Guilin & Yangshuo: 10-15 May. So, back into China. It's only 250 miles northeast from Hanoi to Nanning but it takes 12 hours on the daily overnight train which is cunningly timed so that you hit the border at 2am. After an hour sat in a waiting room on the Vietnamese side while everybody gets stamped out of the country, it's a short trip down the line to experience a Chinese waiting room for another hour while you get stamped in and your luggage x-rayed. We ...

Hong Kong: 23-27 January We landed in Hong Kong in the mid-afternoon and negotiated the airport express and subway (all very efficient as you'd expect) through to our hotel in the Wanchai area of Hong Kong island (just to the east of Central - the main finance sector - or on the left hand side of the picture-postcard view of Hong Kong across Victoria Harbour, although we're a few blocks back from the waterfront). It's so nice to be somewhere warm and to go out...

Beijing - The first time around - 21-23 January We arrived in Beijing shortly after 2pm and caught the underground to our hotel. The underground is cheap as chips and is very easy to get around (the English signs help enormously). Checked into our hotel where we are staying for 2 nights which is a 3 star business hotel. Its clean, modern and comfortable and situated very close to a fabulous shopping area, Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City (Imperial Palace)...

Trans-Siberian 3 20-21 January Up bright and early this morning at 5.45 am to board the train for our final leg to Beijing. This time we had a 2 berth compartment and to our surprise it was more spacious than the previous 4 berths that we had - we even had a little arm chair in the corner this time! Also, much to our delight we had a toilet/wet room which we shared with the adjoining 2 berth cabin. Luxury indeed, one toilet between 4 rather than 2 toilets betwee...