Hong Kong, cant help but be awed looking at that skyline; we took the bus from Yangshao, 11 hours and a very nice travel gift provided by the bus company. A jar of spicy bean curd, I'm saving mine for a very special occasion. Kowloon, the peninsular section of Hong Kong is where a group I travelled with from Yangshao set me up. A huge designer store on every corner, copy Rolex touts filling the streets, and never ending phone, camera, video game stores. Chaos but with manners. Its the seedier part of Hong Kong, would be a bugger in the [View Full Entry]

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Lucky to get a ticket out of Shanghai to ... anywhere. Lucky to end up where I did. Guilin and Yangshao is the undisputed area of backpackers in China, a touch of S.E.A. Back again; banana pancakes, cheap knockoff Cd's, lame slogan t-shirts, movie bars and dazed out looks. I'll take it, I have a dazed out look too. This area is crying for you to get on a mountain bike (they actually rent good ones) and take off in any direction you please. River trails to follow, hikes to find, villages to visit, its all within a few hours ride, [View Full Entry]

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Chegdu, bummer for this town, I got sick with a sinus infection and my weak resolve to get better and stay in and do nothing would only last until 8pm when I would talk myself into another late night out. Stayed at a cozy guest house, Sims Cozy Guest House, the kind of place you linger, always getting a late start to the day. Chengdu is the capital of Sichaun, my love of spicy food is well known but I think I did some permanent damage to my stomach, like a big hole in it. I vow to back off. Pandas [View Full Entry]

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Great Wall Wow, amazing in size, scale, terrain, conscripted labor effort and the fact that there was hardly anyone there, I could believe my luck, yeah for Tuesday. I was meant to take the tour (tour because the section I wanted to visit required several bus changes I wasn't motivated for) on Sunday but the late Beijing nights sort of messed it up. I'm told the tour operator came into my room and physically assaulted me, Monday morning, my four roommates were all up and laughing their asses off at me. The combination of no sleep, ear numbing music and a [View Full Entry]

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I present the dumb traveler award, I meet an old guy from Wisconsin on the Laos side of the Chinese border. It took 4.5 hours to travel 50km in the back of a cold rainy pickup truck, not a journey you would ever want to make twice. I exit the truck and he appears, my new best friend, we get stamped out of the Laos side and he asks me what we are going to have to pay to enter China, a little mistake that will take 3 days of bus travel over shite roads. Of all the countries in Asia [View Full Entry]

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Clouds abound on my way out of Vang Vieng, both in my head and in the sky. We have been racing the monsoon season for the last few weeks, a losing battle. The trip out of town left the group scattered, everyone peeling off at different times. The lack of sleep and lack of sense kept a few of us back. To Culture! Luang Prabang has over 30 temples and is a charming and romantic city surrounded by two rivers. French tourists are here in droves as direct flights from Bangkok allow the absence of road travel for the wealthy. With [View Full Entry]

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So I'm having trouble sleeping, its not the rock hard beds, I'm used to those, the left side of my body (the side I sleep on) is covered in purple and yellow bruises. Throughout my first four months of travel in south east Asia, scores of people said Laos was their favorite place they've been to. It took me a few weeks to see why and while I don't necessarily agree I can appreciate it. For example, you walk across the street in Vietnam, you may get asked for a taxi three times, if you have a backpack you might as [View Full Entry]

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For 6 days and around a 1000km I had the most memorable time of my trip so far. Since no one I'd been travelling with was keen to go kayaking in Halong Bay I rented a Russian motorcycle in Hanoi alone two and a half days behind a crew of five. The bike was a temperamental beast it ran pretty well until 40km outside of returning the bike when it completely took a crapper. Riding the bike through this type of country was easily the most disconnected I've felt from the travel scene since I've been in Asia. For the first [View Full Entry]

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Being so high in elevation with clear views of the ocean it really seems that you can see the horizon follow a gentle curve. Bach Ma national park served as a 'chill out station' for French wealth. An hours drive up to 1800 meters makes temperatures bearable again. I lost the leech contest, Daniel my German friend has 6 leeches on his feet after a long hike in the park, I had 3. Accommodation can only be had at the ranger station and in the evenings we listened to Vietnamese weekenders sing songs while one in our group tried to match [View Full Entry]

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Of the 14 computers in this little café 13 are occupied by Vietnamese under the age of 16-18. As far as I can tell they are all on Yahoo IM flirting with each other, most in the same room. The guy next to me is lovelybabymuonyeu_139565 and he is making a girl behind me giggle. He types, 2 seconds later she giggles. Smoove. I guess that makes me an IM voyeur. Ahh, Hoi An, beautiful UNESCO Heritage Site untouched by war, old French style architecture, tiny passage ways, gorgeous trees, but for the motorbike sneaking up on you and then blasting [View Full Entry]

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