After an interesting 6 hour bus trip which circled the very impressive slopes of Mt Kinabulu we arrived in Kota Kinabulu, the capital of Sabah. It appealed to us immediately, maybe because of it's setting on the ocean, but it also seemed a fairly relaxed place. Forgetting that it was the beginning of the long May Day weekend (we've lost track of time) I hadn't prebooked a room and we had trouble finding anywhere to stay. Eventually we ended up in a newly opened lodge on the corner of Beach Street and overlooking a big open air entertainment/ restaurant area. The [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Sandakan in Sabah, called by the local people the 'Land Below the Wind' as it is geographically below the typhoon belt and after looking for a bus stop we took the easy option and caught a taxi to our hotel - the Seafront Hotel - which did surprisingly have a view of the sea. I think we were given one of the better rooms as it was large and comfortable and certainlAftery good value at 69RM a night which included the usual Western breakfast - an egg, coffee and slightly browned tasteless bread and jam. We set off [View Full Entry]

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Our last couple of days in KL were great - we've settled into to the flow but still haven't got our suitcases sorted re living out of them. We need to get into the habit of putting things back into the same spot so we don't have to constantly rummage! We ended up catching the monorail to the Kampung area of KL, which is dominated by the Petronas Towers but is really just like a country town. The area is home to predominately non migrant Malaysians and is full of the old wooden houses with gardens and chook pens. We didn't [View Full Entry]

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After a great couple of days spent with Devin and Jane, Jerry and I boarded our flight with Air China for the beginning of our trip. For the next 6 - 8 weeks we'll be spending time in mainland Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah. The flight was smooth and surprisingly comfortable - we had actually been dreading it as both are suffering from some degree of back pain. We overnighted at a golf course resort on the island of Taiwan. I think that we were virtually the only guests. On the half hour drive to the resort I realised how much living [View Full Entry]

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Jerry and I are packing for another adventure in South East Asia. We leave next week for a week in Kuala Lumpur before heading down to Borneo for a month. Eventually we hope to end up in India, China and then to travel the loop through most of the other South East Asian countries, before heading home to Australia in February 2010. For anyone interested this blog is attached to the one I kept whilst we were travelling around China in 2005. Also on this blog site (under blogger code '2inchina' ) is the blog I kept whilst we were teaching [View Full Entry]

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We left Dali on a tiny minbus and headed north to Lijiang - a trip which took 3 hours. Lijiang is situated in a beautiful valley and is surrounded by mountains, including the 5500 metre high Jade Dragon Snow Mountain - the peak of which we didn’t get to see! The bus dropped us in modern Lijiang, which was the usual conglomeration of cement, dirt, bustle and sprawl. Not at all attractive. We caught a taxi the 3 kilometres to the old town and were dropped off at the entrance. The streets within the old city are too narrow for any [View Full Entry]

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We left Kunming by bus for a four hour trip, 390 kilometres north west to Dali, along the famous Burma Road, built during the Japanese occupation of China. The four hour trip ended up taking 6 and half hours due to heavy fog and a lost passenger at the lunch stop. We stopped for lunch at a service area which had dozens of buses waiting - I presume the lost passenger boarded the wrong one - it certainly wouldn’t have been hard to do! After the usual arguing between staff and endless recounting of the buses’ passengers we eventually left, minus [View Full Entry]

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We had a very pleasant two hour plane trip from Guilin to Kunming. The airport in Kunming is in the centre of the city so after a short (and cheap) taxi ride we were dropped outside the hotel where we planned on staying for a few days. The hotel was recommended by every travel book printed so it was no real surprise to find that they were booked out! We should have reserved a room… However we were offered a very basic room in the old youth hostel section for 80 yuan a night and were able to upgrade into one [View Full Entry]

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After the tour group left for Hong Kong we spent a couple of quiet days in Yangshuo. We explored the town, walking along the river bank and enjoying the local cafes. I was very pleased to find some book exchanges and second hand bookstores. A few happy hours were spent choosing some books to replenish my library here. We bought 20 books with us but I had read most of them (I have been rationing myself!) and English books are impossible to buy in Wuhan - unless you enjoy the classics. I enjoy reading them but not to the exclusion of [View Full Entry]

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Yangshuo was a very laid back tourist town! We saw more Western tourists there then anywhere else that we had visited in the previous month and absolutely hordes of Chinese tourists as well. It was very busy, particularly after dark when it was cooler. The weather was very humid and constantly fogged up our sunglasses and camera lens. Our hotel was very comfortable and we immediately negotiated a room rate for the extra few days we wished to spend in Yangshuo after we had left the Intrepid tour. They were all going on an overnight train to Hong Kong but we [View Full Entry]

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