North Carolina was our unexpected last stop in the US, simply because the container ship to Europe left from a place called Wilmington. It was meant to be straight forward to get there too, an overnight train from Miami to […]
There’s a pyramid on the Mississippi
I have to admit that my reasons for wanting to visit Memphis were tenuous at best. I’ve always liked the Paul Simon lyric “for reasons I cannot explain there’s some part of me wants to see Graceland”, the song Walking […]
Getting around Japan
We arrived in Japan by ferry from Busan in South Korea and disembarked in the city of Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu. Knowing most of our travel in Japan would be by train, rail passes had already been purchased […]
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 […]
Lessons Learnt: China
The first few days in China were a humbling experience. The confidence that we gained from successfully navigating the largest country on the planet was quickly replaced with an understanding of just how little that qualified us to travel in […]
Lessons Learnt: Russia
We’ve only been in China, or rather out of Russia, for 11 days and it seems a world away. I guess it is really, Russia felt European and even towards the far East in Buryatia there’s still a large Slavic […]
Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained
“It’s funny” beamed Ivan, twisting round in the front passenger seat to address the four tourists squeezed into the back seat of the taxi “he tells me that this isn’t actually his taxi, he is borrowing it from a friend […]
European Russia
Beautiful St Petersburg greeted us with a blizzard. The ferry arrived about 9am and we went on deck to test out our cold weather clothing. This was not fun as the ferry was excruciatingly warm if you had more than […]
