nacoops

Still loving the french influence in Vietnam as it means there are pastrys and coffee for breakfast- strong rich thick black coffee, with a shot of evaporated milk in the bottom- the perfect mix of sweet and sharp! mmmnnnnnnnn, any way- enough of the coffee fantasy! Ho Chi Minh- learnt in Cambodia that he is actually a person- not a place, the place is the former Saigon! nice to know how ignorant i was before i came here!! In HCMC we get up and massively on the tourist/ sight seeing activities- i have come to learn with travelling that although i love the history and sights of the big cities, you tend to spend to much and enjoy yourself less that wen you are out and about! We go to see the Reunification Palace- where the ... read more

We arrived in Bangkok from Hong kong and it was the worse landing of an aircraft I've ever experienced. The pilot had to pull up at the last second because the plane in front had slowed that much due to bad weather. So we circle the airport wondering whether we're going to make it into thailand in one peice whilst the women behind us pulls down her oxygen mask and fits her LIFEJACKET over land - she was scared!!! After 3 hours on an airport bus whcih was meant to take 45 mins, we arrive in the wonderful vancinity of Pat Pong - Bangkok's red light district! We had already booked accommdation at Hong Kong airport for fear of having to sleep on the street. First evening we wonder around to find some food before having ... read more

Soo, nite bus in Japan: beautiful, effecient, clean, lights off and tucked up by 8.30, arrive on time, well rested the next day. Nite bus in China: get told several different times, so we ran to the bus station to be told that there was no bus for 1hour, only for the girl from our hostel to follow us to say that we should have stayed at the hostel as they would collect us!! (The last journey had to be tricky to be true of our travel in China!) Anyway, get on the bus to find that we have floor level beds, and the spaces between the beds are sold (read 'backhander' to driver) to those who cant afford tickets: Tom and I end up with a rather stinky dirty chinese man in the approx. 1 ... read more

Well first chinese night train was ..........an experience! Although booked on to a 7pm train we were assured we should get to the train station at 5pm!! Quite why we were unsure, until we arrive there and realise that Xi'an station actually resembles an overfull 'refuge-camp', because of 'Spring Festival'- of course! There are literally thousands of people crowding/ queing in a unique chinese style, but as we all have tickets for the train, you cant enter the station without one, we are oblivious what the crush is for. When the gates open we join in and use our size advantage to push through to the front! I am glad all other seats had sold out by the time we brought our tickets so we HAVE to get soft sleepers!! bit of luxury, but everytime the ... read more

So we arrived in Shanghai after a 49 hour ferry from Osaka (Japan), and needless to say we were ready to get off the boat. . . As soon as we did we were in the rough/developing part of Shanghai so we trekked around for 4 hours looking for our hostel but gave up and got a taxi. The first night we just headed to the local street to have some rice and tea for dinner, literally!!! was good tho. Our first full day in shanghai we headed to the museum because it was raining, then we walked down the Nanjing Road (E) to have lunch before looking at the Bund. The next day we went to the silk market but it was shut so we decided to walk back to the centre of town and ... read more