ChrisLL

Sawadee Kap ! Or "hello" if you don't speak Thai.. (I don't actually speak Thai, but I know how to say "hello" !) Anyway.. I digress... Well here I am finally.. I've come from below zero temperatures and landed in the most humid country in the world.. so a little acclimatising is required... I flew China Southern Airways from Shanghai to Guangzhou in China, and then Air Kenya on to Bangkok. The flight landed about 11:30pm, I jumped straight into a taxi and had another white-nuckle cab ride to the hotel which was close to the airport... after about 20 mins driving up and down the same road and shouting at me in Thai he finally found the right road and I was in the hotel around 12:45pm.. the hostel was nice and I was shown ... read more

Hi there Well after a mammoth 12 hour train journey from Xi'an to Beijing I finally made it. I had a really uncomfortable time in Xi'an train station, where few english signs or speakers, and an overcrowded station made it a little intimidating.. but I managed to get some help to find from where my train departed.. and after a few hours sat down being stared at (yes.. proper stared at !).. finally I was on the train and on the way to Beijing. I was travelling by hard sleeper which is basically 6 beds in a cabin.. the upper class being soft sleeper which is 4 beds in cabin. By some freak piece of luck i was bunked directly opposite the only other westerner on the train ! A german girl.. who has been living ... read more

Ni hao.. or hello if you dont speak Chinese.. Well, arrived safe and well in Hong Kong after a 12 hour flight direct from London. I flew British Airways who are not the epitomy of luxury travel, but they get you there nonetheless. However I did doubt the latter part of that sentence for a moment as we were sat on the runway for 1&1/2 hours while they de-iced the wings, which involved turning off the aircon and creating a sauna in the cabin. Apart from that, a screaming child on the left and a moaning old couple on the right, there was not much I could complain about. Arrived mid afternoon local time and the new airport was easy to navigate and I was soon on the MTR train to Kowloon central, near to where ... read more

Ok ok ok.... so Australia !!! Sorry this has been so long coming (that’s if you’re not sick of receiving the updates email yet!). It took a few days to get to Sydney from Kota Kinabalu in Borneo. I had to fly from KK to Johor the southernmost state of Malaysia on the Peninsula, and then take a bus to Singapore. This is only a short journey by distance, but it includes taking one bus to the Malaysia border, disembarking to clear Malaysia customs, taking another bus along the causeway which links Malaysia to Singapore, and the disembarking for Singapore customs, and then taking another bus to the centre of Singapore. It's just bloody awkward, that's all. I had to stay a day and night in Singapore before flying to Sydney. I had plenty to do, ... read more

Since I spent much more time than anticipated in Kuching I had some ground to make up on my journey to the top of Borneo. So I spent the next three nights traveling through Miri, Bandar Seri Bagawan and Pulau Labuan (Labuan island).. First stop was Miri. This is still in Sarawak, Malaysia territory. I had two options - 16 hour direct bus journey, or boat trip inland through river to Sibu & 7 hour bus journey from there to Miri. I took the boat option as it's more scenic and I don't like sitting around on buses for hours on end. 7am start, the boat journey was a little choppy as we hit a monsoon. I liked the staffs sense of humour as they played Hellraiser 2 & 3 on the tv while people were ... read more