Blogs from Asia - page 13041

Now this bus trip is worth a special mention, I am sure you are bored of me going on about them but hopefully this will be the last one I have to tell you about (although I doubt it) Dave and I booked our 20 hour bus trip to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, we booked it at our Hostel and when I enquired if it’s a nice bus, we were assured it was a “VIP”one, happy days. We waited in the hostel, bus was meant to arrive at 6.30, at 7 a man arrived on a motorbike and took us one at a time to another hostel in the pouring rain, the 10 or so of us were waiting were then loaded into 2 taxis, luckily I managed to bag a front seat but with ... read more

Zaterdag 10 maart. De ‘rode draad’ van ons verblijf in dit deel van China is het Groot Kanaal. Net zoals de Grote Muur heeft dit bouwwerk een bewogen geschiedenis achter de rug, is het in feite uniek in de wereld en kan je hem ondanks zijn afmetingen niet waarnemen vanaf de maan. Het enorme bouwwerk spreekt wel tot de verbeelding en omdat het zo lang heeft dienst gedaan, zijn er langs zijn loop veel belangrijke plaatsen en bouwwerken ontstaan. Sommige delen van het netwerk van kanalen dateren van bijna 2.500 jaar geleden en werden toen uitgegraven voor troepenverplaatsingen. De eerste gerichte poging om Noord-China en het stroomgebied van de Yangzi te verbinden, vond plaats tijdens de regering van de megalomane 2e keizer van de Sui-dynastie, Yangdi (604-618). Hij was een man met grote idealen en ... read more

To get to Nha Trang we took a bus to Danang (I think), and then climbed back on board the Reunification Express. The trip took about 9 hours. While the scenery was great, the day train was for some reason filthy compared to the night train. Maybe the rail workers think they don’t have to worry about it so much because you are not sleeping on the train? We were in the same kind of 4-berth, soft sleeper compartment, but the carriages looked like they had not been cleaned for 10 years. Lucky we brought along our own toilet paper too because the day staff obviously thought we didn't need any for a nine hour journey. The nine hours passed quickly, playing cards, reading, telling jokes and watching the country pass by our windows. Looking on ... read more

wow...we r here...and jetstar star class...was nice nice nice....we have just been to cu chi tunnels i (ian) didnt go down the tunnels chicken'd out @ the last min..but j went down...and temple @ caodai really amazing...we r staying in hcmc another night to relax...then off to Mui Ne...weater is bloody hot and didnt help that the a/c on the bus didnt work...have made a few friends traveling one (josh) we r going out to dinner with and he is off to the uk for work so we will catch up with him there...well lucky the deoderant works..lol...hugz to u all ian n j xxx... read more

I'm so sad that I didn't have my camera when the following occurred. The whole scene was so China! Sometimes even those of us who LOVE Chinese food give in to momentary desires for french fries and the following unfolded as Sen and I were sitting in the window seats at McDonald's, eating lunch and people-watching... On the rode, lying on its side, was a bike. Just a normal bike, nothing fancy, definitely well-used. On the back of the bike was a 3-foot high, skinny, dark blue barrel. Standing next to the bike, looking down at the ground in stunned disbelief, was a man, approximately 30 years old. Lying on the road, surrounding the bike and man, were about 20 great big fish, each at least a foot long, flopping around and bouncing inch-by-inch across the ... read more