It took us 4h to get to Ninh Binh. It is not a particularly pretty place but we only really came there to visit near by Tam Coc village known as 'Halong Bay of Rice paddies'. This town is also well known for its great hotels and we can actually confirm that this is the case. We stayed in Queen Mini Hotel where for 6$ you get big, modern, clean room and really inexpensive food in their downstairs restaurant. Portions were quite nice as well as since we crossed to Vietnam we felt like we were constantly hungry. Maybe it had something to do with huge portions of food served in China and we just got used to the amounts we consumed. I do understand that Vietnamese people are rather on the small side but we ... read more

The way to Heikou - border town with Vietnam was quite scenic and we really loved the views surrounding the Red River. There were not many people going this direction so we were put in a small minivan rather than a bus but we were not alone on this journey. We shared this ride with a Scottish couple – Lorraine and Kevin who happened to go exactly in the same direction as us in SE Asia. The way we met was quite strange (as Kevin says), it was in a dark and empty Sunny Guesthouse very early in the morning and it went a little bit like that: Kev: Hey Guys, where are you going? Us: Hey, we are going to Heikou, how about you? Kev: Us too and then to Vietnam. What time is your ... read more

We made it to Kunming before noon which gave us opportunity to admire constantly changing landscape on the way. Suddenly we could not see any rock formations and lush green fields but dry earth and desert plants. The mountain range in Yunnan is amazing and it kind of feels like spring is always there. Kunming town is located nearly 1900m above the sea level and temperatures are always mild and pleasurable. We did not intend to stay too long in Kunming as we only wanted to get our Vietnamese visa sorted over there. We took a local bus from a train station to the lake area and walked around to find some place to stay. We wanted to stay in Cloudland Youth Hostel but some guy we met told us there was even better place by ... read more

… Literally Getting Lost .... We arrived in Guilin early in the morning and according to LP just in time to catch the forward bus to Longji National Park. We did not book any accommodation so we were not sure if they would have place for us on that bus but with the winter season upon China we were pretty confident it wont be full. We tried few buses with no positive result until we stumbled across tourist agent who told us when and where the bus was leaving from. The main bus station seems to be located just in front of the Train Station in Guilin which was great news for us. We bought tickets for the bus from the same agent (40Y each) even though she was trying to charge us more than necessary. ... read more

When we visited Shanghai Museum we saw the minority section and we liked it so much. It got us really interested in different tribes and minorities leaving across China and we scanned our guidebook for any information we could find on near by villages. We were lucky enough to just be on the way to Fujian and Guangdong provinces where two of very interesting 'tribes' have their settlements. Hakka tribes leave across Fujian and Guangdong provinces. There are many clusters of Tulous - structures made of earth, rice and bamboo – that are ancient equivalent of modern apartment blocks. They all belong to UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tulou is usually a large, enclosed and fortified building, between three and five stories high and housing up to 80 families. Smaller interior buildings are often enclosed by these ... read more