Penang

We have been here for about 2 weeks now. The island is beautiful, although it is increasingly choked with traffic - there does not seem to be a time of the day when the roads become a little quieter.

We have had loads of great food. I reckon Penang is the food capital of the world. There are so many ethnic groups who all cook their own food and influence one another - Indian, Thai, Malay, Nonya, various Chinese styles - and the ingredients are all so ripe and fresh and full of flavour.

Bangkok

After Phnom Penh we went to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat and some of the other temples and palaces. They are amazing, built on a grand scale, to a particular design and are very beautiful. We spent 6 days there, 3 of them seeing the temples.

We went straight to Bangkok from Siem Reap by bus. The trip was easy and the border crossing okay - we got the standard two week visa pass on entry - which isn't enough really and we had to try and extend the visa when we were in Bangkok, but could only get 7 extra days.

Bangkok is a big, busy, noisy city. We seem to spend quite a bit of time getting from one place to another if we have to take a taxi - the roads are so jammed with cars. Unfortunately, the underground and sky trains only go to the centre of town from a few places in the suburbs - the main areas with the temples and palace are not covered.

We went to the River Kwai and saw the famous re-contructed bridge - it was bombed by the RAF towards the end of the war. There is a really good museum about the railway and some cemetaries for the POWs.

Phnom Penh

We decided to stay here for 4 nights and booked a nice hotel right in the centre, with a swimming pool, so we could have somewhere nice to sit when not walking around the city. The hotel - The Blue Lime - was good. Most of the furniture is made from concrete.

The city is amazing considering it was evacuated by the Kmher Rouge for 4 years, just 30 years ago. The riverside has lots of tourist orientated cafes, bars and restaurants and there is a fantastic history museum with sculptures from Angkor Wat, held there for safe keeping. The Royal Palace is beautiful as are the temples around the city.

We had some great meals in Phnom Penh - especially in the Malis Restaurant which is a fancy restaurant with the reputation of being the best for Cambodian food. We particularly liked the papaya curry and green mango salad.

We visited Choeung Ek which was the execution site near Phnom Phen during the 4 year Khmer Rouge rule and Tuol Sleng the political prison, which is near the centre of the city. Both are horrific. It is estimated that up to 50,000 people were executed at Choeung Ek where they were taken to after being tortured at Tuol Sleng. There were only a handfull of people who survived Tuol Sleng/Choeung Ek after the 4 year period.

One British person was murdered there, a young man on the englsh language teaching scheme in Japan. He was on a sailing trip with 2 friends from Canada and New Zealand, who were also teaching english in Japan. They were heading for Thailand but sailed off course and were taken by the Kampuchean navy - one of them was shot during the arrest, the other 2 were brought to Tuol Sleng for torture. After weeks of torture, both signed "confessions" of being CIA agents. On the orders of Pol Pot both were murdered. It was reported by an ex-guard that at least one of them was burnt alive using burning tyres in the street outside the prison. Apparently it was the policy to execute any foreigners by burning them alive.

A group of 8 experienced Cambodian doctors working in France were invited by Pol Pot to return to Cambodia to help with the revolution. He knew all of them from when he was a student in Paris. They were all murdered on arrival in Cambodia.

Any Cambodians returning from abroad to help with the revolution were treated with suspicion - all those who returned from the USA were murdered on arrival.

During the 4 year period, 2 - 3 million people died from starvation, exhaustion, illness, misdiagnosis of illness and murder by the Khmer Rouge - about one quarter of the population. The murders were concentrated on: cadre of the Khmer Rouge, educated people, landowners and political oppponents. The aim of the murders was to purify the ongoing revolution by quashing dissenting voices and those "actively plotting" against the Khmer Rouge.

The murders continued after the Khmer Rouge were removed from power following the war with Vietnam in 1979. For example, Pol Pot ordered the murder of Son Sen and his family in 1997 - probably 11 people in all. Son Sen had been a close associate of Pol Pot since the 1950's and had been an active member of the Khmer Rouge since that time.

Just before his death in 1998, the Khmer Rouge arrested Pol Pot and found him guilty of murdering Son Sen - the only trial he ever faced.

