We flew from Tokyo to London at 1.30pm local time, arriving at the new Terminal 5 at 5.15pm. We were met by our parents, brothers and helium balloons!! We have had an excellent 11 months away and have seen some amazing places, met some great people and done some brilliant stuff!! It's good to be home, though a shame to be back to reality! Whilst away many people have helped us and taken us in as well as showing us a good time! We would like to thank (in order if appearance!!!), Jim, Carone, Jacob and Siena; Val and Jodie; Mini [View Full Entry]

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We caught the Nozomi Shinkansen bullet train from Kyoto to Tokyo which goes at about 300kph and only takes 2 and half hours. The train went past Mount Fuji but as it was quite cloudy we could only see the tip! Our first night in Tokyo was spent in a capsule hotel. Separated according to gender, I was on the 5th floor and Laura was on the 8th. They had separate communal bath rooms, PJs are supplied and no shoes are allowed. The capsules are pretty cozy with a TV, Radio and reading light to keep you entertained. You can just [View Full Entry]

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We flew from Beijing to Hong Kong to Osaka starting at 3.30am and settling into bed at midnight! Arriving in Osaka, we made our way by train and subway to our hostel for the night. It was a 'business hotel' Japanese style so the room was tiny and we were sleeping on Tatami mats with a bean bag pillow! I was suprised to learn that the communal bathrooms were really just that! The females and males have separate time slots and then have a big happy naked communal shower session! Call me a prude but I went unwashed that night!!! Chris [View Full Entry]

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We caught a bus from Tai'shan to Beijing. We were meant to leave at 8.30am but when we arrived we were told that it was late and we'd have to wait until 11am. No worries, we'll just read our books to kill the time. When 11am came around we were guided to the bus where we sat for 30 minutes while they filled the entire undercarriage and back half of the bus with boxes of produce that they would be delivering in Beijing! Must be cheaper than lorries! When we finally arrived in Beijing we were dropped off in the middle [View Full Entry]

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I first read about Mount Tai'shan in Michael Palin's book "Full Circle" and added it to the China 'must do' list!! It is a total of 6660 steps to the top and it's believed that you will live for 100 years if you make it all the way. Many Chinese emperors have done the climb, some more than once and many people make the pilgrimage to the top each year. It said in the guide book that it would take about two hours to get to the 'Midway to Heaven Gate' and another 2 hours to get to the 'South Gate [View Full Entry]

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We got a cheap flight from Xi'an to Shanghai to cut down on the time the trains take! From the airport we caught the Maglev train to the city centre. This train goes at 430kph and takes only 8 minutes - Chris was very impressed! We found our hostel, had lunch and then went to Nanjing Road. This is a pedestrianised road famous for shopping. It was packed - worse than Oxford Street at Christmas! We walked down to the Bund and along the river. We then went to People's Square and sat in People's Park to watch the world go [View Full Entry]

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We spent one night in Yichang after visiting the Dam and then got an overnight 16 hour train to Xi'an. The train journey wasn't too bad and we spent most of the time chatting with a Chinese girl called Phoebe who is studying English. Once we arrived in Xi'an she saw us to the bus to help us avoid the numerous touts! Our hostel was right in the centre of town and we could see the Bell Tower from our window. That afternoon we walked to the South Gate of the city walls and walked along the top of the wall [View Full Entry]

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We left Chongqing on a bus at 4pm heading for Wanzhou, arriving there at 8pm in time to meet the cruise boat. The bus journey consisted of two crazy Chinese movies and lots of people hocking and spitting in the aisles - yes really!!! We arrived on the boat and found our cabin - not bad, though it did have a squat toilet - great! We went to the information counter to ask some questions but immediately found that having been told that no one would speak English really meant absolutely no English (apart from the sign INFORMATION in perfect English!!). [View Full Entry]

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At Yangshou, we were trying to decide whether to go to Chengdu to visit the Pandas or Chongqing to do a cruise down the Yangtze River to visit the Three Gorges Dam. We only had time to do one and Chris' engineering interest in the dam swayed the decision! We arrived in Chongqing and only planned to be here one night before getting the boat down the river, however they were all fully booked for 2 days! We eventually got a ticket but had to go 1st class (twin room) instead of 2nd (4 beds in a cabin). Shame!! We decided [View Full Entry]

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We got a dilapidated bus from Guangzhou to Yangshou which was supposed to take 10 hours but took 12 as we got a flat battery!! At one point having to bump-start the bus before we found a garage that stocked the correct replacement battery. As we got closer to Yangshou, the scenery got better. The town is famous for its limestone karsts and while the light was there, it made the journey more interesting! Despite telling the bus driver we wanted to get off at the main bus station as we would know where to go from there, he dropped us [View Full Entry]

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