Ok so after these four days, I am officially in love with Vietnamese people. Travelling south out from Ho Chi Minh, we decided to spend 4 days floating along the river of the Mekong Delta. The whole place is beautiful and surprinsingly diverse. I was unsure as to quite what to expect from a place full of little canals and people who live on floating houses but the experience was simply awesome. I think it was helped by the fact that we decided to spend part of our time in a homestay. It is how is sounds...you get to stay with a family and become part of their lives albeit for a day or so! The eldest member of the family was called Ba Linh, he was an old Vietnamese Communit soldier with the most gorgeous ... read more

There are 6 great reasons to visit China... 1) The Great Wall...truly amazing, words can quite do it justice. 2) Pandas...so cute, cuddly and adoptable! 3) Rice terraces....delicious, unusual and you can eat the fish that live in them! 4) Tereccota Warriors...they are made of tereccota and there are lots of them. 5)Peking duck...tastes like chinese takeaway from home! 6)Chintsa...a brilliant game with feathers and what looks like a shuttle cock! ...and there are some things I'll never quite understand.... 1)Spitting...at your feet, on buses, trains, restaurants you name it. 2)Slapping....if you are in their way, you'll know about it! 3)Snotting....apparently I cant have my shoes on on their trains but a worker in McDonalds can pick his nose freely!? 4)Crotchless baby pants...I dont know where to begin...just watch where you step in the streets! 5)Acupuncture....dont ... read more

They say you are a nobody until you have done a long distance train journey is a strange and foreign country with a stomache upset... let me tell you I must now indeed be a somebody! That aside, we arrived in Shanghai and booked into a new hostel called U Cool. This hostel had superb location, really helpful staff and for once comfortable beds, when they sort out the cleanliness it'll be a winner! I had been really looking forward to Shanghai and I definitely wasn't disappointed. The city is amazing, a real not unexpected western vibe and a whole heap of stuff to do. We spent just under a week there which gave us an opportunity to really see the city and also relax a little too! The highlights for me are hard to say, ... read more

Having never been on a sleeper train, I was unsure as to what to expect and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised despite the fact that cheapy me had asked for the cheapest bed and received the one about 30cm away from the train's roof! Nonetheless, a book finished in the 25 hours and some sleep had, I was ready to meet the pandas! The hostel we found was in a hutong just off the ancient section of the city. Sim's cozy guesthouse was a beacon of light with its cold beer and (sorry to say it) and glimpse of western food! By this time I was dying for vegetables that were not fried! Booked ourselves in for the pandas and the opera. I had wanted to take the longer journey out to the ... read more

OK, with one foot forward and the 45 degree heat a definite distant memory we braved our first bit of Chinese transport and took the three hour coach journey from Hong Kong to Guangzhou, the first major city in southern China. Mmmm a little culture shock. Cleverly we had arranged to arrive in the city on the VERY same day it was holding a major trade fair. When I say major, I mean Worldwide. Had we booked accommodation? Silly question. No. So after walking around the city for what seemed an age, being turned away from pretty much every main hostel or cheap hotel, we found sanctuary. Or at least we found a room. Well we found 2 beds... not sure I could say a room. Guangzhou, was simply our first stepping stone but we did ... read more