The trip from Xining to Xiahe turned out to be very scenic with one of the best landscapes that left in us the deepest and most vivid impressions we had in China. We left our guesthouse in Xining early in the morning and jumped onto a local bus to the main bus station. We got tickets at the counter to Tongren and had barely enough time to make it to the gate. The departure was just 5 minutes later. We headed East and followed a side valley of the Yellow river. The landscape changed from being bare to dry and remembered [View Full Entry]

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Xining, the capital of Qinghai province, turned out to be already more wild than expected. It was far less modern than the other cities. The most obvious sign for this were the missing chain stores of Mc Donalds, KFC and Starbucks. We arrived after a comfortable night on the train. Chinese sleeper trains are of good quality with open 6 berths compartments and clean bed sheets. There is also a wake up service from the attendant in each carriage. The youth hostel was closed and we ended far outside of town in a kind of 4x4 car club accommodation. It [View Full Entry]

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The city of Xian is considered as the ancient origin of China with the Yellow river as main pulse. It is also the terminus of the famous Silk road which is less known. The main touristic site is the Terracotta army, but actually Xian has a certain charm due to its enormous city walls and small alleyways in the Muslim quarter. The inner city is arranged strictly around a main square with the huge bell and drum tower in the middle. All streets lead from here towards the North/South/East and West direction with the city wall as border. We enjoyed Xian [View Full Entry]

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Chengdu is located in the middle of a big plain and is bordered by the Tibetan plateau. It is famous for its spicy Sichuan food and the world famous Panda bears that live in the Bamboo forests. We planned to use Chengdu as a base for the discovery of some Sichuan highlights before travelling to Tibet. Chengdu was also praised as the best place in China for Tibet permits. The reality of Chinese politics would disappoint us here. A caver friend of mine suggested a kind of weekly mansion apartment building where rooms can be rent on daily base. This resulted [View Full Entry]

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The border crossing from Macau China to Mainland China was surprisingly smooth. The bus brought us directly into the customs building and an efficient system guided us to the many immigrations gates. Everything was modern and tidy. Most surprising was the feedback button at the desk of the immigration officer. While the officer was busy with it stamps, a sign asked in Chinese and English to rate the work of the customs officer. It was an electronic system displaying the employee number with rating options fast/efficient - good - moderate - poor. We both pressed the fast and efficient button. W [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Macau with great expectations and were eager to explore the grand casino world that was fostered here. The city is relatively small compared to Hongkong and has a total different touch. The main peninsula has still a lot Portuguese architecture like churches with the typical tiles and street signs are labeled in Portuguese and Chinese. There are even pedestrian zones and great views from a fortress on a top of a hill which make a pleasant walk. The shore line has in contrast the casinos filled with Hongkong and Mainland China tourists. We stayed in a hotel at [View Full Entry]

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Saigon was much South and so it felt hotter than any other city in Vietnam with around 33 C and high humidity. It is a fast growing mega city of around 5-6 million people that want to compete with Bangkok. But this is still a long way to go. The city has not much space with some squeezed in park areas and streets full of motorcycles. The best in the city is the huge variety of shopping articles. It ranges from clothing to furniture or any kind of decoration articles. The shops are sometimes very stylish and taste full. We ventured [View Full Entry]

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The night train from Nin Binh to Hue was a nice experience except that Yuki caught a cold from the air condition. The carriage walls were all made of wood and the bergs had clean sheets and pillows. We had the compartment for ourselves and it was a nice feeling to ride along the endless rice fields from the North to the Central areas. We were looking forward to the Hue and Hoian since it belonged to the former South Vietnamese region of the country. Several people had told us of the differences between North- and South Vietnam and we wanted [View Full Entry]

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Nin Binh is just a 2h bus ride from busy Hanoi. The first stunning karst towers slowly become visible while slowly approaching the city. Nin Binh is nothing special and mostly characterized by the noisy highway number 1 running through it with a constant background sound of honking trucks passing by in highest speed. Vietnam is host to the worst drivers in the world. Traffic rules are mostly ignored and substituted by first way of passage with a sound orchestra to tell everyone about this. The cars are even equipped with horns that have a long lasting echo sound that lasts [View Full Entry]

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The short flight of less than 1 hour catapulted us from a quiet jungle resort into a very noisy city. Vietnams transport number one is the motorcycle and all streets are full of them. The boom of motorcycles happened only since the last few years and so traffic rules are mostly absent. Everyone drives mostly as he wants accompanied by an almost constant beeping to inform the other participants of the game about his own existence. The constant beeping and honking the horn should leave us only in very remote areas and was a constant irritation to the ear. Hanoi has [View Full Entry]

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