I have never felt as seasick as I did on the ferry to Macau. Rosanna felt the same way. It was called the “turbojet” and it makes the trip from Hong Kong in 50 minutes. They were 50 long minutes […]
One country, two systems
Hong Kong (or Xiānggǎng in Cantonese) was the name of a small fishing village and the island that it was located on. In 1860 it expanded to include the Kowloon Peninsula and then in 1898 it expanded again to include […]
Hokkaido: the north island
Japan consists of four main islands: Honshu (the largest containing Tokyo), Kyushu (the westernmost closest to South Korea), Shikuko (the smallest and most rural underneath Honshu) and finally Hokkaido in the north. From this northern island it is possible to […]
Farewell Korea
Today we leave Busan in South Korea for Japan. We have been in Korea for 1 month, 3 days in Seoul and then 4 weeks in Busan. We arrived here with an embarrassingly small amount of knowledge about the place, […]
Democracy Park
One of our favourite activities in Busan is climbing the hills that pierce through the urban blanket of the city. Although the homes and office blocks make every effort to ascend the steep slopes, towards the top they surrender to […]
Beautiful Busan
I can’t get enough of the city of Busan. We are nearly half way in to our one month stay in Nampo district of the southern South Korean city of Busan. It’s probably most famous for its busy port, and […]
From Sea to Shan
We decided to stop in Qinhuangdao for our first glimpse of the Great Wall. It’s the only part of the wall which hits the sea and it continues inland through a fortified city towards a mountain (山, shan). After a […]
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 […]