Blogs from Nanning, Guangxi, China, Asia

We left Hanoi bound for China on a sleeper train. The sleeper part was a bit inconspicuous cos we had to get off twice to do border crossings so the stopping and starting definitely interrupted any shut eye we needed! We arrived in Nanning and immediately noticed how busy the train station was, crowds of people everywhere. Nanning is a provincial city and the guide books really didn’t recommend stopping her but using it as a transfer stopover before moving on. I would have to disagree slightly because while we were here we met the friendliest people, saw some interesting local customs/routines, had some interesting food and also found that China was to be somewhere we really want to revisit! After arriving we walked to our hostel, it was only 10mins away so handy enough. The ... read more

We're sitting at a hostel in Nanning, China. We arrived here at 9am and were able to purchase hard sleeper train tickets to Hanoi, Vietnam, departing today at 6:45pm. We made our way to a friendly hostel that has graciously allowed us to set up camp in their lobby and take advantage of the computers. I paid them back by purchasing a delicious bag of Lay's cheese and lobster flavored potato chips. Hong Kong and NYE were insane. Hong Kong is the Asian version of New York City but with more people and less space. After arriving we had a few hours to kill before my Dad and Nikki met us. We headed to the Vietnamese consulate to get our visas for the next leg of the trip. Finding the consulate was extremely difficult in the ... read more

Wow, we've been a bit behind with our entries whilst we've been in Vietnam, we will try and catch up at some point! 21st October: Time to leave china and catch our 0730 bus to Hanoi. we woke nice and early and headed downstairs to leave but we were approached by Jody who told us that the key had snapped off in the lock and that was the only exit!!!! we enquired about the fire exit but soon discovered it only went up to the roof, v.v handy! it was 0700 and it was a 15min walk to the bus station so we were all worried about missing our bus but our hostel lady assured us that it would be fine and we could catch the 8am bus but when we asked her would we get ... read more

Ok, bear with me a second, because this might get slightly confusing if you are not paying attention/have had a glass or two of wine/or have a short attent.... As I write this, on Thursday 5th May at 9pm, we are back in China. In a city called Nanning to be precise. Never heard of it? Me neither, but 6.5 million people call it home, making it fractionally smaller than London in terms of population. For 24 hours only, the population has increased by two slightly tired looking Westerners. Judging by the way people were looking at us in the city centre earlier, Westerners are something of a rarity here. Nanning lies near the Vietnamese border, a 10-hour bus ride from Hong Kong and a 10-hour bus ride from Hanoi, our next destination. The reason we ... read more

A friend once informed me, after I ordered a pint of tap water in a bar, that I was the tightest person he knew when it came to splashing my cash. My arguments that I was just more careful with my spending fell on deaf ears. In high school I attempted the ‘bed head’ hairstyle several years before it came to prominence. Again friends questioned my behaviour, believing I looked not too dissimilar to a wet toilet brush. There have been many times in life when I feel I’ve been misjudged. Always priding myself on my positive attitude and the ability to look on the bright side of life, it came as a shock when a work colleague recently suggested I was negative and depressing to be around. I wasn’t being negative, just telling the truth ... read more