Zhongwei, China, Asia

A 21 hour afternoon and overnight train, took us out of the capital city and into the Tengger Desert, Inner Mongolia. Sitting between large sand dunes and the Yellow River, this was a completely different world to Beijing.

We sampled the sights of the Yellow River by casually floating downstrean on sheep skin rafts, quite literally bamboo sticks attached to inflated sheep skins. Miraculously we managed to float the whole 2.5 hours without tipping the raft or sinking. The Yellow River is surrounded in sandstone mountains, giving the river its name - the water is supposed to look yellow, although I would say it just looks muddy!.

The next day we headed out into the desert, where we each got to know our individual camels very well, after they led us into the desert up and over numerous sand dunes. Some camels managed to throw their passengers off, mid climbing onto their backs, other camels managed to lose their footing equally resulting into a person landing on the sand. Luckily, Cam the Camel (Cam, this is purely a name thing, as Cam goes with Camel rather than suggesting that you look like a camel...) was as good as gold and survived the desert trek without injury.

We spent the night camping in the desert, watched the sunset over the dunes, toasted marshmellows on the fire and drank warm beer (not a highlight). The next morning we found a newly formed friends (the camels) and made our way back to civilisation to catch another overnight train to Xian.

Beijing, China, Asia

Roughly the size of Belgium, Beijing is an enormous city (16,800km), and so the natural chaos that can be found in most Asian cities can also be found here.

The most obvious attraction to anyone visiting Beijing is of course the Great Wall of China, stretching from the Liaoning Province to Jiayuguan in the Gobi Desert, this wall is extremely long! After day 2 in Beijing, I was able to say that "I climbed the Great Wall of China!". 3 hours out of Beijing city starting from Jin Shan Ling and through Simatai, we completed a 10-15km trek along the wall, that took in some breath taking through up and down the mountainous terrain. Some parts of the wall were in good tact, whereas other parts of the wall were crumbling away, showing the true age of the wall (over 2000 years old).

As the capital of China is on such a large scale, the main sights had to be prioritised. Having ticked off the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City and Tianamen Square were must sees. Tianamen Square stands as the worlds largest public square, and is quite honestly a huge space of paving stones. The square itself does not have much character, however, if you imagine it at full capacity (it holds 1 million people), you can imagine it to be quite an amazing place. The centre piece (geographically), the square is a place where the old Chinese generation come to pay their respect to Chairman Mao, as it also holds his Mausoleum.

The Forbidden City got it name from being off limits for over 500 years, the ancient buildings were used during to emperor dynasties (Ming and Qing). The area is so large that you would need a few days to explore all of the individual buildings, however, a 1/2 day tour explained some of China's complex history and its highlights.

The night market is not to be missed, with scorpians, coakroaches, sea horses and all sorts on sale for dinner. Those daring amongst us gave the crunchy creepy crawlies ago, however, i just settled for chewing on a bit of snake!

Siem Reap, Cambodia, SE Asia

2nd and final stop in Cambodia, which unfortunately means that my time here was very short, however, it ended with me seeing one the wonders of the world - the world's biggest religious building; Angkor Wat (plus the MANY temples that surround the area).

The entire Cambodian nation is proud that they hold this title that it is even the main symbol on their national flag, and to explore this temple plus all of the other temples within the vicinity could take days or even weeks. Therefore, in such a short space of time we were only able to see the highlights.

Starting the day at 6.30am meant that it was full on, first stop being the big one itself. Having arrived so early meant that we could wander and absorb the enormity of Angkor Wat (its tallest point stands at 55 metres high) without bumping into hordes of tourists along the way. As we walked around and listened to our guide, we were able to understand the stories behind many of the carvings on the walls and the intricate details that makes the temple so special. A UNESCO heritage site, which meant that the building is very well preserved, so much so that it was easy to see the original reddish colour.

