Xiamen is a coastal city of 3.5 million people but I had not heard of it until we were told of the quicker route to cross the Pacific. This made it our last destination in China. After briefly researching the […]
From Hanoi to Hong Kong
It’s possible to travel overland from Vietnam all the way to Hong Kong within 24 hours. If you plan ahead, it is only a matter of two trains and then two metro lines taking you to Kowloon. One train to […]
Entering the domain of the Golden Dragon
Tomorrow, at 4am GMT, we will be boarding the CMA CGM G. Washington in Xiamen bound for Los Angeles. The time and effort that have gone into arranging this, not to mention the money spent, will finally pay off. We’re […]
“We have a booking”
A bit later than I thought, we’ve finally booked and paid for the cargo ship journey across the Pacific Ocean – eee! Before our trip began we trawled the internet to find out how on earth we book a cargo […]
Quá lâo, Vietnam.
We’re about to get on a train out of Hanoi which will take us overnight to the Chinese border and then on to Nanning. Because the gauge is different in Vietnam, this train uses its own special track laid from […]
The gateway to Indochina
The purpose of our visit to Kunming was to get our Vietnamese visa. Judging by the people we met in the hostel, this seems like a fairly typical reason to visit. Kunming is positioned in a convenient location to travel […]
Good morning Việt Nam: how to cross the border from China to Lào Cai
Yesterday we crossed the Chinese border into north-west Vietnam. It was a long day for me, having taken our first malaria tablets the night before, I was experiencing side-effects of stomach pains. Both of us hadn’t slept well and had […]
Spicy Pandas
Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, is famous for two things – spicy hot-pot and giant panda bears. We had an interesting trip into the metropolis which we can only laugh about now. A local we met at the workaway […]
Back to work
For two weeks in October we decided to do another workaway. It was our first in China and also our first which did not mention cleaning anywhere in the job description. It was billed as an aquaponics farm on the […]
In the throat of China
Jiayuguan, where the great wall ends, or starts, depending on your point of view. Here is a map to explain the area clearly, there is a wall going north to south defending the “throat of China” which does not quite […]
