We have been in Dali town for the past seven days, it's lovely here, but poor Marc has been unwell with a very nasty cold for five of those days. So, whilst I have been waiting for his health to improve and in between nursing duties, I have... [View Full Entry]

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So we get off the plane at Shangrila airport, we stepped outside the arrivals hall and were met by a smartly dressed cowgirl who asked if we needed a taxi (which of course we did). We had taken photocopys of some pages of the Lonely Planet, so that we had some idea of where we wanted to stay. We showed them to the cowgirl and she drove us off into the sunset (well into town anyway). We booked into the Du Ke Zne hotel next door to the tibet cafe, on the edge of the old town ( 40 yuan for [View Full Entry]

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Here are the photographs of the plants and wildlife that we have seen in our travels around China. We took these because we thought that they would be of particular interest to Marc's father, Anna T, Gordie (Vet Boy), Uncle Mark and Chris Stone. However if anyone else out there is a closet horticulturalist or secret animal lovers. Enjoy XXX [View Full Entry]

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So as we pulled into the white cavenous building that is Lhasa train station, we saw people stand to attention and salute the train. We disembarked in an orderly fashion and headed out of the station, only to discover that we were miles from town. After a quick look around, we found that the number 91 bus would take us into town for 1 yuan (better than the 60 the taxi wanted). The Japanese chap who had been on the train, joined us on the bus, his name was Masa and we were to spend a lot of time with him [View Full Entry]

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So here we are, new town, new blog. We arrived a little earlier than expected in Chengdu and joined four other backpackers who were also looking for the Sim's Cozy Guest house pick-up person. When he found us, he looked a little surprised because his small van could not carry six people plus their luggage. So the luggage travelled in the van and we were sent on in a taxi. N.B: Whilst we are on the subject of taxis. If you find yourself travelling in China, I would strongly advice that you take taxi's not trishaws. Trishaw's may appear romantic but [View Full Entry]

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So we finally left Chengdu grasping our train tickets and Lhasa visas. We entered the station for the T27 Chengdu-Lhassa express all excited to be on this train in its first month of running. We were guided over to the waiting lounge and had to pass a sort of customs stand, which was quite heavily policed. When we showed our tickets to pass into the lounge, a police officer came up and asked to see our travel permit which we proudly thrust out in frount of us for him to see. After he had checked it (very thoroughly) we were allowed [View Full Entry]

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So we boarded the train, which seemed like the tourist express because there were more of us than locals on the train. We were bunked with a couple of Latvians and a guy from Belgium who had been living in China for the last 10 years. We arrived in X'ian at around 7am and were met at the station by someone from the Bell Tower Hostel (our chosen home for the next few days). He led us to the bus stop where we caught the 611 (he paid 1 yuan each) to the Bell Tower right in the center of town. [View Full Entry]

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Our arrival in Pingyao was some what of a group effort. Having stepped out of the train station exit at Taiyuan (because the first bus to Pingyao did not leave for two hours and was four kilometers away), we started to consider our options for making the lengthy trip. As we stood, more and more bemused backpackers started to appear from the very train that we had just come from. Eventually we started to talk to one another and some of us started to research the alternatives. The local train became our responsibility, whilst other people looked into cabs, buses, bicycles [View Full Entry]

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Catching the hard sleeper train from Beijing (West) to Datong for the princely sum of 68 Yuan (about five pounds), was a little more eventful than intended. We left it a little late and ended up dashing across town in a taxi and running across four lanes of traffic, before joining the queue for our train. It seemed as if the entire 1.3 billion population of China had chosen to go to Datong with us. Chinese railways stations are a lot like an airport departure lounge, you wait in a designated waiting area until your train is ready for boarding and [View Full Entry]

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So here we are, still in Beijing and still having a good time. We have been out to find the world famous Li Qun roast duck restaurant for some of the local dish of Peking (Beijing) Duck. We hired a cycle rickshaw to take us there, he went down some narrow and seemingly dessolate streets. Then, there it was, a little door with a lot of rickshaws parked outside. We went through the door and nearly fell into the kitchen, whilst waiting for our table, a couple of American guys turned up they said that they had pre-booked their table and [View Full Entry]

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