the LAMETAYEL ODAFIM travel store is just 5 minute away from my work and I stop there once in a while to look at stuff and get some inspiration. A year and a half ago I bought a few 2nd hand Lonely Planet books. I choose to buy books with exotic names and of places I will probably never visit so I can read about their history and look at the pictures to see places I will never see. One of the books I bought was about a highway - Karakorum highway. In the store I did not even recognize by looking at the map exactly where it was, only that it was deep in central-Asia. At home I understood it was a highway connecting Pakistan and western China. on one side a country i cannot ... read more

Hi all this week we took a long and hard drive up to the north of Xinjiang (look at the map). it is a very unique area in the boarder of china, Russia and Mongolia because it is the only place in China that have a Siberian taiga Eco-system. . the park is not so new but the tourist infrastructure is all from the past year. it is mainly built for Chinese tourists and we saw no Western people for the whole 4 days there. To get there we took a Chinese tour group. we asked to get a tour with a English speaking guide. all we asked for is that the guide have basic English so we can know where and when to go, eat, sleep. instead we got one that not only did not ... read more

hi all, this weekend we visited a beautiful nature reserve in northern Sichuan (10hr drive each way) but most of our time we spend resting in Changdu and eating well. after our last blog entry we also have some pictures of us eating so our parents don't come with pots of food :) Hagit's thesis was about "feast or famine" in bacteria. we are living in the same way :) the weather also improved it was sunny in the low 20s so we are very relaxed games Chinese are VERY fond of pool. there are pool tables anyplace you go. on the high passes of the "backdoor" there were poll tables hundreds of kms from the nearest person except for the 2-3 people playing at the table at the time. The next popular sport is basketball. ... read more

In this blog, Hagit describes here first trek ever.... After 4 days of rain we were pretty depressed and were thinking of cutting out of Yunnan to someplace sunny - we even thought of going to the Thailand beaches and staying there of 4 months. on the fifth day it stopped raining and started snowing! we were very upset and didn't know what to do. we did what always works for Israelis - we decided the weather will improve unilaterally! we decided to take the bus to the trek and than decide. when we entered the village, the sky became clear and it became a beautiful day. we walked from 3:00 to 7:30 up the hills (900m). it was so difficult but the walking sticks Rona and Meir bought us helped so much. the vies where ... read more

ah Yangshuo is how the lonely planet china starts the description of Yangshou. If I YB ever do a doctorate thesis in social Studies I will do it on the evolution of towns around the world from total anonymity all the way to Bali/Cancun resort towns. On my scale, which is yet to be perfected (suggestions are welcomed), Yangshuo is rated "full backpacker" status. The town is probably just likely any 300k people town in China if it were not for 2 things: 1. the views - we will let the pictures explain 2. west street. this one street is full of guest-houses, restaurants of all kinds, bars noisy or quiet and ofcoruse travel agencies. The later offer anything a traveler needs: boat trips, bicycle trips, cave trips, hot-air balloon trips, rafting, kayaking. because of ... read more