Keeping this short and sweet. In Luang Prabang, Laos. It's really great here. Was at a bear rescue centre and swam in some waterfalls yesterday. Going to Vang Vieng/Phonsavan tomorrow. Travelling with 3 great guys. 1 British. 2 French Canadian. Been in the Northern Laos countryside - Udomxai, Muang Kuai, Muang Ngoi Neua, Nong Khiaow, trekking, relaxing, getting drenched in the wet season downpours, eaten by leeches, crossed rivers with no life jacket etc-oops (one slightly life threatening ), stayed in a wooden hut in an ethnic village, rocked in a hammock, bought some wellies, sweat [View Full Entry]

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Hey, just a quick message to update you on my trip to Laos. Crossed the border fine with no swine flu! and it's been pretty rainy. Luckily I've met some great people to travel with and at the moment I'm in LuangNam Tha. Done a bit of walking/trekking in the area, but today was a bit hair-raising... A bunch of us booked a kayak day trip on the river and to cut a long story short, out of the 13 of us, 9 of us called it quits after being in the canoe for a total of no more than 5 [View Full Entry]

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Just a wee update on my whereabouts for those who are worried/wondering/keeping an eye on my movements! I'm currently in Jinghong, Xishuangbanna in Yunnan province, China. Tomorrow morning I'm heading into Laos by bus to Luang Nam Tha (luckily with a few people I met at the hostel to keep the journey entertaining)..then I'm possibly heading onto Udomxai/Muang Ngoi and then Luang Prabang. I will try and update my journey soon! love, K. [View Full Entry]

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After settling into Jane's Guesthouse that evening, eating some Tibetan style dinner (with a German/Canadian couple and a Korean guy who'd just done the trek that day) we decided to plan on doing the gorge trek in only one day and not two. Then we could return to the guesthouse for dinner and have a bit of a birthday celebration as I asked Jane to make us some apple pies! So with a long day ahead of us, we just chilled out and played some cards, whilst meeting a British couple who'd be doing the same as us the next day... [View Full Entry]

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In the morning we decided to head to the 3 pagodas in Dali,aiming to miss the crowds and cram in as much as we could before 12pm (when we had to get our bus to Qiaotou). Arriving at about 7am, we were the only ones there so we literally had the whole place to ourselves till about 8.30 when the tour groups started arriving. Overall I'm not sure if the 120RMB entrance fee was worth it (luckily I used my student card for a discount). The three main pagodas are beautiful but those that followed were a bit repetitive, especially after [View Full Entry]

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So we finally left Jingdezhen and caught our train to Kunming on the Wednesday night. Although I'm travelling pretty light (a 35litre normal rucksack), Brad and Kim had all the stuff they were bringing home wuith them so we had A LOT to carry betwwen the 3 of us! Our friends Xiao ni and Shen jie dropped us at the station at 2am and lets just say, the process of getting onto the train was an interesting one considering we only had hard seat tickets! Pushing our way through to the PACKED hard seat carriage we were in, I had my [View Full Entry]

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Just a little update for you all... (will go into more detail when I get the chance sometime next week) Anyway... left Jingdezhen, arrived in Kunming and came to Dali today..tomorrow we're off to the base of the Tiger leaping Gorge where we'll be for a couple of days, then back to Kunming so that Brad & Kim can catch their flight to Beijing and home.. Already seen and experienced some amazing things from being (thankyou dear God) upgraded to a sleeper bed on our train, befriending "John Wayne" the tuk tuk driver, to seeing a spectacular sky in Dali! Update [View Full Entry]

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So this weekend has been a little busy to say the least... Friday was an extremely long day of giving 70 English oral tests to my students. Starting at 8am, I didn’t finish up until 4.30pm! I decided to give job interviews as their final exam so luckily I heard some interesting replies, which I guess kept me going through my 8+ hour onslaught. One example was an English teacher interview, where my student started explaining to me why she wanted to teach. This I found out was mainly due to being influenced by her mother who is a teacher, but [View Full Entry]

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So those of you who don't really know where I've been for the majority of this past year/year & a half, here are a few images of Jingdezhen from the past couple of weeks to give you a tiny bit of an idea... A couple of exhibitions/talks/lectures by Brad Birkhimer (USA) and Peter Fulop (IRELAND) at the Pottery Workshop The old part of town during the Dragon boat festival,where I was invited to my friend Yuna's grandparents houses and was given so many sticky rice dumplings and eggs it was ridiculous! Last night at a KTV dinner with some of my [View Full Entry]

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Well, my time in Jingdezhen seems to be coming to an end. I'll be back sometime over the next few months to pick up the stuff I'm leaving behind & maybe stay a little while to make/finish up some studio work..but we'll have to see how things pan out I guess... So, let the preparations begin! I thought I'd start up this blog as I have a feeling the access to my email and internet accounts might be restricted at times and I guess it's an easy way for you all to keep track of my whereabouts. Plus, it's another excuse [View Full Entry]

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