It's a very strange thing to do, living in a hostel. On the one hand, it's an easy life - all the facilities you need are pretty much right there and free to use, and for the few things that aren't, there are helpful, English speaking people around to tell me exactly where to find them. My biggest worry seemed to be finding dvd's from the libra...

We had a bit of excitement on our way to the bus station to catch the train from Xi'an to Chengdu.... our bus smacked into a brand spanking new white jeep! Having now spent over a week witnessing China's 'interesting' driving abilities and being very aware of the fact that everytime you cross the roads here you literally do take your life into y...

We arrived in Chengdu just before lunchtime very excited about our plans for the next two days. Chengdu is home of the giant panda and the main reason for our visit, although we soon found out that there is so much more to Chengdu and we had a great 48 hours here. On our first afternoon we visited the old town and really enjoyed wandering around...

We woke up early to catch a ride out to the Giant Panda Research Breeding Base. The base was set up to revitalize the panda species after they reached critical levels. There are now about 60 pandas here, including baby pandas and the strange red panda bears. We had to go early because pandas generally wake up, eat heaps of bamboo and are back as...

In Yangshou hei d'Megan u ig no dr Will u dr Jay ufglaese u fescht gsteut, dass sie mit em gliche Flug wie mir nach Chengdu fluege wie mir. Mir hei grad mit ihne abgmacht, z'vi**t es Taxi a Flughafe z'naeh. Das isch de int**essant gsi, woeu dr Taxifahr** e Polizei-Marke het gha. Er het niene muesse d Strassetaxe zahle etc... komisches Taxi. Dr ...

Dear Reader, I arrived in Chengdu at 6 am. But this time I had a map and a place to stay. Armed with this and a smug smile, I entered into the sea of humanity outside of Chengdu station. I'm finally doing it right, I thought, as I shoved touts, old women and children out of my way and gaily strolled up to the taxi stand. Of course the cabbie did...

Well its been a few days since I was able to acess a computer, but all of my time has been spent travelling mainly. Not a day without an air flight. From Hanoi I flew to Kunming, China for a brief stopover before going through to Xian. Kunming is a fairly standard city, with lots of apartment buildings, i dont think I saw any individual houses. ...

We left Beijing in the direction of Shoalin to watch the Shaolin monks do their thing. Arrived in a city which didn't seem to have any tourists at all, and certainly no hostels. We stayed in a nice hotel to get a good kip, but were constantly woken up by the phone ringing and a chinese girl on the other end. This kept on happening every 10 minut...

This morning I saw a rabbit killed before breakfast. My breakfast that is; it's unclear whether Bugs had eaten or not. Having wandered away from the main drag of a big fruit and veg market, I found myself in animal alley, then watched as the poor bunny was plucked from his cage of ducks, paraded by his ears before being hung up by one leg and ha...