ANGLAIS The first stage of our trek through the gorge was almost aborted as we'd heard that the rain that had in the previous 4 days had made the trails treacherous and had left some people stuck in the gorge. After consulting with a couple who had yet to start after 3 days hanging around and then to a group who were not planning to do the same, we decided we'd come far enough and that we could give the first two hour stretch a go and see what happened. As it turned out it was no problem at all. Armed [View Full Entry]

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FRANÇAIS Finis les sièges durs dans les trains de nuit. Deux coups d’avion et nous sommes dans le Yunnan (Sud Est de la Chine), à Lijiang pour être tout à fait précise. Lijiang, c’est le centre historique du peuple Naxi*. Les mauvaises langues pourront dire ce qu’elles veulent mais la vieille ville est vraiment charmante: un labyrinthe de ruelles pavées et de canaux qui s’entrecroisent, des pontons en pierre, des maisons typiques en bois sculpté, des lanternes rouges qui se balancent… On se croirait en Chine! A Lijiang, la musique tient une place i [View Full Entry]

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Hi Le. Li Jing Le. Thanks for the drinks and the lunch and for introducing us to your friends. I've bought a camera now and you'll see the results when we get to Hong Kong. Hope you're well. Here's a few pictures that we took when we were in Kunming. Nathalie & Jason [View Full Entry]

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ANGLAIS Xi'an, home of the 2000 year old Terracotta Warriors not "Terracotta" face powder by Guerlain as suggested by the Parisienne at the hostel. After 13 hours on a hard seat on a train from Beijing to Xi'an we were fried. Veteran Chinese travellers it seems can sleep sitting upright on a wooden bench but we could not. Nathalie spent a few hours curled on the floor alternating between using the seat and my feet as a pillow just to get a little rest. Xi'an's giant old city walls surrounded us and in the following days we cycled the 12km around [View Full Entry]

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FRANÇAIS Aéroport de Pékin: il est 22h00. Après consultation de nos notes gribouillées un peu plus tôt, nous prenons la ligne de bus no. 2. De l'autoroute d'abord, puis de grandes avenues, très sombres et presque désertes. Nous descendons de ce premier bus pour remonter aussitôt dans un deuxième: le no. 22. Encore des avenues, puis des rues, toujours à peine éclairées. Atmosphère silencieuse. 6ème arrêt: on descend et on se met à marcher dans la pénombre pendant plusieurs centaines de mètres avant de pénétrer (enfin) dans le hutong de Zhengjue. "Hutong" en Chinois signifie "ruelle" [View Full Entry]

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LA CARTE POSTALE Le Japon: un pays magnifique! Les temples, les jardins, les arts… Tout est dans la finesse. Même chose concernant ses habitants. Les Japonais sont plein d’égard, de gentillesse et de politesse. Le respect des autres avant tout. Serait-ce la société idéale? Aux yeux de la touriste que je suis, oui… mais la perfection existe-t-elle vraiment? Notre avons partagé notre séjour entre Tokyo et Kyoto, avec un saut jusqu'à Nara et Osaka. Seule critique: c'était trop court… THE DISCUSSION All night Manga cafes, fish markets with huge froz [View Full Entry]

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ENGLISH Our three weeks in the Philippines was split between the capital, Manila and the beaches, lagoons and reefs of the Palawan islands. Manila on our first visit felt like it was going to be one of those capital nightmares (like we'd had in Central America): all traffic jams, poverty stricken families, filthy streets, bright lights and standing water "They" had told us that Baywalk, on the sea front was a good place to start for an night out. "They" were right up to a point. There was a buzz of activity and a stream of sea front bar/restaurants with cover [View Full Entry]

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ENGLISH What to do with only 2 weeks in Australia? How about meet with some homies from home, find some roos, some sharks and drink some stubbies!? As soon as we stepped out of the plane, we noticed that everybody around was speaking like they'd just come from Wolf Creek (well sort of). Even the immigration officer, who checked our passports, waived us through with a "sweeeeeet mate". Meeting with Ben n' Em' in Sydney (the homies from home, who'd returned home). We did some shit: drank some, ate some, saw some and talked some. The Bondi to Coogee cliff walk [View Full Entry]

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FRENCH Le vol Air Pacific FJ811 était pratiquement vide: un Boeing 747 avec personne dedans! La classe éco se résumant à Jason, moi et 2 ou 3 autres pelés, on avait tous une rangée de sièges chacun. Malgré tout, je n’ai pas réussi à fermer l’œil de la nuit/journée, parce que je n’arrive jamais à dormir dans les avions… ou les trains, les bus etc... Après 11 heures de vol, on a finalement atterri à l’aéroport de Nadi, non pas le lendemain, mais le surlendemain à 6h30 du mat’ (passage de la ligne de changement de date oblige) sous une pluie [View Full Entry]

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Anglais After 3 and a half months in Central America (and Mexico) the spick and span Gaslamp district in San Diego was like Disney World. Cleaner, wider streets, plusher bistro style restaurants with the blue handblown wine glasses, white plates the size of cart wheels adorned with a single prawn and the hub of earnest American chatter. For dinner we headed to an "authentic" Mexican eatery (with our ID) for a taste of yesterday. [View Full Entry]

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