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.