So a visit to Cambodia is overwhelming - the beauty of the historical buildings, the incredibly friendly and hospital people, the fabulous food - as well as the jarring effect of its recent history.

Mekong Delta

We took a boat through the Mekong Delta to get to Phnom Penh. We stayed overnight in a floating hotel near Chau Doc and then took a "fast boat" to Phim Penh. the trip was good - we saw lots of the delta from the river - but it does get a bit monotonous after a few hours. The riverside is mostly farmland and some small wooden settlements. On the first evening our boat ran aground and another boat had to be called to tow us. The propellor was damaged so the other boat had to tow us all the way to the floating hotel.

The borders were uneventful - it just takes a while to go throught hr formalities. The Cambodian visa cost us US$22 each.

Ho Chi Minh City 24th October 2010

How does a country manage to function so quickly after such a long war? The Vietnamese people are so friendly, even in such a big city. we visited the War Remnants Museum - difficult.

Bobby Brewers cafe is great,it has a small free cinema on the top floor with about 30 seats - we saw a few films there.

We had a great meal when Lian Hoe took us for a meal at the Quan An Ngon restaurant - the best whilst we were in Vietnam.

Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang, Dalat

We went straight to Hue after Halong Bay. We got a good deal on a resort hotel - Pilgrimage Village - which turned out to be fantastic - we even got an upgrade. Hue has an incredible citadel much of which is ruins but is beautiful nevertheless. We also visited 2 royal mauoleums and a pagoda. The town itself is not very interesting.

Hoi An is on the river and still has many of the old buildings that were there when it was a major trading post up to the 18th century. We stayed in the Village Resort. We had one meal that was really good int he Cargo Club - it was the kind of food we expected to have often in Vietnam - lots of spices, lemon grass, basil, chili etc.

Nha Trang is a very pleasant seaside town. We just spent one night - to break up the journey from Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh City.

Dalat - we also stayed for just one night. It is a French Hill Station - founded in the 19th century. We visited a Vietnamese royal summer palace that was built in the 1930's. It was like a large English suburban house from that era - even the furniture.

Halong Bay, Vietnam 11th October 2010

We booked a 2 day trip from Hanoi to Halong Bay. It included a bus from Hanoi (3 hours) and an overnight on a boat in the bay. We did not know what to expect because we only paid US$48 each and were worried that it was too cheap. Lian Choo had asked so many questions to a young lad in the travel shop in Hanoi and we think he got confused and quoted the wrong price. Anyway, we hoped it would turn out okay. In fact we were lucky, he quoted us a price for a standard boat, but had given us tickets for a deluxe boat and then the deluxe boat was full and we were upgraded to a luxury boat with the Imperial Company. It was only 3 months old and well kitted out and they served good food as well.

The Bay is amazing. It is hard to believe such land/seascapes really exist. The sea in the bay is green and has about 2,000 rocky karsts across it - most of them are covered in bushes and trees and some have caves.

Hanoi 9th October 2010

We arrived a week ago. The city is interesting, lots of old buildings, nice lakes, temples, pagodas and a couple of nice restaurants. Generally the food is a bit disappointing, a bit bland - not what we expected in Vietnam. But we found a good place - Club Ly Thai To, very nice environment, service and good value food at lunch time.

The traffic here is unbelievable - constant motor bikes, taxis and buses. Crossing the road is an experience - no-one stops for pedestrians, many don't stop for red lights either.

Overall though a great place to visit.

1st October 2010
We went for a longer walk with another local tribal woman. We visited 2 villages one Black H'mon and the other Red Dzao - they wear red head-dresses. On the walk we saw lots of rice terraces and the farmers were harvesting the rice. We took a herbal bath in the Red Dzao village. The bath is a wooden tub filled with very hot water and 15 mountain herbs - it smelt nice. I just about fitted in the tub - they are just very large buckets. They claimed that regular baths cure all sorts of ailments - in fact any ailment as far as I could tell.

We have noticed that the people who still live traditionally, in China and Vietnam have a great sense of humour - they make jokes all the time and seem to enjoy making a play on words. Do all people who live simply cultivate a sense of humour like this?

