Our assault on China began in the far North Eastern city of Harbin. The city itself is quite industrial with evidence of a Russian cultural influence, hence the onion domed cathedral in our pictures. However, we had come specifically for the Ice and Snow Festival which is held here every January. You won't be surprised to hear that it was very cold (around -25). Our first mistake was buying tickets for the wrong part of the festival, namely the one for children. Daniel didn't seem disappointed though as he was sliding on the sculptures with the kids. Once we'd located what we'd actually come to see it definitely didn't disappoint. The sculptures, made completely from ice, are enormous and many can be walked on or through. Most of them are re-creations of famous landmarks from around ... read more

To get to our next destination, Kanazawa, we got to ride the bullet train for the first time. It is fast and very reliable, but I suppose when you're used to British Rail, anything is an improvement. Our first stop here was the Contemporary Art Museum (Dad was always going to get at least one art gallery in!) We were spending Christmas in Kanazawa and on Christmas day we visited the town's castle and gardens, the old part of the city which still has the traditional style houses and a samurai house. It had snowed which was an added bonus but getting used to these temperatures after Sydney was not easy and it wasn't long before the thermals were making a reappearance. That evening we headed out for quite a different Christmas dinner, it comprised of ... read more

With only 5 days in Australia we decided we would limit our traveling to Sydney and save the rest for another trip. Still, this was more than enough time to see all of the sights and it soon became clear why everyone raves　so much about the place. Our first day we set out to see Sydney harbour, the bridge and the Opera House. The second we went to Bondi beach, unsurprisingly the weather was scorching hot but what did dumbfound me was the lack of shade. So, while the males were all surfing and the females bronzing themselves on the beach I went in search of a parasol. Half an hour later I returned to spend the next few hours battling against the wind to prevent my shade blowing into the sea. I'd say I managed ... read more

Before leaving home my knowledge of Patagonia was limited to the fact that they spoke Welsh there. The image I had of it was some kind of mini Wales in the middle of Argentina. This is not at all accurate. Patagonia takes up almost half of Argentina and the Welsh speakers are concentrated in a couple of small towns. Our first stop was a town called Peurto Madryn. Upon arrival Valentina was immediately pestering me to arrange our visit to see the Welsh communities (her Welsh heritage stretches back just the 1 generation). The following day we set off on a tour of the area which began with a visit to a penguin colony, they nest from the sea up to a mile inland which means that we walked right through them. Our guide informed us ... read more

Following an 11 hour bus ride from Arequipa we arrived at 7am in Cusco. We had got into the habit of getting our own room as oppose to dormitories as everything in Bolivia and Peru is so cheap. We decided though that it was about time we made a bit of an effort to socialise with our fellow travelers again. This was a mistake. Very tired, we entered the dorm at about 7.30 when the other 4 inhabitants were sound asleep. Unfortunately our roomies weren't really in the sleeping mood for long and by about 8.30 they were all wide awake, giving their previous nights activities a thorough post mortem at a pretty loud volume. One of them was particularly proud of the fact that he had ordered 8 cheeseburgers on the way home (only managed ... read more