Slow Boat Through China Climbing onto the bus which would take me to the pier in nearby Yichang, I began wondering just what I had gotten myself into. I had been spent the past 36 hours in buses, trains, cars, and tourist offices. It had been over 2 days since I had enjoyed the luxury of a hot shower, or the comfort of a real bed. And I was now consigning myself to yet another bus ride, followed up by an additional 3 days in a cramped, communal cabin while suffering from the flu. Or food poisoning. I wasn’t sure which yet. All I could do was lean my head back against my seat and pray that my rioting stomach would settle down before I joined in the local tradition of heaving into a plastic bag. ... read more

Adventures in Yangshou As soon as I walked through the streets of Yangshou for the first time I knew that this city would be setting unrealistically high expectations for the rest of China. It was cute and quaint and unbelievably beautiful. The cobblestone streets twisted sinuously around ancient teak storefronts and cheerfully bedecked restaurants. Lush limestone karsts circled the town and river, casting us in shadow and providing blessed relief from the sweltering daytime heat. My hostel, tucked into a little corner off the main square, provided a cozy lounge room, laundry services, and our very own transvestite receptionist. I was put in a 6 bedroom dorm room, which was overrun with 5 young volunteers who had just finished a summer placement teaching English. I made friends with the most precocious one in the group, an ... read more

Tackling China China. Unbelievably confusing, more then a little crazy, and infinitely complicated. I had fixed this country in my mind as the epitome of the challenging travel destination. Before I had begun this trip, I would never have dreamt of tackling this country on my own. The language was too difficult, the cities too vast. Even while successfully navigating through places like Nepal and Thailand, I still felt uneasy about my ability to slip into this complex and ancient culture. After 7 months of traveling, it was finally time to put this question to the test. I boarded a bus in Hanoi which would take me all the way up to Nanning. Most of the people on board were either Vietnamese or Chinese, but I quickly made friends with a guy named James from the ... read more

Hungover in Hanoi Finally, after having endured corrupt taxi drivers, theft, a sinus cold, creepy old men on the trains, pushy locals, an attempted mugging, blatant exploitation, a raging hangover, and more sexual innuendoes then I care to count, I had arrived safe and sound in Hanoi. I had expected that the capital city of this strange and bustling country would be large, impersonal and utterly devoid of charm. The reality was quite different. Hanoi was compact. Cozy even. Full of twists and turns and ragged rundown alleys. It invited you to poke around corners and explore musty shops. The roads seemed to list and lean and tumble drunkenly over each other. The same street might change names five times in as many blocks. Even after a week there I still got hopelessly lost every time ... read more

The Train Ride North to Ninh Binh Deciding to give the train one last chance, I booked myself in a hard seat for the overnight trip from Hue to Ninh Binh. I perhaps should have looked into what exactly ‘hard seat sleeper’ meant before buying my ticket. Boarding the train, I was a bit appalled to see that the seats were small wooden benches, similar to what you would find in a city park. I had a suspicion that this was going to be a long night. Once again, I was the only foreigner in sight, and I had to contend with hundreds of eyes watching my every move as I took my seat. I’d already figured out that most tourists take the bus through Vietnam, but the obvious shock on everyone’s face in my car ... read more