We signed up for an elephant ride and got far more of an adventure than we'd imagined. The ride was with an elephant camp who rescue elephants from a life of logging timber, train mahouts (elephant keepers) and look after the health and welfare of the elephants. We imagined the camp to be an enclosure near town but it turned out to be quite a journey into the wild. An ancient Land Rover Defender came to pick us up from our hotel and we climbed into the tray at the back. We drove for an hour on the road out of [View Full Entry]

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Luang Prabang is exquisite, it takes my breath away. We've wanted to come for some time, but have traversed so many other parts of South-East Asia before finally making it here. This is a jewel of a town, and having travelled to nearly thirty countries, this would make it on to a 'top ten' list. The whole town is relaxed and romantic, full of culture and tradition and every comfort a traveller could want. It's the old royal capital and has an elegant and regal feel to it. It was made a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995 and that thankfully [View Full Entry]

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Last night we went to a Thai Boxing match. As those of you who know me will know, I'm usually a handbag and shoes kind of girl so boxing was a whole new experience. Dan had to explain the rules to me! It was surprisingly addictive, probably because we were more or less ringside so had a great view of all the gore and action. One of the guys in the first match, second round (is that the right terminology?!) got a massive, black eye that swelled so much you couldn't even see his eye. It didn't look like much fun. [View Full Entry]

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We've been in Thailand nearly a week and lost track of time as all we've been doing is swimming, sunning ourselves, having massages, eating and reading. It's a tough time! We spent two nights on Koh Samui on Bo Phut Beach, which was quiet and quite idyllic - swaying palm trees, turquoise water, white sand, and candlelit dinners on the sand. We stayed in a great beach bungalow called 'Free House Bungalows', and paid less than 10 quid a night. The food was amazing too - lots of curries and stir frys and coconut shakes. Each afternoon a big storm would [View Full Entry]

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We set off early from Yangshou to drive three hours to see the amazing Longji terraced rice fields high in the mountains. Our bus driver was a horn enthusiast and used it frequently and repeatedly, even when there was only a lone motorbike to overtake. Even with my ipod on full volume I couldn't drown out the shrill sound. It was a hazy and rainy day and as we neared our destination visibility got so bad that we could only see as far as the side of the road. We'd heard that there were lots of landslides on the way to [View Full Entry]

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The weather in Yangshou was finally clear this morning so we set off on a four hour bike ride, with a local guide. We were thrilled to have a guide as we got to go off-road and explore the back lanes. We met other travellers along the way who'd decided to do it independently and they were hopelessly lost even on the main roads. When I say off-road, I mean that we pedalled through rice fields, through grass paths, through mud paths, through gravel paths, and through paths where there was nothing but puddles! We ended up with mud splashed all [View Full Entry]

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We left our Shanghai backpacker's in a taxi that had a sign in the back saying 'psychos or drunkards without guardians are prohibited from taking taxis'! Yet another great Chinese/English translation! We flew from Shanghai to Guilin in Guangxi province, in south-east China. The region is famed for its karst scenery, and the peaks rising from the fields are magnificent. We caught a bus from the airport into Guilin, navigated our way to another bus, paid someone we hoped was legitimate (turned out to be the bus driver) and then set off for Yangshou. Yangshou is a town set up for [View Full Entry]

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We've now spent four days lazing in Shanghai. We've taken it extremely easy - sleeping late and sitting in cafes and just generally meandering around the French Concession area. We've discovered that Shanghai is a great food city, not only is the local cuisine good but the western style food is amazing and could rival Melbourne and Sydney's cafes (although Dan says it would rival Sydney, never Melbourne!) Specifically we've eaten a few times in an area called Taikang Road Art Centre, which is an area of laneways with funky cafes, bars, galleries and shops. It seems to be where Shanghai's [View Full Entry]

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We're now in Shanghai and although we've only seen a little of the city, I really like it. It's a vast city full of high rises, trendy shops and restaurants, expressways, mega malls and polluted air - does anyone ever get to see blue sky in China, I wonder? It feels like a much bigger city than Beijing as horns honk all the time, homeless people are seemingly greater in number, and mostly we'd rather get the metro or a taxi than attempt to walk around. Having said this, we were in a taxi this afternoon and our driver was impatient [View Full Entry]

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After four days enjoying Beijing, we left on the overnight train to travel to a town south-west of Beijing called Pingyao. We couldn't get the Lonely Planet recommended soft sleeper bunks on the overnight train as they were all booked, so we opted for the hard sleeper bunks instead. The hard sleeper consisted of an open carriage lined with bunks stacked three high. We were the only non-Chinese in our carriage and I think the only English speakers. The train took 12 hours and we had the misfortune of the top bunks, which meant we were less than a metre from [View Full Entry]

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