http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/michdev/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from michdev en-us Sat, 19 Dec 2009 05:13:39 +0000 Sat, 19 Dec 2009 05:13:39 +0000 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Halong-Bay/blog-349291.html 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 travelhellipthat should be enough. We arrived in H http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-349289.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Kowloon/blog-328913.html 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. Bre http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-328911.html 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. Itrsquos a mountain range that has apparently inspired all of Chinarsquos poets pa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Anhui/Huangshan/blog-328908.html Next stop Shanghaihellipwe 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. Itrsquos 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shanghai/blog-328905.html 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 mat http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-328903.html Next Day we headed for the Summer Palacehellipwe 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 usualhellip. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-328901.html In true flash packer style we decided to book ourselves a taxi to the great wall we got the name of a guy from Heinerthe German guy whilst drunk with a guy called Joe. We wanted to go to Simatai because itrsquos apparently the best part to go to hellipitrsquos 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Great-Wall-of-China/blog-328899.html 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 toor 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 countr http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Tian-anmen/blog-328897.html Went to the TIC in Tokyo and the lady there booked us a fab hotel a bit above budget but we were desperado and deserved it In Ueno in Tokyo. Had to get there on the subway and make a changeover at 6.30 the bloody height of rush hour in TOKYOhellipit was not easy. Ueno is described as Japan before the economic boom of the 80rsquos and 90rsquos and it really had a deadly vibe. EXACTLY like w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/Ikebukuro/blog-328482.html Well we arrived in Japan after a long flight during which I downed three quarters of a bottle of wine and bawled me eyes out a the Extras Christmas special I donrsquot even watch Extras I was really nervous about Japan incase it would be really difficult to get by in our day by day tasks and was kind of crapping it about getting the train food and even finding the loo. After getting my pho http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Kyoto/Kyoto/blog-326676.html