Antwerp was a great city to enter Europe. Being in Belgium we were surrounded by delicious food and beer, and as it is situated in the north of the country we could practice our rusty Dutch. I mean Flemish. Actually […]
Between Rivers
The name Hanoi means “Inside [the] river”. It was given this name in 1831 having previously been known as ‘Dragon Belly’, ‘Big Net’ and ‘Eastern Metropolis’, among others. It is apparently sometimes referred to as the Paris of the east, […]
Xiahe, not quite Tibet
After looking at prices and travel times for the trip to Urumqi, plus how few unreserved spaces remained due to us travelling during Golden Week (the 7 day period that encompasses October 1st, the founding of the Peoples Republic of […]
Nagasaki – Japan’s window to the world
The port town of Nagasaki is famous for two reasons. During the period of isolation when Japan cut itself off from the world it was the only port where foreign traders were allowed to land and interact with Japan, this […]
Ulan-Ude
“Ude is river, that runs through town. Ulan is Buryat word for red, like blood. Ulan-Ude, it means blood river.” These are the words of the local man who shared our train compartment for the journey into Ulan-Ude. He had […]
The beautiful Lake Baikal
Baikalsk is a town of about 12,000 people. Mainly young and old we were told. Until 3 years ago the pulp and paper mill which covered 2 square kilometres employed around 3000 workers. Good for the people as they had […]
Leaving Hereford
I guess one of the realities of visiting lots of new places is that you have to say goodbye to a lot of them as well. Some of these are fairly easy, but leaving Herefordshire and my mum and sister […]
