It is a well established fact that I have a love of food, in fact, I like to say that "I live to eat, not the other way around". In the past I have tried to deny my problem, I ran away from the issue and hoped that it would just go away, however it hasn't. So, my friend Ory and I came up with a solution, a way for me to once and for all get over my obsession with stuffing my face with copious amounts of cake/brownies/burgers/muffins and anything else tasty. We dedicated a day to food. The location [View Full Entry]

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The Beginnings of Adventure It was a chilly evening. The music was slightly muted, soft and relaxing, the Migratory Bird Cafe was almost empty. I noted that unlike what normally passed for music in Deqin (constantly playing "Message in a Bottle" was ok at first but fast grew to be annoying) the strains of a passable 60's Jazz number were to be heard. After the pretty sunset I had moved into the cafe to escape the cold, as being from northern Australia has not prepared me for the weather here, and I was awaiting my overpriced and most likely barely-palatable dinner. [View Full Entry]

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Easy Tiger On top of my “must see before I'm blind” list sits Tiger Leaping Gorge, a somewhat unassuming rock formation just north of LiJiang which has been described and photographed by just about every travel writer worth their salt, so of course I had to go see it myself. As tough as it was to drag my lethargic body out of the Sexy Tractor bar, it had to be done and it had to be done properly. As the bus turned a bend in the hills I got to see the Yangzi River, at this point known as the Jinsha [View Full Entry]

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LiJiang in Low Gear I was stuffed, buggered, worn out and exhausted. I needed a break from this hectic life that I have been leading, I needed to just sit down and do nothing for a while. Well, perhaps I was just lazy. I did however manage to pick the ultimate location for my lethargy: LiJiang. LiJiang has been described by several of my recent friends as Chinese Disneyland, a place packed with holidaying Chinese, each with their mandatory souvenir hats (the cowboy hat was most popular) and matching clothing. Troops of holiday-makers walk down the streets behind their leaders who [View Full Entry]

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I Got High in Dali Everyone who travels to Dali gets high in one way or another, it’s just what happens there. I suspect that a lot of people spend more time than they intended in Dali for just that reason. The thing is though that there are more ways to get high than by using the readily available stream of drugs on the street or by hanging out in one of the dozen or so stoner bars. I chose the more adventurous option for my trip: Cang Shan, the mountain sitting just behind the town. First though, I owe you [View Full Entry]

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Last Day in Kunming Ok, I couldn’t handle it, Kunming was simply too cold for me. Despite all my efforts I had failed to acclimatise and I needed to head to a warmer place. Coincidentally, XiShuangBanNa was going to be the center of the Dai new year festival within a few days, so after virtually no decision making process I had booked a bus ticket. Of course, the bus wasn’t leaving until late the next day so I had to entertain myself, and how do you think I did that? Well, it was Easter Monday, so I ate some chocolate cake. [View Full Entry]

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First Impressions of China Arriving in China is like getting hit with a tonne of bricks, thousands upon thousands of cultural bricks which individually could be handled with ease, but in such numbers are just totally overwhelming. Even the smallest task, such as finding lunch, can become a headache here as English is virtually non-existant. Of course, the local people are friendly and willing to help you out, if only you could explain to them what it is that you are after. You end up making a hell of a lot of mistakes and eating a lot of rubbish food, but [View Full Entry]

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Sapa If you have ever read any tourist literature about Sapa, or seen any photos of Sapa, then you have been deceived! I dare you, go do a google image search for Sapa and have a look at the photos of vibrant rice-terraced mountains basking in the sun of a tropical hillside retreat. What you see in those pictures is not what I saw in Sapa, not even close. To get a good idea of what Sapa really looks like you should go to your bed and cover yourself in a clean white sheet. To say that a cloud was shrouding [View Full Entry]

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1: Find a Place to Stay I'm just going to say it up front: I stayed in a penthouse suite while in Hanoi. That is to say, I had the entire top floor of a hotel, with 360 degree vies of the city, all to my little self. And what's better still is that I only had to pay four US dollars a night to get it! How is this possible you ask? Well, the answer lies in the way in which I described my room. Yes, it was on the top floor (6th floor) of the hotel, but the word [View Full Entry]

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Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City? Arriving in Ho Chi Minh City (I will call it HCMC from now on so as to save typing time), I was not sure of what to expect from the city. Would it be another Hanoi, the bustling metropolis of bicycles and touts? Or would it be another Singapore with all the modern trimmings, bells and whistles of a westernised city? My experience suggests that it is both at once, some strange conglomerate of both places; as if Singapore and Hanoi had bred together and formed some mutant offspring. Just like Hanoi, HCMC is a [View Full Entry]

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