Kochi: 13-14 and 17 Jan 2013

Artwork on the walls of the Kathakali Centre

Rach says:

We arrived in India after two horrible flights. In Kuala Lumpur we had to land through a lightning storm and it was the worst turbulence I've ever known. The plane dropped quite suddenly at one point and half the people on the plane gasped. I was really nervous about our next flight and that turned out to be a bumpy ride too. On the upside, we spotted the illuminated Petronas towers from the plane

Koh Samui: 18-19 Dec 2013 and 30 Dec - 12 Jan 2014

Where we lounged about drinking milkshakes and reading books

Pete says:

We had a great time at the Samui Beach Resort. The surroundings are nowhere near as exotic and tropical as Phangan, but we had finally found a place sheltered from most of the wind, away from the clouds and with a nice sandy beach and warm (if lively) sea to swim in.  The food from the beachside restaurant was very good, they had a small pool, nice covered seating things to rest on, beach towels, beds and parasols free to guests and

Koh Phangan: 19-30 Dec 2013

Happy Christmas!

Rach says:

We landed in Koh Samui to very grey weather and incredibly high taxi fares...800 Baht (£16) for a 20 minute drive!! Our Lamai "beach hotel" then turned out to be up a mountain, so we got out of the taxi in Lamai town and sat down for some Pad Thai and a beer to consider our options. It was at this point that we met our drinking comrades for the evening ahead: the Norwegian bar owner (also called Peter), his Thai wife (Mimi) and a slightly crazy American

Luang Prabang: 14-18 Dec 2013

With Evelien & Marije at the top of Mount Phou Si

Rach says:

When the rip-off tuk-tuk dropped us off at Muonglao Guesthouse, we found that the place was filthy. Actual LUMPS of dust carpeted the floor and surfaces, there were (mouse?) holes in the walls, insects on the bedsheets and the blackest mouldiest bathroom I have ever seen. It was already so late, we decided we'd have to stay the night - there is a midnight curfew here and places start shutting down at 11.30pm.

Chiang Khong & The Slow Boat to Laos: 12-14 Dec 2013

Boarding the slow boat at Huay Xai

Rach says:

Our next stop was the Thai border town of Chiang Khong, where we would stay for one night, before crossing over to Huay Xai in Laos to board the two-day slow boat to Luang Prabang. Not being ones to struggle with a bit of idling, we were really looking forward to just sitting back with a Beer Lao, gazing at some beautiful views from the Mekong River and settling into the laid-back vibe we'd heard characterises the country.

At 8am the next morning, we were picked up by our tuk-tuk and driven to the border. Swiftly stamped out of Thailand, we were then bussed over the newly opened Friendship Bridge to the Lao side, where we awaited our visas-on-arrival. In the drizzling rain, a pick-up truck was our next less than ideal mode of transport, but whilst Pete, Marije, Evelien and about 5 others

Chiang Rai: 10-12 Dec 2013

Evelien and me on our way back from the White Temple

Rach says:

Chiang Rai is a town dull enough to rival Sukhothai. The Lonely Planet's romanticised write-up shows that it shouldn't be taken too seriously, because "well-groomed" and "delightful" it certainly isn't.

Wat Rong Khun however, just outside the town and better known as the 'White Temple', is an incredible sight. It is a modern Buddhist

Chiang Mai: 6-10 Dec 2013

Playing cards at our very own private table

Rach says:

After a very fast and wobbly 5.5 hour bus ride from Sukhothai, we flew into the forecourt of our guesthouse Naruncha Green on one wheel of our tuk-tuk, almost overturning in the entrance. We are used to these Asian drivers keeping you on your toes, but even so... At least we were greeted with a beer and a Pad Thai each - thanks Marije and Evelien!

Sukhothai: 4-6 Dec 2013

At Wat Chang Lom (Elephant Temple)

Rach says:

Finally our Indian visas were ready and we were on the move. We were headed north to Chiang Mai to catch up with Evelien and Marije and travel with them to Laos, but decided to break up the 12 hour bus ride with a halfway stop in Sukhothai to visit the nearby 13th century ruins of the old capital of the Sukhothai Kingdom.

At Bangkok bus station we were faced with a long row of kiosks stretching to our left and right, each inhabited by an over-eager sales person shouting at us from the window as we wandered by. It was at this point we realised we couldn't remember whether we'd been advised to go with the government bus or definitely not to go with the government bus (we had been warned of various scams such as 'breaking down' near a

Bangkok: 22 Nov - 4 Dec 2013

It is only the lady-slash-boy on the left
that tells this is not a regular bar...