Around Angkor Wat sits many, many other temples, including Angkor Thom which made it onto our short list of ones to see. Bayon sits within the Angkor Thom complex and makes an interesting stop with its 216 enormous faces peering at you as if they are watching you every move. Bayon was followed by a couple of smaller temple and then to finish the day we visited Ta Phrom, or the Jungle Temple as it is fondly know as.

Ta Phrom has been overtook with nature, roots of trees a hundred years old or more have managed to work their way into crumbling bricks, climbing through, up and around its many nooks and crannies. It was amazing to see how drastic nature has took its course, causing many areas to become danger zones where the trees have caused the walls to collapse.

Siem Reap is under a mass development project, having been discovered in the last 10 years and placed on the tourist trail. More and more people are visiting the city and Cambodia itself each year and I would imagine that it will be a completely different place in as little as 5 years time.

A pity that time was so limited here, but it's back to Bangkok to catch a flight to Beijing, for a month of travelling China!

Phnom Penh, Cambodia, SE Asia

A short bus ride (well, 8 hours) took us across the border to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Before leaving the UK I didn't know too much about the history of Cambodia but knew it was one I wanted to learn about. Immediately entering Cambodia from the border town you could see the poverty surrounding the country, children and adults begging for money, rubbish everywhere and poor roads.

We arrived in Phnom Penh and could feel that this city was in the middle of a transformation, still there were poor people on the streets but there was also some wealth around and new modern buildings already up and some more being built. I read a lot of information about the recent war where the Cambodian people suffered at the hands of the Kymer Rouge regime, but didn't fully understand the extent of the brutallity until I visited Phnom Penh.

The Tuol Sleng Museum and the Killing Fields are the main sights to visit if you want to learn about Cambodia's history, both are harrowing and quite honestly disturbing. Without going into too much detail (I'll leave that up to you) it is difficult to understand how this inhumane government managed to come to power as recent as 30 years ago. I left Phnom Penh with a greater understanding of what even todays people are still trying to battle through, and yet I was humble to see these people still smiling and keen to engage in conversation to learn English even if you did not buy from them. The smile of their faces from just handing over 100 riel (2 pence) was indescribable.

After leaving Phnom Penh, we arrived in Siem Reap, a dusty old town with little charm but home to one of the great wonders of the world - Angkor Wat.

Mui Ne & Ho Ci Minh City, Vietnam, SE Asia

A sleepy beach town in between the bustling seaside resort of Nha Trang and the hectic city of Ho Chi Minh, an ideal spot for us to stop for a few days to totally relax. After the busy schedule in the North of Vietnam we were glad to have reached Mui Ne which has a beach that runs a long a 11km stretch.


Mui Ne was to be our little bit of luxury for 3 nights and so we opted for a room that was situated right on the beach front, we literally had to fall out of our door and land on the soft, warm sand. Water lapping up onto the shore, the sun beating down on you and peace & quiet (no horns beeping!) - the only sound was Vietnamese ladies approaching you and saying "you want massage lady?" - not a bad interuption I would say.

There is more to Mui Ne than just the beach, such as its sand dune landscape and various smaller sites nearby. Mike and I found 2 moto drivers that whizzed us around the town and its surrounds for the day. Stopping off at the local fishing village where hundreds and hundreds of fishing boats dock, White Sand Dunes, Red Sand Dunes, the Red Canyon and finally the Fairy Stream. It was a blazing hot day and so it was a good relief to keep getting on the back of the bikes where our drivers would zip down the road to the next site allowing the breeze to hit our faces. Mui Ne is a lovely place, again another one I wish I could have spent longer but it was time to move on and hit Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).

Fast paced, just like Hanoi with zillions of motobikes steaming passed you at any one time. As well as the busy streets the locals are out in force wanting to sell you photocopied books, fruit, drinks and anything else you can think of. A quick look at the sights of HCMC and it was then off to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels - a large tunnel network dating back to the Vietnamese war. These people slept, ate and hid from the war above them in small tunnels underground, going as deep as 9 metres. Westerners today can hardly fit into the entrance to one of these tunnels however, a special one was widened so that we could crawl through along 60 metres underground to understand what they had to experience.

