather centre and James (MacAskill) Scott!Bye the way if some of you are puzzled by Buddist Monasteries and Ben Nevis as postcard photos this is because we need to use a standard photo until we load our own. One of the ...