30th September 2010
We took a short walk with a local tribal woman to a local village - Cat Cat. The people there are Black H'mon. They are the same ethnicity as the Miao people we met in Yunnan. The Black refers to their clothes - which are dark from the indigo dye they use. We picked some indigo leaves, they are ordinary looking green leaves, but after about a minute, they turn your fingers blue - amazing. There is a lovely waterfall in the village

29th September 2010
Yuanyang to Sapa Vietnam
We booked a bus from the mountain town leaving at 7.30am and were told it would take 5 hours to Hekou on the Chinese side of the border. The bus finally left at 8.00 and took just over an hour to get to the main town where it stopped until 10.00am. after that it went straight to Hekou - via back roads in order to avoid the tolls on the highway. We arrived in hekou at 4.30 - 7 hours altogether. Luckily, Vietnam is one hour behind so we got a bus from Lao Cai to Sapa. The border crossing was easy - it took about 10 minutes. Both sides were efficient, they did not search our luggage and from the Chinese side to the Vietnamese side is a short walk over a bridge.

We are staying at the Sapa Rooms Hotel which is a community project that trains and employs people from the local tribes. It is nice - the only disappointment is the cooking here - it is very bland - not at all like the Vietnamese cooking we can get in London. I expect we will get better food in Hanoi.

28th September 2010
We tried to visit some local villages today but it was raining so much and the clouds were so low that we could not see beyond the roadside, so we returned to town and had a walk around it. It is ugly - the buildings are in the modern concrete box style and beginning to crumble - but the views from the town are great - when the clouds cleared - it is very high up the mountain.

27th September 2010
Jianshu to Yanyuang
We took a taxi because we would have had to take quite along taxi trip to get from the main town to the mountain town anyway. It cost £37 pounds and took about 3 hours. the trip was very scenic - mountains, windy roads, mountain passes and we drove through clouds in one place.
After checking in to the hotel we hired a driver to take us to the huge rice terraces. They are over 2,000 years old. They are spread along the sides of a long wide valley - it is spectacular.

26th September 2010
Double Dragon Bridge and Tuanshan Village
The bridge is fantastic. Built in the traditioanl style in 1886 from stone and wood. I guess it is in such good condition because it is too narrow for motorised vehicles to cross.

The village is very old and we were lucky to be the only visitors. We visited some peoples' homes.

25th September 2010
Kunming to Jianshu.
We are staying at the Zhu Family Garden which is an old manor house that belonged to the Zhu family when they ruled the surrounding area. It is a traditional Chinese house with lots of courtyards and beautiful gardens.

We went to the Kong Ze temple which is the largest confucian temple in China and were lucky to see a traditional orchestra practising in the main courtyard.

23rd September 2010
We visited The Dragon Gate and the Confucian Temple. They are disappointing. The temple has been re-built in concrete and clearly no-one cares for it as a temple any more. It overlooks Ten Lake which is badly polluted by the factories on the far side of the lake - detergent is clearly visible on the lake. After we went to a really good local restaurant and had a meal with spare ribs mainaded in 13 spices and tied up with lemon grass and Yunnan ham fried with chili. The ham tastes like spanish Serrano ham - very nice.

Then we went to Yunnan Unversity. Its main building was built by a Chinese architect trained in France and the style of the building was a mixture - built in the 1930's

22nd September 2010
Train - Lijiang to Kunming
We returned to the Jinjiang Hotel - it is good and in a good location. We checked in and had another good meal in the hotel restaurant.


20th September 2010
Went to Baisha Village - a Naxi village. It is less visited than the other villages in the area, so is quieter and easier to see the lovely old buildings, mostly built of wood. We met the famous Dr Ho at his Chinese medicine clinic - he is over 80 years old now. We visited a few peoples' homes becasue they kept inviting us in.
After we went to Black Dragon Pool. It is the nicest city lake we ave visited in China - peaceful, clean, nice old buildings and bridges and a lovely view of Snow Mountain.


19th September 2010
Tiger leaping Gorge and Chiang Chiang First Bend
The gorge is beautiful - the river is very powerful here and the gorge very deep with steep sides.

After we went to the first bend in the Yangste river. It is one of the locations where the Red Army crossed on the Long March. It is at Stone Drum village and has a memorial to the crossing.

