A crazy couple of years meant a delay in heading off for more exploring - 4 years is far too long! Even with that delay, I had not done any planning until the past week. I was originally looking at Thailand but that wasn´t sitting well and one thing led to another so......a whole new plan and direction. A few days of planning and off I go to......... read more

China. I am certainly not an expert on the country after one month, but I can offer my observations and thoughts. Big and loud and polluted and pushy ...... with stunning scenery, incredible history and artifacts, and such disparity between rural and urban that it is intriguing to ponder how they might steer their way through the challenges ahead. There is something about China. As a westerner it can be a very frustrating place to travel - but in the blink of an eye that frustration can turn to...what's the word....just a feeling that it all fits! China does it's best to keep westerners/tourists at arm's length. You have to work much much harder here to interact with folks and taste what life is really like. Walk into a restaurant and they will immediately give you ... read more

So we had an almost 6 hour ride by private van towards Datong which is located just on the fringe of Inner Mongolia (which is in China not Mongolia). Beautiful mountains sweeping down to grasslands and remote villages - quite a beautiful ride. At the 6 hour mark we arrived at the Hanging Monastery. I am doing my best to upload some photos now, but if you have to wait until I am home for a decent connection so be it. But let me tell you this - the monastery is indeed hanging on a cliff wall. On stilts. Made of wood. Hanging on a cliff. Did I mention that I don't do heights? Ha! Well I did this one. I managed ok but was absolutely anal about the number of folks they were letting on ... read more

So 16 hours later, at 9AM, we arrived in a very warm and muggy Xian. This is a past capital of China, and current regional government centre and is quite prosperous and large. It is also the starting point of the old Silk Road trading route so has a large Muslim population. Pollution is a huge issue - you cannot believe the air quality. But still, it is a great place for a visit. In fact we all agreed that we wished we had more time here. Our location was great, and after a quick shower up we all headed off to do our own thing. I visited a few sites outside of the city walls - the Great Goose Pagoda and surrounding temple, as well as the Shaanxi Museum. Afterwards I headed to the city ... read more

Hi guys - it HAS been awhile, but access here in the big city has been pretty near impossible. Shanghai is a city of 15 million and I sure experienced some culture shock on arrival - have spent the evening uploading lots of photos for you, but none of Shanghai yet. I decided to treat myself to some spa time in Shanghai, and so booked into a higher end hotel. I registered for their frequent guest program hoping that would give me a better rate but no luck. However, when I arrived late on Thursday imagine my surprise to find that i had been upgraded to the executive floor, junior suite with many complimentary things like breakfast and full happy hour etc etc. And imagine their surprise when I waltzed in with my backpack - and ... read more