"Death to drug traffickers under Singapore law". These words scream at us and every other passenger on the Tiger Airways flight from Macau. Right next to "Welcome to Singapore, they were. In RED to boot. No 'The Friendly Island' like St. Maarten or 'The Nature Island' like Dominica. Not even 'The Super Clean Country' like Singapore was trumped up to be. But "Death..." And In Red and bolded. We hurriedly filled out the immigration forms and 'stowed (our) tray tables' as the pilot announced preparations for landing. We had heard a lot of good things about Singapore and we had [View Full Entry]

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It is difficult, at best, to encapsulate the China experience in a few hundred words. Epistles perhaps! Maybe in lexicons; possibly in volumes of lexicons. 'But a summary should be concise', you'd say. And we agree. So here goes our feeble attempt to cram our China experience, all 33 days and well over 5000 km of travel, into the impossible, proverbial nutshell. From the get-go, right from jump-street, we knew that backpacking thru the PRC could prove to be the best of times or the worst of times. Looking back, it was truly the former. China is a spectacularly beautiful country [View Full Entry]

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South. 1423 km south of Beijing is Shanghai, our final stop before exiting the PRC. We scheduled only two days because Shanghai was a very expensive city. It was here, in arguably China's most capitalist metropolis, that we encountered homeless people and in-your-face poverty. The tunnels and stairs of Shanghai's subways were populated with indigent humans; some dead asleep, others begging. Right above our heads imported cars drove around skyscrapers and trendy shopping malls and the pace of commerce and life rivaled that of downtown Manhattan. Our bland but expensive hotel room loo [View Full Entry]

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Beijing, China's capital, beats with the unrelenting pulse of 15.2 million hearts; the mad dash to modernity; the immense pull of tradition. Beijing: where skyscrapers and coal-belching chimneys jostle for sky space; where one day's worth of breathing is equivalent to chain-smoking 70 cigarettes; where planes get delayed because the smog reduces visibility to near zero. Beijing: where Olympic-driven, cutting-edge structures like the Bird's Nest and Cube sit only miles away from ancient marvels like the Great Wall and, even closer, the Forbidden City; where imports like the Volksw [View Full Entry]

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Mianyang was just a stopover; an 8-hour stopover enroute to Xian. The 10-hour bumpy bus ride from Jiuzhaigou ended at Mianyang's train station where we got 11:15 pm tickets to Xian. The uneventful overnighter reached the destination at 11 am. Xian, a walled city (mostly renovated 14th century Ming walls), is said to be China's cultural capital. Its predecessor Chang'an flourished with music, poetry, religion and commerce long before the 8th century. But despite its rich heritage the only things we remember about Xian are the two hours we spent in queue for onward tickets and lugg [View Full Entry]

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There is not a whole lot we could say about Songpan. The drive up from Chengdu was rather pleasant and scenic, winding along a muddy river for miles. The driver didn't smoke in the bus which was a good thing considering that we had had our fill of the dangerous, annoying, inconsiderate habit. But he was decidedly flatulent forcing us to debate which habit we detested more. Songpan, the old city anyway, was contained within new city walls built on ancient gates. It was a mini city with a decent collection of souvenir shops, restaurants and budget accommodation. We heard that [View Full Entry]

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We shamelessly use this medium to wish each and every one of you a New Year filled with health, love and happiness and, of course, a little adventure!! Two days prior, we had driven up this same road to Deqin. Now, were totally surprised at how the scenery had changed. The dry mountains were now covered with a thin, sparkly white layer of frost, the pine trees were a golden yellow and the narrow road was super-slippery. In a few days, the road would be impassible. We were Lijiang-bound with Chengdu in our crosshairs. From Deqin, it would have taken us [View Full Entry]

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Their voices matched the surroundings - this Tibetan duo. There were no words just soft, soothing, sweet undulations ebbing and flowing. He was a professional singer but she could well have been also. It was just natural to close our eyes and drift away on the wings of their music. We were high in the mountains. Very, very high in the mountains! And the scenery was beyond compare. Jagged peaks towered above, pine trees clung to mountainsides, a lone herder marshalled his sheep and icy winds swirled menacingly. Shangri-La was the destination. The stuff of legends, Shangri-La was immo [View Full Entry]

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The red, muti-tiered lanterns swaying from the roofs of traditional, wooden Naxi buildings. The uneven cobblestones of dimly-lit winding streets. The sound of water rushing thru canals. These simple things alone were enough to cause us to fall head-over-heels for Lijiang. Add a RMB 40 hotel room and we were hopelessly in love. The three-hour journey from Dali was fun. On board we met Windy, Wang Lee and their girlfriends (all Beijingers) and soon the back of the bus was a regular comedy club. Invariably, we all ended up staying at the same hotel. Home of the Naxi people, Lijiang [View Full Entry]

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We have posted a video here: DALI: RICE SHREDDERS We had seen them on the way into and out of Lunan; these Freaks of Nature. Towering, grey limestone rocks congregated in one huge park forming the weird and wacky 'Stone Forest'. Outside the park were scores of male and female guides superbly attired in colorful minority dress. Easily one of China's most visited attractions, at RMB 140 per person it was also one of the most expensive. Guideless, we stepped thru the turnstyles, passed the reflecting pool and into the la [View Full Entry]

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