‘The Sea of Clouds’ It was such a happy reunion that night. Each of us clutching our own passport with its precious visa in it… You’d think we’d won the ‘Radio 3 World Music Awards’ the way we were jumping around the room. After the initial excitement Theo and Rosa fetched the food they’d saved […]
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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
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 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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From the Jungle to the Temple It was a tough call working out how we got from our jungle paradise to Dumai, the nearest city we could catch a ferry to Malaysia from, and fifteen hours south of where we were. The only public transport we could find was a bus, a twelve hour overnighter
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Batu Katak We spent a long time on the deck of the KM Kelmud, making the most of the calmest seas we had experienced. I got up early each morning to watch the sunrise. Standing in the near darkness out on deck watching the slow, softly changing colours being reflected in the silky smooth seas.