Patricia and Andre’s RTW Adventure

We made our way from Beijing to a little town called Pingyao.  It’s the only fully intact Ming Dynasty (about 600 years ago) walled city in China and it has never been restored just repaired in places.  It’s is also a UNESCO World Heritage site and is so beautiful.  We biked around the outter walls and walked through the old streets…….we stayed at Harmony Guesthouse where Jipu and his wife were so friendly and the food was great and there were plenty of other backpackers to draw knowledge out  of.

Unfortunately, we didn’t find out about the corruption of this little town until we were going to leave.  Let me tell you about the train-ride from HELL and the corruption from this little beautiful town that caused it. Read the rest of this entry »

We left Hong Kong to head inland to Fuijian Province and a place called Wuyishan.  We had to transfer trains in a place called Nanping and arrived at a station where no one spoke English.  This of course, didn’t phase us since we are very good at getting the tickets we want – well that is until someone says no…….. Read the rest of this entry »

When we arrived in  Guilin at 6am we didn’t have a hotel booking which is really no different than other times.  So we got the taxi driver to take us to the nicest place listed in Lonely Planet as they usually let you use their phone and/or store your things there as you look around town.  We didn’t use our phone since we didn’t have any more minutes on it and couldn’t figure out how to use the top up cards – all voice prompts are in Chinese! AHhhhh  Later, Andre’s going to post the GPRS settings and other useful hints for Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and CHina phone options. Read the rest of this entry »

Our taxi drive from the pier was terrible.  We were dropped off on the corner of some street in Yichang, the closest town to the stopping point of the gorge tour.  We wanted the bus station, but of course this guy has a friend who has a bus who’s leaving right NOW!  So we pay our money and get in.  Of course this guy drives around all hell and creation waiting for other passengers.  Even the bus has touts.  We have 2 touts on our bus each with 2 cell phones.  They’re in connection with more of the taxi driver friends who pick up more people being dropped off here and there, but these people seem ok with this…..anyhow, after about 1.5hours and 3 circles of the town later, we were on our way to Wuhan.  What DO WE DO WRONG!!!  This shit keeps happening to us!  We ask for a bus station and we get a street corner.  Maybe they think they’re doing us a favor and getting us a cheaper ticket?

hmm Read the rest of this entry »

I wanted to make a new category for gross stuff but it follows after all the regular blog…….this is just a little bit of behavior that disgust us and we thought we needed to share with you……….I don’t know why I instantly thought about my mom when it came to making this new entry but I don’t want her to be reading this and enjoying her morning coffee and then come across what I am about to describe……so mom, if you’re reading this, please finish eating and then continue….you have been warned.  Read the rest of this entry »

The boat was great, our room was awesome and we were very excited about being “looked after”.  No speaking the bastardized Mandarin, no more ordering veggies and getting meat dishes.  We had our own comfy bathroom, our own deck and our well stocked beer fridge than should be enough for the journey and any small party we may host while on board!  So much more luxurious than what we’re used to , but for this kind of cruise, why the hell not!!? Read the rest of this entry »

After running away from Shangri-La we made our way back to our comfortable no-name place in the inner courtyard of that 5 star hotel in Lijiang.  Our bags were returned to us and we got our comfy room back  ahhhhhhhh……these small pleasures keep us going!

The next day we started making plans for moving out of Yunnan.  We really shouldn’t leave, we love this province so much!  It is absolutely the place in China we will come back to again.  There is just so much to see here and travelling is so great!   Read the rest of this entry »

Soooooooo started out the travel to the so called Shangri-La (Zhongdian), about 100 km from the Tibet border, wearing little pink noses and tank top tan lines from our trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge.  We waited at the cross roads for the next local bus to come by, flagged them down, paid them 20Y each and got ready for the next 2.5 hours to ShangrI-La……….. Read the rest of this entry »

This trek to Tiger Leaping Gorge got us a little worried.  Considering that we just spent the last 2 months swimming in beer and wine in Vietnam, well, we weren’t sure how much muscle power we may have lost…….was that a question or a fact?  hmmmm….  Read the rest of this entry »

So from Dali we made our way to Lijiang…..hoping that we would get a REALLY nice bus this time to make the trek, our hopes were crushed when the lady I just gave my money too ignored my efforts to get her attention. Three times I said “This bus?? Is this the bus we’re getting??!!” as I pointed at the picture of the big beautiful Volvo bus that we only dreamed could be a possibility. Since she just spoke English to me moments ago while I was giving her the money, I couldn’t understand why I was being ignored……Eventually she turned and said ‘yes, just be here at 1:30pm tomorrow’. We turned up on time and of course, our bus was late. Eventually a driver arrived and we were squished into the back of a make-shift mini-van the size of a smart car. This isn’t a good start to the “big bus” we wanted. Read the rest of this entry »