Once arriving at Zhaoxing I put my backpack in my room and had a look around this large Dong minority village which contains 5 drum towers as well as numerous wooden bridges. It has a wonderful setting at the base of a valley surrounded by many farming terraces. It has quite a few hotels located in the traditional three storey wooden buildings but surprisingly few tourists. Whilst I was in town I only saw a handful of foreign tourists and only small groups of Chinese tourists. There were also quite a few tourist restaurants as well as a lot of local eateries all selling good food. The tourist side of things was kept very low key and the locals just went about their business as if we weren't there. The other thing I liked about the ... read more

Our bus to Ping An left Yangshuo just before 8am and about 3 hours later we changed to a smaller bus which stopped at a small village so we could have a look at some longhaired women. This place was very touristy with all the ladies from the village trying to sell us souvenirs and charging people to take their photo. Also, besides our busload of mostly Chinese tourists there must have been about 5 more buses full of tourists at the village as well. After wandering around for 10 minutes they ushered us into a large building where we sat through a short but entertaining cultural show. The length of the ladies hair was impressive, almost reaching the ground. From here it was back on the bus where we drove along a pretty river before ... read more

After a very pleasant 2 and a half weeks back in Australia visiting family and friends I caught a flight yet again to Malaysia. I arrived early in the morning, caught the bus into KL and then made my way to Bukit Bintang and found some accommodation. I had a quick shower and then caught a taxi to the Chinese visa centre to apply for a tourist visa. After a bit of confusion I eventually lodged my application and was told to return the following morning for an interview. The next morning I arrived early and after a 1 minute, 2 question interview I was told to come back a few days later to pick up my passport hopefullly with a 90 day visa in it. Seeing it was still early in the morning I decided ... read more

On friday morning about 8.30am Jan and I headed down to the Green Discovery office in Pakse to begin our 2 day Treetop Adventure. We were joined by three french tourists and then we all hopped in a minivan and headed to the Bolevan Plateau town of Paksong before turning down a dirt sideroad for about 20 minutes to a very small village. We then got fitted out with our gear, had a drink, and started our trek to the ziplines. After just over an hour, a couple of log bridges, and a swing bridge we arrived at a small waterfall where we had lunch. After a short walk we came to our first zipline where our guide Ting, explained the safety aspects and how to use our little wooden stick as a break. The first ... read more

I spent last friday in Tha Khaek looking for a decent motorbike to do the loop with, and hoping to find a couple of people to join me. I had a motorcycle rental place recommended by a guy at a nearby restaurant, but when I turned up the following morning they told me they had no motorbikes left. Also I didn't find any other tourists setting off the same day, so I decided that I would start off alone and surely find somebody that first night at whatever guesthouse I stop at. I hired a small Korean/Laos motorbike from the guesthouse I was staying at, and set off about 9.30am on saturday morning. The "loop" is a 400 km plus circuit to the northeast of Tha Khaek notorious for over 100 kms of very bad roads ... read more