17th September 2010
Shuher
Another Naxi town, but much less tourist orientated. We walked around the less busy parts of the town and saw a private museum run by a 5th generation Horse Gang Leader. His ancestors traded tea along the Tea Horse Trail from Nepal to Shuher. He still trades in tea and we had some really nice tea there and bought 2 tea bricks.

15th September 2010
Lijiang
A Naxi town. The town is very pretty – lots of well-maintained traditional wooden houses, but the whole town has been given over to tourism and is like visiting a Disney version of China. However, even here there are some great places. We visited the Mu residence. The Mu family were the ruling family in the town for many years and their house is like a palace. Also, there is an ancient concert hall in the town where an orchestra of mostly very old men play Tang dynasty music.

13th September 2010
We joined a tour to take a trip on the huge lake next to Dali. After the lake we were supposed to visit a very large temple – the biggest in China, but the guide was determined to make as much money as possible (her commission from shops) and kept stopping at different shops – tea, silver, jade – and we did not get to the temple until only one hour before it was due to close. This is a big problem with tours in China. I think this will be the last we go on – they make the visits cheaper, but the price one has to pay with waiting around in the car parks of large shops is too high.

12th September 2010
Dali
Dali is a Bai minority village that is very pretty, it has some wall intact and an impressive gate, but it has become quite tourist orientated in some of its streets. But the village is quite big so it is possible to walk around in quieter places.

11th September 2010
Visited the Golden Temple on the outskirts of Kunming. The temple is very nice and has a cable car to go up the mountain to get to it. The cable cars are large toboggans that run in between guard rails – they go quite fast and have lots of twists and turns in order to make it up the steep slopes.

Our last day in Kunming – we will return in a week after we visit some local villages.

10th September 2010
We went with Julia, a waitress from the hotel, to the Stone Forest. She grew up near to there, so was a really good guide. The forest is a huge area with stone pillars that are the result of 200 million years of erosion. It is all very strange – it is even possible to see perfect fault lines that accurately run across pillars standing in a row – as if the rock in between them were still there.

9th September 2010
We met Lin Amaiia who we contacted via Couchsurfing. She gavus loads of information about Kunming and the area around and also Vietnam. We had lunch with her near to the university.


8th September 2010
Kunming
All day on the bus from Anshun and we arrived in the early evening. The Jinjiang Hotel is nice though and is fairly near to the train and bus station which is useful for when we leave. We had a very nice meal in the hotel restaurant.


7th September 2010
Anshun
Visited Huangguoshu waterfalls – they are spectacular – there are several big falls in one area. They charge admission fees to see them though – £18 each and then a further £10 for transport – far too expensive. We also visited the Ye San caves which are pretty good.

5th September 2010
We visited Longjiang to see the Dhong Village there. Their costume is beautiful and their singing is fantastic – their singing is harsh but they stay in tune and harmonise with each other so well.

Congjiang Village – the women all seem to dress in traditional costume and even still keep their hair in the style of the Qing dynasty.

Zhaozhing Village – Dhong village. We heard music by local musicians. It has been supported by a Norwegian fund and is in great condition and very beautiful.

Longlee town. A walled town that was built by soldiers during the Ming Dynasty. Their descendents still live there. The wall is still intact, as are the four gates. The buildings are made of stone and were obviously built very strongly to have lasted so long. The town was a garrison to guard the main routes from South East Asia into China. It was attacked and the first garrison was wiped out by the Dhong people not long after they built the town. The replacement force took the town again finished building it and stayed there.

Chingping Village – Dhong Village. This used to be a very prosperous village for 500 years until trade routes changed because of modern transport. There are some old houses that were built by rich traders and quite a bit of stone was used to build the village. But now the village is dying. The population is ageing, there are a small number of children being looked after by grandparents, but it seems the village will not survive once the present adult population begins to die. We heard a group of 4 elderly women sing – it was beautiful.

Hon Yang – Miao village. The drive to the village was fantastic – rolling hills, rice terraces and we drove through clouds when we drove through one of the passes.

Back to Kaili

31st August 2010
We left for a 6 day trip around the local villages.

