This was our stopover between Xi'an and Beijing, a small town remarkable for its preservation, particularly an intact wall. We arrived on the sleeper well after dark and caught an auto rickshaw into town. Most of the lights had been shut down and it was eerie traveling down narrow alleyways and through the massive gates as they loomed out of the darkness. We spent the first night at the Lonely Planet's favourite - which was nice enough but quite expensive. The next day we found a better, cheaper place - I must post the name of here. I love the [View Full Entry]

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Caught the bus out of the gorge up to Zhongdian - the inspiration for Shangri-la and now apparenty renamed that in order to attract more tourists. We cruised up through the hills and emerged on a comparatively flat brown plateau, and noticed a change in building style along the roadside - boxier, trapezoidal and wooden rather than tile shingles. Some have an 'upside down roof', draining towards the center into a single eavestrough that emerges as a spout through each end of the building. This is the taste of Tibet for those of us not actually going. The town is [View Full Entry]

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[Pictures to come. Now actually in Beijing, we're falling behind on our entries - having some trouble publishing them in China - sometimes the site is completely inaccessible, other times not able to upload pictures.] Around the mountain from Lijiang, the Yangtse passes through a deep gorge, the deepest in the world, and in danger of becoming a hydro megaproject site. Along one side is a high narrow trail that can be hiked in a couple of days, with a few guest houses scattered along it for overnight rests. What a great hike. We arrived in the small town and [View Full Entry]

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Back onto the bus, more awesome scenery - tunnels, valleys, hills - and into the smaller town of Lijiang. Nice just to wander the maze-like streets and alleys - cobblestone streets, beautiful old buildings (or new ones in the same style) with red lanterns, flowering rees, huge rose bushes and small canals running through filled with fish! Very popular with tourists but has the sort of charm that still overpowers the tourist plague. We found a nice little hotel on a side alley with people who spoke nearly no English - but with phrasebook and gestures we managed. They made [View Full Entry]

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Got on the night train out of Hanoi to Lao Cai on the Chinese border. By luck we had the whole train berth to ourselves, and it seemed to be a private car a cut above what we'd been in coming up the coast - cleaner and with a nifty lamp on the table for atmosphere. One nifty lamp and suddenly you feel you're on the orient express. We awoke to the conductors knock next morning and spilled out into Lao Cai at daybreak. We located a cafe, had breakfast and then headed to the border. Goodbye delicious Vietnamese style [View Full Entry]

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As we researched tours to Halong Bay, it became clear that we would have to be extra cautious when signing up for one, since there are so many frauds and scams out there! So we opted for the pricier, but well reviewed, Handspan tour company, which was just up the street from our hotel on Ma May. We walked in hoping to sign up for the 2 day, 1 night trip, but it was fully booked for the next couple of weeks, so we signed up for the 3 day trip with a day set aside for kayaking. I had [View Full Entry]

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Took the train again, was even grubbier than before with a weird conductor in addition, but the scenery north of Hoi An was incredible, with the track creeping along a steep slope leading down to the seacoast. Staggering bleary-eyed out of the train, we weren't as sharp as normal and paid too much for a cab - they have metered cabs, but there are rogue cabs with a 'bad' meter, so you have to watch both how fast the meter ticks and the route like a hawk. We had a bad one in Saigon too where we raised a stink [View Full Entry]

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Took the overnight train up to Danang for Hoi An. The trains are narrow gauge and noticably skinnier and bouncier than the broad gauge cars in India. The sleeper design is similar though, 4 person cabins with upper and lower bunks. Similar to India, you have a neatly folded bundle of bed linen waiting on your bunk, however we found out later to our dismay that in Vietnam this seems to be just a re-fold from the previous person. Overall our impressions is that the train is a bit grubby, with sub-airline grade lukewarm boxed meals. The main attraction is [View Full Entry]

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We took a five hour bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh along a pretty road. The air conditioning wasn't quite up to holding off the 40 degree heat, so we roasted in the bus once the morning started to heat up (which happens by 9:00) Phnom Penh is a bit sleepy, but not as decrepit as I might have imagined given the turmoil in the country, but Cambodia does seem poorer overall, and there are some sections that remind me of India. This city is perhaps the most dangerous place we'd been on the trip so far, plagued by gunplay [View Full Entry]

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Milestone! We've just finshed seeing the temples and are moving on to Phnom Penh in the morning. We flew out of Luang Prabang on Siem Reap air (subsidiary of Bangkok air - $195) direct to Siem Reap. Nice experience and quite a nice new airport at Siem Reap. Man it is hot here - it's going to hit 40C which is difficult to cope with. And its not a dry heat. The taxis here are an excellent sort of motocycle-drawn chariot! Our hotel helped arrange Mr Bun Cheyrith as our charioteer for the temples. We got up early to beat the [View Full Entry]

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