We ventured out of HCMC the next day and travelled to the Mekong Delta - The Mekong River originates in Tibet and finally meets the sea in Southern Vietnam. A day trip from Ho Chi Minh took us to the Delta gateway of Mytho and also Ben Tre where we visited some workshops before boarding a small row boat and rowed along some picturesque canals surrounding the Delta. A short stop to listen to some local music and sample some Asian fruits and then it was back to HCMC for the night.

Hoi An, Vietnam, SE Asia

A cute little town which is every girls dream - this place has everything including over 200 tailors for those shopaholics amongst us! Shops, tailors, good bars & restaurants, beach - everythng!

An enchanting old town with beautiful colonial French buildings, set along the Thu Bon River. With a strong Chinese influence there are many historic sights that you can explore, or equally you can spend your time wandering around the many narrow streets, browse through the market, and pick & choose designs and materials at the various tailors.

Mike and I managed to get roped into the whole clothes making thing and spent a couple of hours choosing our designs and getting measured up. You really need to control yourself as they have copious amounts of NEXT catalogues and so its easy to go mad and ask for everything to be made to your fitting. 1 suit, 4 trousers, 1 skirt, 1 top and 1 jacket later I managed to call it a day!

Our time in Hoi An was also made a little special by coming across this eccentric Vietnamese character called Minh. We were seeking shade one afternoon and Minh approached us and started chatting away about his love for Westerners. He soon insisted on being our guide to various temples around town which saw us sharing tea with a elderly local man. Minh then invited us to his house that evening to listen to music, drink with him, and look over his many photo albums of his family and day trips he has had with other travellers like us. The whole evening was a strange experience with Minh bopping away to some 80s tracks, drinking potent China wine and then playing pool with him at a local bar - he was very competitive and perhaps didnt take too kindly to Mike & I beating him 3 games in a row.

All I can say is that travelling brings on these random experiences, and if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, just relax and take it all in! You get a real insight into the way a local man lives.

On our final day we sought about posting home our new clothes, praying that they will make back to Blighty. Job done, so we hired bicycles and rode 3km to find Ciu Dad beach - stunning scenery enroute and the beach was great - a couple of hours sunbathing before yet another overnight bus to the sleepy beach town of Mui Ne.

Hoi An must be a definite on anyones list travelling through Vietnam, it definitely is my number one destination in this diverse country.

Sapa & Halong Bay, Vietnam, SE Asia

An overnight train journey and we arrived within 15 minutes of the Chinese border. We were infact at the far North of Vietnam an hour and a half away from Sapa. After a short transfer through winding mountains we checked into our hotel at 7am - 2 hours to spare before our 1st day of exploration began.

An easy 3 hour hike to Cat Cat Village where rice paddies surrounded the road making its way down the mountain. We walked around the village and then to a nice little waterfall before making our way back to the top of the mountain to Sapa Town. The scenery was beautiful throughout the hike and low lying clouds and mist made the atmosphere mystical. We had the afternoon free to look around the town, visit the local market which was once again selling all kinds of produce including cows heads and hooves!

The following day we had a full day trekking, visiting 2 local tribes in & around the picturesque terraced hills, again full of rice paddies and filled the scene with lush green fields. Once we reached the first village we were bombarded with local women and girls desperate to sell you souveniers. They were so persistent that one little girl must have followed me for about 2km before she gave up and returned to her village. It sounds harsh not to have bought anything from here but I promised another lady that I would buy from her, and if you gave in to every litle girl that said "you buy from her, but not from me, that is not fair", you would literally end up with thousands of purses, belts etc that you would know what to do with!

