Halong bay was like a flooded version of the karst mountain scenery around Guilin, China. We spent one night here on a boat, watching the sun set and then watching a few shooting stars. Our second day involved some kayaking through some limestone caves that were full of bats. At lunchtime, we found a tiny little beach and the crew of the boat set up a table and chairs on the sand - complete with tablecloth, napkins, etc. We had a 10 course lunch and then went for a bit of a swim. The second night was spent in a hotel [View Full Entry]

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Sapa was a night train away from Hanoi. We had booked ourselves onto a 3 day trip from our guesthouse in Hanoi. This area, close to the China border is famous for its rice terraced mountains and the local H'Mong tribes. The town of Sapa is very small, with just a few guesthouses and restaurants geared for tourists. I think this will change soon, though. They had just started building a giant hotel on the side of one of the mountains. From here we did a long walk across the mountains and through some of the H'Mong villages. Some of the [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Hanoi from the night train ready to face the expeted chaos of the train station. Our hostel we had booked in Hanoi seemed so sure that a taxi/tuk-tuk would take us to a different hostel to try and get commission that they sent someone to collect us. We stepped off of the train to see a smiling guy holding a sign with our names on it. There was absolutely no hastle at all. The Old Quarter of Hanoi was a fun place to walk around. The roads are not at right andgles to each other and the street [View Full Entry]

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We flew into Guilin and stayed here one night. We had planned to stay here longer, but many people had told us that a town 60km South of here called Yangshou was much nicer. The area is famous for it's karst maountain scenery along the Li river, which runs between Guilin and Yangshou. Although we were only in Guilin for one night, it seemed like a really nice place - nothing like the guidebook descriptions. It had a lake in the city centre with two pagodas on two of the lake's islands. Maybe we just weren't there long enough to see [View Full Entry]

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We're now in the country of Hong Kong. They have their own Olympic team, their own government, their own laws, but they're still part of China. The legislative elections actually took place when we were here. Half of the seats are voted by citizens and the other half are voted by special interest groups - who are mainly business groups. Whilst the citizens mainly vote democratic, whilst the business groups are unsurprisingly pro-Beijing. The end result gave the democrats the veto they needed to block legislation sent from Beijing. This system will change soon, though. In 2017 the Executive wil [View Full Entry]

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Shanghai seems like a place that's designed to amaze. The tallest buildings, the fastest trains, the biggest shopping malls, the biggest port. It's what I imagine Dubai to be like. We took a trip here on the Hangpu river which gave us fantastic views of the Pudong district skyline. Shanghai has a huge shipbuilding industry and you can see massive oil tankers and container ships in various states of completion. One dockyard had a gigantic overhead crane (like the ones in Belfast) which had collapsed over a half-built ship. Not sure how they explained that one to their customer.... Also h [View Full Entry]

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Xi'an didn't start well. Chinese people will never admit when they don't know something and would prefer to give you a wrong answer than suffer the shame of not knowing the answer. For us this translated into 4 people giving us different directions to our hotel from the bus station. It took us over an hour to go what should have been less than a kilometre. Xi'an is what we all imagine a Chinese city to be like - polluted, traffic jams, ugly concrete buildings, etc. The pollution here was not like anything I'd ever experienced before. Going outside made my [View Full Entry]

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24th August Headed out to the Summer Palace today which is about an hour on the bus from central Beijing. It was previously used by the emperors and empresses as a summer retreat from the Beijing heat. Two thirds of the park is water which helps keep the place cool. We hired a little electric boat and drove around the lake for an hour looking at all the temples and buildings. A lot of the locals use their umbrellas to shade themselves. One lady walking around the edge of the lake let go of hers and it fell upside down into [View Full Entry]

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20th August Today we were back at the rowing venue to watch flatwater canoeing and kayaking. It's not as interesting as rowing (maninly because there were'nt any brits competing). Spent the evening at a Beijing crispy duck restaurant that was recommended by our hostel. Incredibly unhealthy, but very tasty! 21st August Taekwondo in the afternoon today. It's a really strange sport where both fighters jump on the spot for about 30 seconds and then they try to kick each other. It's another one of these subjective sports where the final result seems to come down to the judges' [View Full Entry]

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17th August Early start this morning to get to the hockey. Watched GB in a disappointing 1-1 draw to Canada. This effectively ended their realistic chance of a medal. Next we were off to the Rowing. GB were represented in 5 of the 8 events. The atmosphere here was brilliant. It seemed like the GB supporters here are the same people you would see on Henman Hill at Wimbledon - loads of Union Jack flags, stupid hats and face paints. It seems, though, that the smaller the country, the more crazy their fans were. The Danes were all singing together and [View Full Entry]

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