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 [View Full Entry]

---

---

After 7 weeks of travelling I am going to (eventually) update my travelblog. Where to start? Well, in those 7 weeks I have been to many, many places and so I will begin with a rather general topic… Markets in Vietnam. Everybody who has been to South-East Asia or China will agree that markets are quite an extraordinary experience that cannot be missed. The variety of goods offered is huge. You cannot leave a market without seeing at least one item that you don’t know or that totally shocks you. Another thing is the way goods are presented, lying there without [View Full Entry]

---

---

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 [View Full Entry]

---

---

My last visit to Beijing is already a few weeks back. My friend Emily came up north from Hong Kong on business and some extra holidays, so I simply met her, enjoying the luxury of living so close to the capital. A call to Qinhuangdao and Danny was on his way too... who could resist a night out in Beijing, which is always an appreciated change to routine life in China, and sometimes a so much needed thing to do. After having had a great night out at a bar street, enjoying foreign beers, meeting new people and staying in my [View Full Entry]

---

---

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, [View Full Entry]

---

---

It is the October holiday in China celebrating 59 years People’s Republic. The whole country is off for 3 days and so were we, together with the weekend 5 days off in a row. The mission: Mongolia! I and my best mate Johan set off early Monday morning in a bus from Hohhot to the border city of Erlianhot. The 6 hour trip was quite alright, we arrived early afternoon with the intention to look at the dinosaur museum, before heading to Mongolia the next day. Luckily we found out that the border was going to be closed from the next [View Full Entry]

---

---

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 [View Full Entry]

---

---

It’s the Mid-Autumn holiday... and after working the actual holiday on Sunday, I am enjoying a nice three day break during the week...As usual, Monday was quiet lame, recovering from work... Tuesday my mission was to get the Mongolian visa, because this is were I will be heading during the October holiday in two weeks time... 5 days... but you will find out about that soon. We went to the consulate here in Hohhot. 255 quai later we got our visa, ready to be picked up on Thursday. After that we checked out prices for flights back from Ulaanbaatar to Hohhot, [View Full Entry]

---

---

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 [View Full Entry]

---

---