After trekking for the day we took the overnight train back to Hanoi, we were arrived at 5am to head straight onto another bus to Halong Bay. Sapa was not in my original plans, but I am sure glad that I made it up there. It is a beautiful place.

3 hours from Hanoi we reached Halong City to catch a traditional Vietnamese boat to Halong Bay, home to over 3000 islands sitting in emerald green waters. Another UNESCO heritage site, again quite rightly awarded such a status as it is a stunningly beautiful natural wonder.

We sailed around the islands before arriving at 2 large caves. The caves themselves were magnificent, but I was little disappointed with how they had kitted them out for hoardes of tourist to trapse through it day in and day out. Bright, coloured lights had been put up around the cave, and paved stairs meant that a lot of the cave had been dug up to suit the tourists. We were ushered around it like we were on a conveyer belt.

We overnighted on board the boat, and the next morning we made our way to Cat Ba Island. A large island which is the only one that is populated within Halong Bay. We took a short hike around the National Park before going to Monkey Island in the afternoon. A afternoon of moneky spotting, kayaking and chilling on the beach was good fun, and the only time the sun made an appearance. Cat Ba Town was where we spent the night, again another tourist built town with hotels after hotels, plus you obligatory restaurants and souvenier stalls. I enjoyed Halong Bay for its scenery but was a little disappointed with how much of its natural state had been changed to suit tourism. Sounds contradictory I know, seeing as I am a tourist myself, but sometimes it is a little over the top.

Back to Hanoi for a pitstop, just enough time for dinner and a little shopping before catching an overnight bus to Central Vietnam, to the cute town of Hoi An.

Hanoi, Vietnam, SE Asia

A short flight from Laos brought myself & Mike (my new travelling partner) to the hectic city of Hanoi - soon to be nicked named "Scam City". We didn't even leave the airport before a hot shot Vietnamese "taxi driver" was onto us for the scam of the century. In short -

• Never fall for paying a "toll fee" on the highway (they wanted 300,000 dong for this, that's 10 GBP!). Luckily we caught onto that one just in the nick of time!


• You're unlikely to be dropped off at your requested hotel. We were taken to what we thought was the Stars Hotel to realise 2 days later that we are in a completely different hotel (they have about 3 different Lonely Planet hotel names outside their building to trick tourists to think they are checking into the hotel they want).


• Finally, the 3rd scam (all this in the space of 24 hours...) the tour desk at our hotel, claimed to have booked us onto a bus to Hoi An for an extortionate price (it was a public holiday and all buses were full, so we expected to have to pay more) however, after lots of asking around other tour operators we discovered that this so called bus didn't even exist - once again we cottoned on just in time.

In the end we managed not to lose much money to these chancers, and realised that in Hanoi it was impossible to trust anyone!

Hanoi itself is a great place, crazy like Bangkok with traffic coming at you from all corners, and motorcycles galore weaving in and out of people trying to cross the road - the trick here is to look the driver in then eye and start walking across the road without hesitation. Daunting at first but you soon get used to it, and traffic coming straight at you is no longer a worry. A city full of character, history, culture, the usual manic markets found in Asian cities with all kinds of smells wafting right under your nose.

A morning of strolling around the city, taking in main sights including Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum (Vietnam's great leader's resting place), the One Pillar Pagoda, Hoan Kiem Lake and the bustling Old Quarter. An evening of traditional Vietnamese entertainment brought us to the Principle Theatre where we watched water puppetry - a colourful display of puppets in a pool of water acting out various scenes that surround the lake with Vietnamese music telling the stories. At 40,000 dong (1.20 GBP) a pop, it's definitely worth checking out.

Due to a looonnnggg public holiday celebrating Independence Day (hence the non existent bus scam - see 1st paragraph...) we could not move South of Hanoi for a week, and so a quick change of plan saw us seeing some natural beauties in the North of Vietnam. A busy introduction to this new country and so we were pleased to leave the big city behind for a few days.