Our train was 2 hours late leaving Jakarta, if we'd have known we could have had an extra hour in bed! The train journey was ok, we got water and a meal included but half way through the journey it started raining and of all the seats the leaky carriage roof could have leaked on it had to be Donna's, so she spent half the journey sat forward on the edge of her seat, making Neil feel incredibly uncomfortable and uneasy! So we arrived into Yogyakarta (or Yogya as the locals call it) to rain...pouring rain. We looked like drowned rats when we arrived into the hostel and had the manager scurrying after us with a mop! Yogya isn't the luckiest of cities having experienced earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunami's in recent years owing in part, to ... read more

The bus journey to Kunming was indeed 'executive'...well it had reclining seats, arm rests and a TV onboard. Kunming seemed to be like most other Chinese cities except with more of a South East Asian feel. This meant more street food/hawker stalls, dirtier streets, less conservative people and the locals looked less Chinese. A lot of expats and English teachers seem to live in Kunming and there was even Western music, something which we had not heard in China since leaving Hong Kong. We stayed in a place called the Hump, although we quickly re-named this hostel 'the Dump' because it was over priced, the staff lost everyone's booking and they didn't even provide towels. The hostel even prevented people from taking their own food and drink into their rooms! We had no choice but to ... read more

Xi'an train station was awful, as usual all baggage had to go through the x-ray baggage scanner but the Chinese here were worse than other places, almost pushing us over (with big rucksacks on our backs) to get their stuff on the machine before us. Waiting for the train was funny, Neil sensing Donna was in donkey kicking mood, he wisely decided not to brave the waiting room and found us a corner with plenty of room so we could wait until the train boarded. Literally within minutes were were surrounded by a family squat sitting eating their tea...of all the places! Oh well we were getting used to it by now. Boarding the train we had to shout at a few people for pushing against the back and side of our rucksacks as we were ... read more

After much debate and discussion between us and the hostel staff we took the easy option of a £2 taxi ride to the monolithic Beijing West railway station rather than the 30p metro ride and 1 hour walk option! The usual push and shove later to get on the train - which we are becoming more accomplished at - we found our middle hard sleeper beds only to be confronted by the most grumpy and cantankerous old woman we have ever come across. She huffed at everyone and everything - Neil got an angry mouthful in Mandarin because his duvet touched the table next to her bed! The train journey went smoothly and we got a full night's sleep due to the fact our feet weren't hanging off the end of the bunk (like the top ... read more

We were up not so bright and early for our train to Shanghai. Boarding the train we experienced our first real push and shove from the other Chinese passenger trying to get past us, despite us carrying 30 kilos each and almost falling over. We don't know why they were rushing as everyone had seats/sleepers pre-booked but as anyone who has visited China will tell you, the Chinese will queue for nothing! A few elbows in people heads later and we found our sleepers. If you can't beat em then join em! The sleeper sections are divided into compartments of 6 and are 'open plan' into the corridor. The bottom bunks are the best with the most head space etc, whilst the top bunks have very little room for a Chinese person never mind a giant ... read more