Blogs from Asia - page 14697

Nice to get back to dry warm weather in Guilin, after the rain of Shanghai. Only had one day in Guilin, so not much to say about it and I'll let the photographs tell the story instead. Guilin is known for its scenic location amongst a host of gnarled, 200m high rocky hills on the Li River. Spent the day wandering through the parks, and trying to figure out the strange names put on the limestone hill formations. The most notable one in the town is Elephant Trunk Hill (said to be the body of a sick imperial baggage elephant who was cared for by the locals and turned to stone rather than rejoin the emperor's army). Climbed some of the limestone peaks, spend time in Seven Star Park which had a zoo, where you could ... read more

I don't really think about it this way most of the time but here I am almost completely illiterate. It's an interesting experience - not being able to read books or magazines that I normally love to read. But it's so much more than that. In India I also couldn't read books and magazines, but I could read signs. Here I can't even do that. I need assistance filling out forms or trying to find a place. I just walked up to a machine to get a number for line at a bank and I looked at the machine and said in Chinese. How do I get a number? The man had to press one button for me. It's only one simple button! But there was no way I was to know which button to press. ... read more

We had a great day touring the old demilitarized zone. The sights themsleves needed quite a bit of imagination as there isn't much left of the old bunkers/military bases. But the guide we hired for the day was good fun and had loads of interesting tales to tell. He was only 17 at the time but his father had fought in the war for the south and he had picked up some stories from him. The highlight of the day was a tour round the old VC tunnels near Vinh Moc. We were also very glad we had opted to spend a few more pennies here and take a motorbike tour as we met some very unhappy travellers who had taken the bus tours and hated every minute of it. ... read more

Spent 11 days in S'pore which went by rather quickly. Most of the times were spent with old friends who were very hospitable (especially Stella). It is quite amazing how I haven't seen these guys in 5 years (some a decade) and yet we all seem to gel back very well. Also it is nice to be in a city that speak English and is run with western efficiency after our brutal bus ride to Krabi from Surat Thani. It took as 8hours (instead of 3hr travel time) thanks to being driven around to bus driver friend's restaurants, tour companies, etc. Also we were forced to share the backseat of a mini van with an caucasion couple which resulted in very cramped 3 hr bus ride. To add insult to injury, because of lack of trunk ... read more

Returning from Hsipaw, we stayed overnight in Mandalay (no Bay) before our boat ride to Bagan. We, of course, visited our favorite 'Chapati Stand' for a final dinner in Mandalay. The boat ride lasted approximately five hours down the Ayerwaddy River. The distance between Mandalay and Bagan is not actually far at all but the river is extremely shallow at many points. As if our boat wasn't slow enough, it needed to traverse (read: zigzag) from bank to bank for virtually the entire trip. Regardless, as the boat is only for tourists - we're probably the only people who could afford the $15 ticket - and there are hardly any tourists, the boat was empty outside of a handful of foreigners. It was a beautiful day and we were able to enjoy the riverside scenery and ... read more