30th August 2010
Matang Village
The local people were holding a harvest festival. There was singing and dancing as well as bull-fighting. The water buffalo are taken to the river where they fight each other. The competition lasts the whole day and after a series of rounds one of the bulls is the champion. Many of the bouts are quite short because one of the bulls just decides against fighting and runs away. But others last for the full 5 minutes and the referee decides the winner. In one bout, unbelievably, one bull tossed the other onto its back after they had locked horns and the winner tossed its neck. Incredible – they are so big and heavy.


28th August 2010
Kaili
A small town that is the capital of the local area – lots of local ethnic minorities live here.

We booked a local guide in order to find local villages. We saw Xia huang, Langde and Ziyang – all are beautiful, old traditional places with nice old wooden buildings. We met Miaou people and had lunch with a local family.


27th August 2010
Guiyang museum is really good. It has lots of displays of ethnic minority costume.

26th August 2010
Guiyang
Went to a musical show, but it was disappointing - too much electronic music and miming. The performance was supposed to be folk music.

23rd August 2010
Kaiping
Kaiping is a good base from which to visit the Diaolou. They are towers that were built in the countryside up to the 1930's by returning overseas Chinese. The Diaolou were strongly built and provided them protection from people who would attack them for their money. They were mostly vacated during the Cultural Revolution. They are strongly built of reinforced concrete. Some of them are in the process of renovation although many of them still had original furniture inside, so they are good to visit.

21st August 2010
Guangzhou
We met John Wang our friend from London who is living in Guangzho for a while. He took us for a really good vegetarian meal and then we visited the Shamian island in the Pearl River. It was the base for Europeans before the second world war. The old buildings have been restored and they are great.


20th August 2010
Back to Shenzhen
We took the ferry back to Shenzhen and successfully renewed our Chinese visa in he process so it is good for a further 3 months – although we will not be staying that much longer. Guangzhou is the next place and we are taking the train.


19th August 2010
We went into town and visited the Pawn Museum. It is an actual old pawn shop that still has all the old shelves, counters, record books etc. Then we took a bus to Taipa, the other island of Macao and visited the Macao museum.

18th August 2010
Macao
Ferry to Macao – the trip was problem free. We even saved some money by buying a group ticket with some other passengers. We arrived in Macao and checked straight into our hotel – the Casa Real - near the ferry terminal. We were in time for an early lunch and had Dim Sum in the Hotel restaurant.

The we went to the centre and walked around the old town with its Portuguese buildings and churches. Also, we had great café con leit at a nice old Portuguese café. Lian Choo also had a pasteis de nata which was almost as nice as those in Belem in Lisbon.


17th August
Shenzhen
We took a long distance bus to Shenzhen where we had planned to go straight onto the ferry to Macao – but the bus was late and the last ferry had already gone. But friends who live in Shenzhen helped us and booked us a nice hotel in the grounds of the university. They also took us to a restaurant in the Overseas Chinese section of town. Shenzhen has this neighbourhood because of its status as a Special Economic Zone and many overseas Chinese have invested in it. Because it is next to Hong Kong it has been very successful – it grew from a small fishing village to a huge thriving city in 20years. There were posters of Deng Shao Peng all over town because they were about to celebrate the 2oth anniversary of special status. The city has been one of the main drivers of development in China. The contrast with the area where the Tulou are still lived in is huge.


15th August 2010
Tulou
We took a bus to Yongding which is a village in Fujian nearby many Tulou. The Tulou in this area are still occupied by whole families – some of whom are the 6th generation to live there. They are incredible places – communal living that is very practical and of course in the past offered safe shelter from animals and bandits. We visited the Hekeng village group, the Tianluokeng group and the Kuiju group. The Tulou are accessible and easy to view. Some offer rooms for the night – with very basic facilities.


14th August 2010
Visited the old town which has lots of buildings from the 1930’s that are in fairly good condition and are being used as shops. Visited the Phu Thor Temple – it has the usual architectural style and layout. Nice though.

12th August 2010
Xiamen
Xiamen is much nicer than Fuzhou – it is mostly modern but the buildings are nicer and it is on the coast and the coastline is good – there are lots of trees everywhere. We bought some lovely local tea from a small shop near our hotel. The people that run it also grow the tea in their plantation further inland in Fujian. The family are very friendly and we arranged to meet the son and daughter tomorrow afternoon to visit the beach where there are sand sculptures.

