Our final location of the trip would be another gigantic and heavily-polluted city, China's capital Beijing. In fact, it was difficult to enjoy the city itself for both reasons - the size of the place makes walking a necessity, but the air quality ensures that said walking really isn't much fun. Fortunately the city is easily redeemd by an amazing range of superlative cultural attractions, in and around the urban sprawl. On the first day, after a quick wander around Tiananmen Square, we visited the huge Forbidden City - with its giant courtyards and numerous splendid halls. We paid a little [View Full Entry]

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Shanghai was never high on my list of places I wanted to visit in China, which was perhaps not a good start. Both Chris and I felt jaded with the place within hours of arriving. Aside from psychological reasons, this can probably be attributed to a late evening stroll we took along the bustling shopping street of East Nanjing Road. Every five seconds (I’m barely exaggerating here) a tout would leap from the crowds with an offer of cheap DVDs and/or fake watches and/or shoes. Does anyone ever actually buy anything from these people? We spent some time exploring Shanghai’s various [View Full Entry]

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Upon arrival at Xi'an's train station, a softly-spoken tout swiftly pulled us from the thronging crowds in the hope of tempting us into a ride to his hostel. Fine by me - it was the splendid Bell Tower Hostel, one of the best I've stayed in anywhere, and perfectly located by the huge crossroads which marks the centre of town. Best of all was the social side - we shared our dorm room with a bunch of other foreigners, so I had a good few English-speakers with whom to properly celebrate my birthday. Xi'an perhaps topped my list as the place [View Full Entry]

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On a bit of a whim, we decided to stop off at the town/mountain of Wudang Shan, on the way to Xi'an. It proved to be a rather difficult and stressful diversion. Firstly, the convenient travel arrangements which I'd researched were scuppered by the recent earthquake in Sichuan province - the line we needed was being used as a supply route so passenger services were reduced. We thus arrived at 1 in the morning, and took the first grotty hotel which was offered to us. The following day we tried to follow Lonely Planet's rather vague advice to reach the mountain [View Full Entry]

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We safely arrived in Yichang, a fairly nondescript town with what seemed a disproportionately large Red Light District (we were looking for an internet cafe, honest). Our plan was to book a Yangzi river cruise to Chongqing, but in the end we opted for one which would return us to Yichang. The main reason was that this was considerably cheaper (by a factor of three in fact). The disadvantage was that it was a cruise designed for Chinese tourists, not Westerners. Despite the low cost, our six-bed cabin was, as ever, furnished with China's favorite two items - a TV and [View Full Entry]

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Getting from Yangshuo to Fenghuang was always going to be interesting. I did a little internet research on the matter, and found a range of blogs warning of impossible connections, language nightmares and near-death experiences on the bus. Undeterred, Chris and I thought we'd have a go anyway. Getting to Guilin -an hour's bus journey to the north - proved easy enough. Next stop Huaihua. We opted for train rather than bus - it leaves and arrives at about the same time, costs about the same, has a more sensible seating arrangement and is less likely to kill you. We strolled [View Full Entry]

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From Macau we journeyed to backpacker favorite Yangshuo, via Guangzhou (Canton). Compared to later journeys (see next blog once I've written it) this one was only very stressful. All we saw of Guangzhou was its smart metro system, the bus station waiting room and millions of Chinese. The bus to our destination was pretty fun, both due to the exceptionally bumpy roads and the alcoholic American in front of us who started loudly accusing the enitre bus of conspiring to steal his cigarettes (in the middle of the night). By fun I mean horrendous. The dawn views of Guangxi's countryside as [View Full Entry]

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In Hong Kong we for once had accommodation booked already - to satisfy tighter visa requirements brought on by the proximity of the Beijing Olympics. Cleverly I had written down directions but not the actual address, which was most definitely not sufficient! Having eventually found internet terminals (in the library) to attain the address, we resumed our search but had little more luck. It was, in all, a stressful couple of hours before we finally located our tiny Inn high in a dilapidated building, overlooking the Causeway Bay shopping district. Even then, the Inn turned out to be full and th [View Full Entry]

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Our next stop was a backpacker classic - Chiang Mai up in the north. Our first day was spent exploring some of the city's many impressive temples and ruins. The most spectacular was Chedi Luang, which was in fact a ruined temple - its majestic stupa towering above the surrounding buildings. Aside from the charms of the city itself, most travellers head to Chiang Mai to embark on one of the popular organised treks. Ours' began with a tough two hour walk through sweltering jungle and up sharp inclines. The reward for our labours was a hilltop village of the Lahu [View Full Entry]

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From Kanchanaburi we returned to the south, heading straight for Koh Phangan so that our visit would coincide with the infamous Full Moon Party. Of course the island isn't bad for a spot of relaxation either. Mostly we lay on the beach, read, swam and played frisbee. I also took a diving trip to 'Sail Rock', but since my mum complained that the Perhentian blog read like a dive brochure I'll just say that the visibility could have been better, and leave it at that. I'd recommend anyone who visits Haad Rin to stop for a 'King Size Burger' at Jonnees. [View Full Entry]

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