Pete says:

We arrived in Bangkok at night, tired and in need of food. When I asked our hostel's staff where we could get something to eat, they pointed us down a dark empty side street with about 3 restaurants and nothing else. They seemed to think there was nowhere else nearby, which made us wonder if we had picked a bad place to stay. We were amazed to find however, a few days later, that walking a short way in the opposite direction brought us

Siem Reap & Angkor: 17-22 Nov 2013

Early morning at Angkor Wat

Rach says:

In Siem Reap we stayed in the Tropical Breeze Guesthouse which was pleasant, although the room was a bit dank and the water smelt strongly of metal. They did cook a mean chicken curry. It was a short, but dark walk to the very touristy centre with restaurants, bars, shops and markets. We were surprised to find the prices here to be some of the highest of the trip so far (around $7 for a curry and our 3 day Angkor passes cost us $80).

The Journey to Siem Reap: 17 Nov 2013

Typical countryside home in Cambodia

Rach says:

A 7 hour bus journey with 'Giant Ibis' took us from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. The bus was very new, they provided food and drinks and even a change of driver halfway through. All was well until the second driver took over, driving directly down the centre of the road at high speed and swerving out of the way of oncoming traffic at the last millisecond. After our Bac Ha experience, this was enough to

Phnom Penh: 12-17 Nov 2013

Follow the Yellow Brick Road...
Outside the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh

Pete says:

To get to Phnom Penh we took a 6 hour luxury bus from Saigon with the very good "Mekong Express" bus company, a Cambodian group. The bus was not the newest but did have a toilet and they gave us snacks and water and, most importantly, dealt with the visa and border crossing hassles for us. This was the first time either of us had crossed a land border and it was much like I imagined, except that the bus company did all the hard work and told us where to queue and get our passports stamped and that was it. I had expected some searches but our bags remained on the bus and no-one checked them.

As soon as we got into Cambodia the landscape changed to be much less jungle-like and much flatter and open. It looked a lot like the fens at home apart from the occasional palm tree.  It was very obvious that Cambodia is far poorer than Vietnam and there was no development outside the cities, just farmland and

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon): 8-12 Nov 2013

Drinking on the streets of Saigon

Pete says:

Saigon was great fun. It is much bigger and busier than the capital Hanoi and more seedy as well.

Our hostel - Ngoc Thao - was very good and run by a family so you would have babies being looked after and people cooking their tea in reception. The hostel was down a side alley so narrow we could almost touch both sides at once, but people still rode their scooters down

Mui Ne: 4-8 Nov 2013

Just after sunrise at the White Sand Dunes

Rach says:

The train to Mui Ne was the dirtiest of the trip so far. Being really tired it didn't bother me too much and I got under the covers anyway and snuggled down to sleep. Then I felt something brush my arm. I opened my eyes ready to search out and deal death to the pesky mosquito... but a split second later, I was leaping and up and yelling "There's a RAT in the room!!" kicking the bedding away and

Hue: 2-3 Nov 2013

At the Khai Dinh tomb in Hue

Rach says:

We arrived in Hue at around 6.30pm, with a sleeper train booked to Binh Thuan (for Mue Ne) the following evening at 22.24, so we had one full day to explore, which we had been told was 'enough' for Hue. I was really glad that we made the effort to go, as we had a really good day of sightseeing.

My Son: 2 Nov 2013

Exploring the temple ruins at My Son

Rach says:

On our last morning in Hoi An, before taking the train two and a half hours back up north to Hue, we visited the ancient Cham Hindu temples at My Son. The shapes of the monuments made me think of pictures I had seen of Angkor. There used to be 70 structures, but after bombing during the war (it was a Viet Cong base), only 20 are still standing. The site was cleared of UXO just 10 years ago and huge bomb craters still remain.

Hoi An: 27 Oct - 2 Nov 2013

Enjoying a cocktail in a Hoi An bar

Rach says:

Beautiful, beautiful Hoi An! We relaxed for nearly a week in this lovely old riverside town, with its Mediterranean-style yellow-painted buildings with balconies and shutters, colourful lanterns, art galleries and beautiful clothes shops. It felt like a proper holiday place, with a beach just a short cycle ride down the road.

Every other shop was a tailor's and every short walk was accompanied by the repeated shouts

The Bac Ha Adventure Day 3: 20 Oct 2013

With Sun, Neil and Stacey outside the homestay

Rach says:

Sunday was Bac Ha market day, which we were able to reach in a safe 20 minutes carried on our own two feet! I really enjoyed seeing the local women in their traditional brightly coloured clothes and it was another great opportunity to practise my photography. I bought a couple of locally crafted bags and scarves.