10th August 2010
Wenzhou to Fuzhou
Before taking the train we went to another old house – the home of Zhu Zhee Qin. The house was smaller than others we have seen, but with the same layout as bigger ones. Then we took another bullet train to Fuzhou. We visited the White and Wu Pagodas which are ancient – but it seems they are the only remaining older buildings left in the city. Fuzhou is not very nice – ugly modern buildings mostly and a bit dirty.


9th August 2010
We took the river ferry to get to Yantoucun and Furongcun. We took a taxi from the other side of the river to get to the villages. They are very beautiful – the buildings are made of wood and in good condition and they seem to be active with children, young adults and older people still living in them.

8th August 2010
Wenzhou
Bullet train from Hangzhou to Wehzhou. Wenzhou is a coastal town that is quite run-down but nice. It still has quite a few buildings that are older and low-rise – this is unusual for a big city. The Bund here is small but attractive. I bought a pen from a small designer shop near the waterfront in a great narrow shopping street.

7th August 2010
We joined a tour to visit Wu Cheng which is a lovely old town between Hangzhou and Shanghai, however, probably because of Expo, the crowds were huge and we could not really see the town. We walked outside the old town and went to a small restaurant and stayed there until it was time to go back

6th August 2010
Went to the Silk Museum – displays about the history of silk-making, clothing and the silk-route. We went to the old house of Wu Yen Chen – a rich merchant during the Qing Dynasty. It is amazing how Chinese houses, temples and palaces are all built to the same layout and appearance, with courtyards, gardens, pools.

5th August 2010
We took a water taxi along the Grand Canal. The view alog the banks is great – loads of trees and old buildings. We stopped at Wu Lin, a small quiet town where we visited the Fan and Umbrella Museum. We bought a fan each because the weather remains very hot. They also have a knife and sword museum with lots of old famous blades on display. We went to see the film Aftershock, the Chinese summer blockbuster. It is a sentimental film about the Tan Shan earthquake. It is very popular here – all the cinemas show it several times each day.

4th August 2010
Hangzhou
Took a bus around the famous West Lake – it is fabulous. We also visited the beautiful Yeh Fay Temple.

3rd August 2010
From Putoshan to Hangzhou
Ferry back to the mainland, then bullet train from Ningpo to Hangzhou. We are staying in a 3 star hotel, although it is one of the best we have stayed in China. The star system here is quirky. We had hoped to go straight to Xiamen after Hangzhou but the train tickets were all sold out so we bought tickets to Wenzhou, Fuzhou and then to Xiamen.

1st August 2010
Putoshan Island
We went to the river-port in Ningbo to take the ferry to the island. It took nearly 3 hours to get there. We had to buy entry tickets to get on to the island - £16 each. They say the fee goes to the maintenance of the island which is necessary because it get so many visitors. There are no private cars on the island so hotels run buses to collect guests. We are staying at the Purple Bamboo Hotel. Putoshan is the birthplace of Guan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy and there are many temples and statues of her.

30th July 2010
We went to the Peace Hotel. It re-opened yesterday after 3 years of renovation and it looks fantastic – it must have cost a fortune to achieve the results. They have tried to keep the Art Deco look that the hotel originally had. We had tea and cakes in one of the lobby tea rooms.

29th July 2010
We met Ling Hooi at Yuyuan Garden – an extensive Ming Dynasty garden and home. It is full of lakes, bridges, courtyards, moon gates and temples. We then went to the Bund again to see it in daylight and had coffee by the river on the Pudong side.

28th July 2010
We visited another old part of town and went to the Old Cinema Café, they were showing the Robert Donat version of the 39 Steps – and the coffee was nice. We went to the gardens where Lu Shun’s tomb is stiuated. Very beautiful.

27th July 2010
Went to Expo again – for the last time. The queues are just too long. We queued 3 hours to get into the German Pavillion. We met Ling Hooi, the daughter of one of Lian Choo’s schoolfriends and arranged to meet her later this week.

