After having spent a couple of days in Hanoi’s hectic but lovely old quarter and doing the tourist-must Halong Bay, we decided to take the over-night train to Sapa. This small town is busy with tourists and situated in the North of Vietnam, not far from the Chinese border; surrounded by beautiful, green karst mountains, the highest in the country. As I already mentioned, we took the overnight soft sleeper to Sapa, which was a very comfortable journey that gave us a good night’s sleep. Walking past the hard sleeper carriage in the morning, we really appreciated to have taken the soft sleeper. As opposed to China, the hard sleepers in Vietnam really seem to be hard. We arrived in the early morning and took a local bus from the train station that is actually located ... read more

Yes, I'm on the road. Sunday I left Huhehaote after having lived there for almost a year with a happy and a sad eye. The last few days were quite hectic, although that's not really true because I just couldn't start packing ahead of time. Taking pictures off your wall seems so definite and all of a sudden you don't feel at home anymore in your own room. So I left that until last, also I had to work until Saturday 9 pm which made the actual leaving really quick. We did, though, have a little party and a great night out a bit ahead of my departure. Anyway, here I am now on the road. First stop Beijing. My travel partner is delayed so I have some time to do the sightseeing I have always ... read more

This travel blog recounts the adventures I had travelling four provinces in the North of China (Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Gansu, Shaanxi) with my good friend Bastien, who came to visit China and me earlier this year. Together we travelled for about 11 days and covered quite a distance. We took a lot of over night trains, in some places only stayed for a day, arriving early morning, setting off with the next night train the same day. Now in 11 days, a lot of things happened and we had a extraordinary great time... far too much to write it all down, so here are our daily travel diary entries... they might not always make sense and might only be understood by the two of us, but heyho, you should have been there. At this point, big ... read more

This week I went back to my first city in China, QinHuangDao. A, by Chinese standards, small city east of Beijing on the Bohai Sea, which recently got known to foreigners for being one of the venues for the Beijing Olympics. Qinhuangdao, itself has not too much to offer, but it’s known for Beidaihe, the summer resort for important people and Shanhaiguan, the eastern end of the Great Wall. My good, old friend Danny got married with his lovely wife Emily, which was the reason for my visit. A visit back to good old memories, adventures, times and people, so that’s the reason I now start a little travel blog about Qinhuangdao... Where to start... I spent a little over a year in Qinhuangdao, and I must say I had a great year there, that went ... read more

When in Inner Mongolia, the grassland should definitely be on the list of things to do. Now there are many, all over the province, which apparently differ from each other strongly. Having lived in Hohhot since January, it was about time to go, see and experience that renowned part of Mongolian culture. The grasslands I visited are the Xilamuren Grasslands, two hours bus ride north of Hohhot. In Mongolian Xilamuren means "Yellow Water". Summer and autumn are the best time to visit the grasslands, and having had quite a lot of rain recently the grasslands promised to be especially green this year. We sat off early in the morning for a staff trip paid for by my school. The way to the grasslands basically was the first highlight. We went through the mountain range surrounding Hohhot ... read more