The Bac Ha Adventure Day 2: 19 Oct 2013

Can Cau Market

Pete says:

Rachael had heard about a Saturday market in the village of Can Cau, 20km to the north, that was "off the beaten path", "tourists don't go there"... phrases that have become warning signs for me ever since. Sun told us the road to it was "broken" and "a bit bumpy" so we would either need to rent a motorbike to cross the broken bit or take the bus which would take a long route around to avoid the broken part.

The Bac Ha Adventure Day 1: 18 Oct 2013

With Neil and Stacey on the train to Lao Cai

Rach says:

In our Hanoi hostel we bumped into a Manchester couple we had first met in Yangshuo, Stacey and Neil - they had come to the same city and same hotel at the same time! We all wanted to visit the far north of the country, so decided to travel together on an over night train to Lao Cai and then stay at a 'homestay' in the town of Bac Ha, a small mountain town near the Chinese border. From there we would explore the surrounding rice

Hanoi: 12-17 and 21-26 Oct 2013

With friends from our hostel at Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum

Pete says:

We weren't sure what to expect in Vietnam and as we drove into the city I thought it looked horrible - really dark and not the safest of places. However, we stayed in the central 'Old Quarter' and it turned out to be the best place to be.

I liked all of the food and drink places which were just basic concrete rooms with tiny

Hong Kong: 8-12 Oct 2013

At the top of the Peak

Rach says:

We were both really excited about Hong Kong. From the airport it was an easy 20 minutes on the MTR to Central, then 4 more stops to Causeway Bay. We had to buzz in to our tower block, pass the guard sitting in a little cubby hole, then get the lift to our floor. Pete reckons it was like the setting for a 1980s New York cop film, I reckon it was like having our own (tiny!) Hong Kong apartment for 4 days. It was like a cupboard. The bed wasn't even full size and pushed against a wall, so every night I'd wake up with a dead arm. The view from our room was Hong Kong as I'd imagined, looking down through the yellowish light to the trams and buses at the intersection below, swarms of people and the surrounding tower blocks adorned with Chinese neon signs.

Chinese Food

Steamed pork dumplings

"If the animal's back faces the sky, it's good to eat." (Chinese saying once told to me by a Malaysian-Chinese friend.)

Starting out in Beijing, much of the food was quite accessible to the Westerner - mainly 'Chinese as we know it' and most of the menus had decent English translations. We enjoyed satay beef, seaweed (but cold and floppy, not crispy), incredible dry spicy ribs and broccoli with garlic. It immediately struck us how fresh and light the food tasted compared to British-Chinese food. Vegetables were crunchy, everything was flavoursome and nothing was drenched in the classic Chinese takeaway gloop. The more 'interesting' menu items included frozen pig's skin in jelly, pickled fatty intestine, sea cucumber with tofu and blood tofu (yukkk!!). We also discovered that the Chinese have a taste for fried insects on sticks...silk worm chrysallis, locusts, scorpions, seahorses and even tarantulas!

We travelled over 2,750 miles across China on trains...

Security levels are high. All bags are scanned and you have to pass through metal detectors and sometimes get frisked on both underground and overground trains. Police are everywhere.

The stations are as busy as King's Cross at rush hour ALL the time. The waiting rooms are huge and packed with people, like departure gates at an airport. Trains are so oversubscribed that some popular routes/dates sell out in minutes when they go on sale 18 days beforehand.

Yangshuo: 28 Sep - 8 Oct 2013

Walking in the beautiful Chinese countryside

Rach says:

The 24 hour journey to Yangshuo was to be the most epic of our journeys so far and we weren't looking forward to it. Also for some reason, my backpack was causing me some serious shoulder pain. But it turned out to be not so bad...as ever, it was nice to sit down and do nothing! Each leg of the journey seemed to pass in a manageable chunk. The flight to Greece will feel like nothing after this trip!

Fenghuang: 25-27 Sep 2013

Rach says:

Due to the continuing hammering rain and the fact my cold was worsening, we were soooo pleased to discover that our room in Fenghuang was the height of luxury! Massive comfy bed, balcony overlooking the river with its wooden boats, traditional old houses and pagoda, and huge open plan bathroom with an inviting looking wooden bathtub! That was it, I was in! Amazing how good a hot bath can be when you've been travelling, are ill and just come in from the

Wulingyuan: 22-24 Sep 2013

At Baofeng Lake

Rach says:

Zhangjiajie was the first train station we arrived at without the luck to befriend a Chinese person going the same way. Somehow getting to our hostel in the town of Wulingyuan turned out to be a doddle - amazing how far the trusty Mandarin dictionary can get you! Hand gestures for the numbers 1-10 were another matter...you might think they were universal. Not so.