26th July 2010
We went to the Expo today – we went at 5.00pm in the hope that the crowds would be less, but we were wrong. The place is packed and there are long queues for everything. It is a shame, the pavilions are great and it would be good to be able to visit lots of them.

25th July 2010
We went to Shanxi Road in the French Concession and visited Sun Yat Sen’s and Chou En Lai’s Houses. Also we went to the Communist Party’s first headquarters. The French Concession is really nice. It is very different to other neighbourhoods in Chinese cities. The streets are narrower and quieter and there are many nice houses and buildings.

24th July 2010
Shanghai
We took the bullet train from Nanjing to Shanghai. The trip was smooth and on time. We are staying at the Anting Villa hotel in the French Concession. The hotel was built in the 1930’s and has been well renovated. We went into the centre on the metro, had dinner and then joined the huge crowd from Peoples Square that was heading along the Nanjing Road to Wangpu River. The walk took us to the Bund. The Bund has been renovated – both the buildings and the river bank. They look great and the buildings are all in use. The view across the river to the new Pudong area – it looks incredible at night. We went up to the top deck of the newly renovated Peninsula Hotel – the view of both sides of the river is fantastic. It is Saturday but incredibly the last metro leaves at 10pm – luckily we just made it.


23rd July 2010
Taxi to Jimizui Temple - old and beautiful nearby the north-east gate of the old Ming City Wall. We had a very nice vegetarian meal at the temple restaurant. We then went to the old Ming Drum Tower – the tower is beautiful.

22nd July 2010
Went to the Memorial for the Nanjing massacre victims. The displays are very detailed and therefore horrific. What on earth prompted such a thing?

21st July 2010
Went to Sun Zhong Shan Mausoleum and the Ming Emperor Tomb. They are in the same park and both are very impressive and beautiful. Then we went to the city wall which is well maintained – also very impressive.

20th July 2010
Nanjing
Bullet train to Nanjing. We just had time to visit the Confucian Temple.

19th July 2010
We decided to look for more, older European buildings – and this time found quite a few – along the river front. They were renovated a few years ago and are in good condition. They were built from about 1900 up until about 1930. They were mostly built as banks and they look like the buildings in the City of London. Now many of them are empty.

18th July
Bus to the Yellow Crane Tower. It is beautifully maintained and is in a prominent location overlooking the city and the views from the top of the tower are great. Then we went to Wuhan Museum which has a daily music performance in order to demonstrate their set of old Chinese bells. Then we tried to find some older buildings in the city that were built during the time of the euorpean concessions. But we could only find one and that had been turned into a shopping mall – with KFC and Mcdonalds inside. They have even let them put big signs on the outside of the building.

17th July 2010
Wuhan
Bus from Yichang to Wuhan. We are staying in an apartment hotel – the Sentosa – which is quite nice. It has much more space than a usual hotel room. We had our meal in a nice local restaurant near the hotel – the family have been running restaurants for over 100 years.


16th July 2010
We left the cruise at the Yangste Dam. The Dam is huge, it is hard to imagine how such a thing could be built. We are staying at the Yichang Hotel.

15th July 2010
We transferred to smaller boats today to sail along the smaller gorges. The whole area is fabulous.

14th July 2010
Yangste River
It is very relaxing to sit on the boat and watch the river go by. The river banks are already beautiful – green and hilly. We visited Fendu, a ‘Ghost City’.

13th July 2010
Yangste River Cruise
We boarded the boat late afternoon. The boat is very well kitted out, with comfortable cabins, viewing deck, restaurant and bar. When it was dark we saw the lights of the city on both sides of the river

11th July 2010
Went to and old town – Zhee Chi Koo. It has a memorial museum for the massacred communist party members by the Kuomingtang.

10th July 2010
No surprise – the mist turned into rain so we went to the 3 Gorges Museum – it is really good and has displays going back to 4,000 years. Then we went back to the centre of the city to see the Liberty Memorial. We visited the 1,000 year old Loh Hun Zi Temple. It has 500 Loh hun statues.

9th July 2010
Chongching
We took the bullet train. The train is very fast, although because of torrential rain in Chongching it was delayed. Chongching is on the Yangste river and the Jialing river and the city is incredibly humid and misty. The rivers are incredible – very wide.

