My last stop in China wasn't really in China... I thought that a few days in Hong Kong would make a good contrast with the few rural places I'd stopped in as I crossed China. I was lucky enough to enjoy a free yacht trip across the bay, and to meet some nice people to walk with along the Dragon's Back trail across the ridge of the island. The nighttime skyline is quite a sight, isn't it ? [View Full Entry]

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Still trying to catch up with these photos... These are from central China : Xi'an I visited because of its proximity to the Army of Terracotta warriors, and Guilin and Yangshuo for the karst scenery. Yet to come are the photos of Hong Kong and of northern Vietnam, but this might take some time as my camera got wet today (unthoughtfuly left on the beach at the mercy of the rising tide) and I'm not yet sure whether it will recover fully. Luckily the memory card survived, so the photos are safe... [View Full Entry]

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Though these pictures were taken about 3 weeks ago, I'm only just getting around to putting them up now... I suppose I could blame the Internet censorship in China, but that wouldn't be totally honest. I guess I've just been having too much fun to bother with computers and online updates... I spent about a week in Beijing, during which I took part in the following activities : hiking 10kms of the Great Wall, visiting Mao's mausoleum (my 2nd communist hero's dead body so far, Ho Chi Minh yet to come), the Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City... and plenty of [View Full Entry]

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You may be thinking I've been kind of quiet lately. Well there's a pretty good reason for that : I've been out of town... And by out of town I mean "Outer Mongolia" ! After arriving in Ulaanbaatar (UB for those in the know) and spending a couple of days with Sabina my CS host seeing the sights (there are only a few, and even then, I'm counting the Beatles tribute monument as one) the Mongolian fun really begun. Sabina was kind enough to introduce me to some friends of hers (and for this I am truly grateful) who live about [View Full Entry]

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So I've made it as far as Irkutsk, the lake Baikal... the far side of Russia. Last stop before Mongolia. The lake Baikal is quite a sight, cliffs on all sides, pine trees all the way down to the water. An old railway line winds along the coastline and a daily service for tourists crawls the tracks making many picturesque stops. Baikal is the deepest lake in the world and contains one third of the fresh water on the planet. It was a great pleasure to go diving in its clear (and somewhat cold) waters. [View Full Entry]

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5 days spent in Moscow... 5 days of disorientating linguistics and incomprehensible street signs. The Kremlin, Red square, Lenin's embalmed body, some great Russian and foreign encounters, a few beers and vodkas, and all of this followed by a trip on one of the greatest railways in the world... [View Full Entry]

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I'm a little behind schedule with these photos I took about two weeks ago when I was in Lithuania. Some of Vilnius town itself, some of Trakai (a small town about an hour west of Vilnius with a castle surrounded by lakes), and also some taken during a short camping trip up on the Baltic coast, on the Coronian Spit (a peninsula shared by Lithuania and Russia). [View Full Entry]

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I took very few photos during my stay in Poznan, my mind was elsewhere... Here are a couple of the ones that turned out ok. [View Full Entry]

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I'm writing from Poznan, in Basias beautiful house, listening to Chopin, and waiting for her to come home from her flower arranging course. Tonight I take a train to Warsaw, and from there an overnight bus to Vilnius. I hope you'll like these photos I took in Berlin. [View Full Entry]

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Amsterdam : city of canals and bikes, of red lights and pleasant smells. [View Full Entry]

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