The 26th Floor I left without waking Theo and Rosa. My train was leaving at 7.11 and I wanted to be early enough that I had some explaining time built in. I ordered my DiDi (Chinese Grab) filled up my water bottles and waited outside on the pavement. I had me some snacks and my […]
‘Extra, Extra!’ Plenty of crazy and unexpected things have happened on this trip so far, but I’m pretty sure this takes the cake. It was a day like any other in Guilin – I was having my ten minute break in the middle of my first Chinese lesson of the day, when I was approached
Would you open the box? Turns out that my imminent trip to Guangzhou was not the only cloud on our horizon. It rained every day we were in Guilin. Preparing us for a British summer no doubt. Many of our friends back home had told us that the weather had been miserable over the winter,
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‘Passport Please!’ I doubt that I could point to a map and say exactly where on our journey back from the Russian Embassy our relief at having been able to hand in our visa applications turned back into finger nail chewing but, by the time we arrived at Guangzhou Nan Railway Station, we were definitely
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‘Igor, is that you…?’ We were hungry when we arrived in Kunming (first class, first smarse…not a single flippin snack!) We had booked the same hotel as we had in October, because every now and again knowing where you are going is what the weary traveller needs. We came out from the underground on the
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Blessings and Borders I sat quietly in the dark on the kerb opposite our guesthouse. I could see the first hints of dawn in the sky, it wouldn’t be long before the monks were walking silently towards me. Everything was familiar, the same women were there setting up for the morning, laying out carpets and
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The worst three days… I woke up full of resolve on that final day in Chiang Mai. I looked at my phone, 3.40 in the morning – early. Early was good, what to do first? We had decided to go back to Luang Prabang for two days on the way back to China. The lack
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Back to the Garden – Theo’s blog Arriving in the village of Batu Katak to begin our “jungle trek” in the rainforest of Sumatra was like arriving to stay with a celebrity I’d been a fan of since childhood. I was full of anticipation for exotic sights and sounds, and dreaming of magical wildlife encounters,
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Love the Jungle, hate the Leeches Turns out I really hate leeches. I managed to avoid them in Australia, but that clearly wasn’t going to be possible when trekking through Sumatran rainforest. It’s not like the leeches in the jungle were big or even dangerous, but GOD they’re so disgusting. I first got one when
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Back to Chiang Mai Travelling to Thailand looked pretty straight forward. Get a GRAB to our minibus, at the relatively civilised hour of 7.00 a.m., then an eight hour journey to Bangkok. Either a taxi, tuk-tuk or underground trip to Krung Thep Aphiwat station and then a 12 hour overnight sleeper to Chiang Mai. We
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