We hatched a plan to head to Halong Bay for a while and realax..we had already spent more than most in Hanoi and knew we had to make a move or we were in danger of never leaving. We booked a taxi to take us to the bus station and from Hanoi we would go to Haiphong spend a night there and get the Hydrofoil to Cat Ba Island the next morning. I know, I know it just sounds like more than its worth eh? We got to Haiphong and got up the next morning full of beans ready for [View Full Entry]

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Vietnam babay yeeeeehaaaaaw!!! Wow what a difference from China man!! Gary got better almost the minute we got on the plane for Nam and was cured when we got off. Our hotel was huge and the staff were super nice and spoke good English and straight away we felt ourselves relaxing another 50 per cent leaving us now with a 10 per cent motivation to travel…that should be enough. We arrived in Hanoi at night time so didn’t really have any experience until the next day when we woke up at around 1.30 and headout out for brekkie. This place is [View Full Entry]

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After trying to find immigration (which was around 15 minuts drive from the bus station) and getting on the subway finally we arrived at the hostel which was less than impressive but it was Hong Kong and space is money. Man we knew were out of mainland China straight away. NO spitting on the streets, shouting and everything seemed pretty clean. The people obviosluy had more money too and the place had a real English feel to it that I loved- it felt a little close to home. Gabrielle showed up two hours later and we were all so wrecked we [View Full Entry]

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Eventually we arrived in Yuangshou - the scenery the minute you get to the town is amazing. We spotted loads of whities on the way into the town and I never felt so happy to see other white people no matter where they are from!! The town is brilliant- a real tourist destinantion with loads of deadly cafes, bars and shops. We went shopping drunk last night and bought loads of crap for 10 euros. Breakfast this morning was 2.50 each for the biggest feed I’ve ever had. We are planning on staying here for a week a least and doing [View Full Entry]

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The bus was grand and we arrived in Tunxi 7 hours later. The town was deadly- really typically Chinese and really well kept- we were impressed and ready to give China another fair go. The hostel was pretty cool too. We had to leave at 6 the next morning to get to the mountain which was a total epic to get there. It’s a mountain range that has apparently inspired all of China’s poets, painters and philosophers over the centuries and is a haven for hoards of Chinese tourists. We knew all of this before we went but we were the [View Full Entry]

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Next stop Shanghai…we flew into Pudong Airport (felt really guilty about wasting all the money on the flight and we made a pact that we would take trains from now on if they were cheaper) with the purpose of getting the Maglev train into the city. It’s a train with no engine. It runs on magnetic force and reaches 300k and hour which is pretty fast. It was a good experience but after being on an airplane I think it took a little bit of the fun out o fit because we had probably taxi’d faster than that on the runway!! [View Full Entry]

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We hung around Beijing for another couple of days and then headed to Xian on Tuesday to see the Teracotta Army. We flew there because it was the same price as the train and arrived at the hostel. It was pretty cool- about 10 leagues ahead of the first one with really beautiful interior design. They had a cool bar so we headed down for dinner and met this really nice Finnish guy and some of his mates - one beer turned into a game of pool which turned into the wee small hours of the morning before we knew it. [View Full Entry]

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Next Day we headed for the Summer Palace…we knew a little bit about this place (from that gardening program again) and we wanted a total chill day after the epic climb the day before. The Summer palace was where all the emperors and stuff headed to parte back in the day and squander loads of money that they otherwise could have used to feed the starving- you know yourself the usual….It was packed when we go there which we just weren’t expecting so there wasn’t really anywhere to “chill” so we headed off and explored the place- it was deadly BUT [View Full Entry]

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In true flash packer style we decided to book ourselves a taxi to the great wall (we got the name of a guy from Heiner-the German guy- whilst drunk) with a guy called Joe. We wanted to go to Simatai because it’s apparently the best part to go to …it’s the least restored and the least tourist apparently!! Up bright and early and Joe came to pick us up in a pretty nice car. He was a seriously nice guy and really restored our faith in China and the people. On the way to the wall he told us all sorts [View Full Entry]

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And so it all began again with China!! Another new country and another set of experiences to look forward to and expectations to live up to(or not). We only had a short flight to Beijing which was cool because for the first time on the trip it meant no jet lag in a new country. We had met an Irish couple in the hotel in Tokyo and we spent the day that we were due to fly out swapping tips on countries. They had just been to China and said that it was tough going but they couldn’t quite put their [View Full Entry]

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