Wudangshan: 19-21 Sep 2013

Master Gu (right) and his student Wu

Rach says:

Wudang Mountain, the birthplace of Wudang Kung Fu, was the highlight of our trip so far. We stayed at a Taoist centre run by "Master Gu" who has lived on the mountain for 11 years and certainly looks the part. He spends his days practising Tai Chi and teaching the people who come to stay with him. Some stay for months on end. We did early morning exercises (6.45am can you believe it) on a training ground overlooking the mountains, learnt some simple "Crane style" moves and a bit about Taoist philosophy.

Chengdu: 13-18 Sep 2013

Pete says:

Our first night in Chengdu was unexpectedly eventful.

We had intended to catch up on some sleep, but on arrival the reception people told us they were having a dumpling making party that evening, so we joined that. We got talking to Robert from Taiwan who lives in USA spent a lot of time telling me how evil Mao was and how

Curiouser and curiouser...

They heard Pete and Rach were in town

Strangely, we seemed to be very interesting to the Chinese. People would stare as they walked by, even turning back to look a bit more, take candid photos and even ask to photograph themselves with us (regularly)! We have even had one person stop, stand in front of us, and just look! Groups of people would shout 'hello' in the street, then find it to be the most hilarious thing ever when we said 'ni hao' back. We didn't mind, it just kind of puzzled and amused us. Later on in the trip, we were told that because China is not that touristy a lot of the locals have only ever seen Westerners on TV. At one point in the trip, Pete even had someone tell him "You look like a movie star, you look a million dollars!" haha! So, if you want to know how it feels to be a celebrity - pop to China!

"These roads are insane"...

...we thought, as we speeded in our taxi from Beijing airport to our hostel... weaving in and out, moving into gaps that weren't there, overtaking in a hands-in-front-of-the-eyes kind of way, horns beeping constantly... The last bit was best of all as we drove down a narrow pedestrianised street at about 40mph, just beeping the horn to let people know they should leap out of the way. We never worked out if the Chinese are the worst or the best drivers in the world because despite all of this, we saw little evidence of bumps and scrapes.

Xian: 9-12 Sep 2013

Pete at the Terracotta Warriors

Rach says:

Xian was more of a necessary stop-off for us on the 24 hour journey to Chengdu, rather than somewhere we particularly wanted to visit and we arrived feeling city-weary to a vast grey place of huge buildings in thick polluted bad weather. Apart from the vast city walls, it seemed not to have much to recommend it. We arrived at the hostel at 6am, exhausted from our 8 hour train journey in a hard seat, to be given the dirtiest stinking damp room in the

Pingyao: 6-8 Sep 2013

With Bo Li and Ang outside the walled town of Pingyao

Rach says:

We loved Pingyao! It's amazing. Like being in a kung-fu film according to Peter. I was wowed by the beautifully preserved ancient streets, courtyard houses with their maze-like layouts and the intricate details of the decorative tiles, wall carvings and elaborate Chinese script. The centre is ultra touristy and the streets are lined with restaurants, bars and shops (gorgeous bags and jewellery, along with some seriously gaudy tat, 'new antiques' and Mao

The Great Wall of China: Jinshanling to Simatai

Nicely paved and restored at the start of the walk...

Rach says:

An early highlight was our hike along the Great Wall. Such stunning scenery and just amazing to be standing on the Great Wall of China! We visited a less touristy and undeveloped part of the wall about 3 hours drive from Beijing and walked from Jinshanling to Simatai - 22 towers and approx 6 km. But it was not a walk in the park!!! The walk TO the wall was one of the worst bits as there was no breeze at all and my head started to feel weird so I had to stop

Beijing: 30 Aug - 6 Sep 2013

View over the Forbidden City from Jingshan Park

Rach says:

On 30th August 2013, 26 hours, 2 flights and a hair raising taxi ride after leaving our house, we arrived at our hostel, the Beijing Downtown Backpackers Accommodation.

On our first night, we explored the lively local 'hutongs' and found that it was real 'old Peking' with narrow alleyways to wander, bikes and rickshaws to dodge, and elderly people gathered outside playing cards and mahjong.

A bit of a catch up...

With the "Great Firewall of China" blocking our blog as if it was some sort of threat to the nation we were unable to post anything until we left the country, so we will have to do a massive summary of what we got up to in China now that we have reached Vietnam. (Vietnam also has internet censorship but it seems less restrictive.) Well it wouldn't be our blog unless it was just a little bit late in arriving!

Interestingly terms such as "Freedom", "Democracy", "Human Rights" and "Dictatorship" are all blocked by the Chinese government, as is all information on events like the Tiananmen Square Massacre, various politicians and dissidents and anything relating to Tibetan independence. We were also unable to access Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, news and blog websites and occasionally even Google...

Happy reading (we hope you've got some time on your hands!)

Love Pete & Rach x