Mini Lou

Day 1 early start for a 7.30 pick up, made easier with the help of jugo de mango for breakfast from a street stall. After our very colourful truck broke down mid way to the start we were kept entertained with fresh watermelon, pineapple and the Colombian Military which passed the time. The toughtest day by far which we are still feeling the effects of 6 days later........ it was hot, hot and had a really steep ascent up to our first camp for the night......... hammocks!!!! The trek took 4 hours and we were all relieved to see our camp and take a swim in the river, after a fab dinner (we even had oreo biscuits for afters) we were sleeping by 8pm..... or at least we were trying to sleep to the sounds of ... read more

Before reaching the land of elephants (laos) we had to take a 27 hour bus journey to luang prabang - we had booked a sleeper bus so we thought it must be ok as we have beds and would be able to sleep....but as always you get what you pay for! The bus was made up of 40 beds three rows of bunks all the width of a seat - we were on the top in the middle and the bus was full!!! We all tried to make ourselves as comfortable as possible, some got a little too comfortable - yes we've almost seen it all on this trip and its only been a month!!! People were smoking, drinking throwing their chicken bones peanut shells all over the bus...they really made themselves at home...as usual we ... read more

Yesterday I spent the day the visiting the Terracotta Army in Xi'an which was pretty amazing even though it is not fully uncovered still. What made the day even more nicer was going around with one of the hostels guests, Rachel and her family from New Zealand of 11, including 8 children from 14 to 2 years old and their grandpa, who did the first six weeks with them and went back home, only to sort some things out and come back out to the the last 8 months together again. There are really no reasons why you can't travel now and they are proof. They too are taking a year to tour South East Asia and making there way through to Mongolia, Russia, Europe and London. The father Rob is on a years sabitical, the ... read more

5am wake up call!!! - but it was worth it....after a 3 hours bus ride we arrived at Jinshanling the best preserved part of the great wall in inner mongolia for our 10k trek past 32 crumbling watch towers....in 28 degree heat and fighting off postcard, t-shirt, beer and other useless overpriced souvenir sellers. At first it was hard to enjoy appreciate the walk, scenery and peacefulness with mongolians on your case to buy stuff but we soon cottoned on that as soon as you said no money they disappeared!!! There was alot of walking up and down - 100 steps up and then 100 steps down, some parts had no steps at all and you somehow had to make your way down on crumbling rocks on all fours...at time it seemed never ending but you ... read more

Having spent a couple of chilly days in outer mongolia we were looking forward to heading to warmer climates..and offloading our siberian winter gear for good! Another day and half train journey to china with another long tedious boaders crossing...but this time we had pot noodles to look forward to instead of soup:). The train was a bit of a let down after our luxurious cabin to mongolia- but our chinese roomate made up for it.....we were quickly befriended by lian juan jiun who turned out to be our guardian angel within hours he had cured my cough and him and his friends kept us entertained throughout...english vs chinese lessons, we taught him how to use a digital camera and in exchange he taught us how to write our names in chinese. Lou also managed to ... read more