chrisandsarah09

For the first time, since starting to blog our travelling experiences, weve encountered a dilemma. Should we a) Say that the Pulau Kapas was just alright, nothing out of the ordinary and not somewhere that we would highly recommend or should we b) Not say anything or c) Tell the truth. The reason for opting for either of the first two scenarios would mean that we would not be contributing to the relatively little amount of web material that exists and so in a small way doing our bit to ensure that the Pulau Kapas would remain relatively untouched by mass tourism - for selfish purposes of course. The truth is (option c) that the Pulau Kapas were everything we had hoped they might be. Stretches of soft white sand, crystal clear waters and some of ... read more

We took the short bus journey from Melaka into the bright lights and skyscrapers of KL. We had prebooked our hostel based on a reccommendation from Dawn and Alli. The hostel was called 'Back Home' and was convientially located on the outskirts of Little India and in close proximity to all major attractions. The hostel was only a short walk from the bus station but we still managed to indulge in a McDonalds McValue Lunch before we made the trip. Arriving in new places can be somewhat overwhelming at times as we have no idea where we are, however we have found that the 'home comfort' and generic surroundings of fast food outlets help ease culture shock and help find our bearings (well thats our excuse and we are sticking to it). The hostel exceeded all ... read more

Our flight arrived in late at night and as the airport shuttle took us towards our guest house in Chinatown we were admiring the city lights and the calmness of the place; excited about exploring the next day. As with Hong Kong we only had a limited amount of time in Singapore. Our hostel was ideally located within Chinatown; a hub of activity, with food stalls, souviner shops and traditional Chinese pharmacies. We headed into Chinatown and the smells from all the eateries insantly made us hungry. We selected an organic vegetarian restaurant and tucked into an amazing meal of fresh noodles before heading towards the Buddist temple which faced our hostel. The Buddist Temple was spread over 4-5 floors; some floors for active worship and others utilized to educate tourists about the Buddist religion. We ... read more

On the hard sleeper train to Xiamen we met an extremely friendly Chinese student called Jing Jing. Jing Jing was returning home from Hangzhou after visiting here brother. Even before the train had set off Jing Jing had greeted us and immediately offered us a vacum packed chicken's foot with an oreo biscuit to wash it down. Up until this point we were more than aware of the ready to eat delicacies that were to be found in Chinese mini markets and although we were keen to try new things we hadn't been particularly forthcoming in trying chicken's feet. The particular feet in question were small by comparison but no more appetising to our western palet. We didn't want to be rude by refusing and so did our best to niddle and swallow a few morcels. ... read more

We were elated at the thought of leaving the scorching tempertaures of Suzhou but a little dissapointed that, as a result of the heat, we couldn't fully appreciate all that it had to offer. Hangzhou was a three hour train ride from Suzhou. The journey took us through the metropolis of Shanghai but we'd decided on this occasion to give Shanghai a miss. We were pretty tight for time and having been city hopping for the past six weeks, the thought of going to another larger, brighter and more bustling city didn't seem to appealing. Shanghai is hosting the World Expo in 2010 and the construction works in preparation for the event were aparent from our hard seats on the train. Even in Suzhou we had seen the boom in construction intended to accomodate and impress ... read more

After a full recovery from our three nights in Nanjing we made our way to Suzhou for a few nights. Suzhou is known as the 'Garden State' in China and our hostel was located in the historic part of Suzhou and was a maze of canals, small teahouses, eateries and walled gardens. Suzhou was a lot smaller than most of the big cities we had been to so far and it was really refreshening to sit back beside the canal without any hustle or bustle. The only downside of Suzhou was the heat. It was so hot, approaching the 40's with near unbearable humidity making it almost impossible to go out during the afternoon - or the morning or evening for that matter. While gathering information on what to do in Suzhou we came across a ... read more

After leaving Chongqing (furnace one of three) and mking our way down the Yangzte we made boarded the bus and made our way to our second furnace, Wuhan. We were only spending one night in Wuhan to wait on the train to Nanjing so we used it as a chance to rest up, recouperate and get our clothes washed after the river cruise. The Irish couple and the montreal-ians were also staying just for the night and then we were all going our seperate ways. We all spent the evening together in the hostel pleased to feel and smell clean and still laughing about our cruise ship expereince. Glad that we'd done it but relieved that it was over. The next morning we got up and ventured out into the heat to visit a Buddist temple ... read more