8th July 2010
To Leshun to see the giant Bhudda. It is carved into the mountain and can only be seen from the river.

7th July 2010
We went to the Panda Centre. It is incredible. They are having great success at breeding Giant Pandas and have managed to prevent their extinction. There are over 100 Giant Pandas there, of all ages. They are slowly releasing some of the Pandas back into the wild. Also, the Red Pandas are doing well there.

6th July 2010
We joined a tour group to visit the Dujiang Irrigation project and the Taoist Chingcheng Mountain. Both were very interesting. The mountain has loads of deities inside.

5th July 2010
We went by bus to Pinleh a small old village by the river, about 200 kilometres from Chendgu. It is very beautiful and not too spoilt by touristification. It has a beautiful old bridge over the clean looking clear river. Lots of people were playing in the river and were enjoying themselves. A bit further along, some women were washing their clothes in the river.

4th July2010
We bought a bus map – we needed one because empty taxis are so difficult to find in Chengdu. So we took the bus to Wu Ho Temple to see Ju Geh Liang’s and Liu Pei’s 3 Kingdoms history at the Red Cliff exhibition. We went to Ram Tao Temple – the oldest in China. We saw famous Tao god and goddess statues. Some of the temple was damaged in the last earthquake and was being repaired.

3rd July 2010
Chengdu
We went to Dufu Chaudan. It is a beautiful garden in the city with temples, a pagoda, springs and landscaped gardens. Du Fu’s home is still there and can be visited – many of his poems are scripted on the walls of the old wooden buildings.

Then we went to a nearby famous hotpot restaurant – Huang Cheng Lau Ma. We had beef, chicken, venison and 3 kinds of vegetables. It cost 365 yen! That is the most expensive meal we have had in China. You have to cook the food yourself in the hotpot that has spicy chicken stock in one half and mild chicken stock in the other. I must say, I think hotpot is very over-rated. I think proper sechuan meals cooked by the restaurant are much better.

2nd July 2010
Lhasa to Chengdu
We posted our winter clothing to Penang and home from Lhasa Central Post Office to make our luggage lighter. Then we went to the airport to take the aeroplane to Chengdu. We took the airport bus to the city and then tried to get a taxi to our hotel – but we could not get one. There were many taxis but they all had customers already because it was during rush-hour. In the end we managed to walk to the hotel with all our luggage. We had booked a 4 star hotel so we could rest after the tiring Tibet trip.

We went for our first Sechuan meal at a lovely restaurant – it was great – smoked spare ribs, aubergine and beancurd. We took a motorised trishaw to get there from the hotel – all the taxis were still full.

1st July 2010
We drove from Lake Namsto back to Lhasa. We went for lunch with our guide and driver at the Nepalese restaurant and had chicken tikka again.

30th June 2010
Shigaste to Namsto Lak
It is the highest salt-water lake in the world. To get there we drove through beautiful valleys and farm land. We saw loads of yaks, sheep, bulls, rabbits and vultures. We stayed at the lake in the Sheep Hotel and ate in the Sheep Restaurant. The hotel is a row of metal huts and offered more insulation than the tents at Everest Base Camp, but it was still very basic and we decided to sleep in our sleeping bags. This helped – we should have done that at the Base Camp.

29th June 2010
We saw a beautiful sunrise from Everest Basecamp. We left after breakfast and drove back to Shigaste. We visited the wealthiest monastery in Tibet – Rongbuk Monastery. It has he largest bronze Bhudda in China.


28th June 2010
Everest Base Camp
Another long scenic drive through the Gyanste Shigaste Sheger Geula Pass – 5200 meters above sea level. We arrived at the Everest Base Camp in the early evening. We were early enough to have a great view of the peak from the second base camp. The clouds cleared just as we got there – the first time they had cleared for 4 days! The view was incredible – the peak is huge and of course covered in snow and it kept changing colour as the sun was setting. It became dark quickly and as the sky was now clear there was a fantastic night sky – absolutely full of stars. We were so high up that the thinner atmosphere allowed fainter stars to show through.

The camp is very basic and the accommodation is large square tents and it gets really cold – and windy. I thought the tent was going to blow away. Pretty much a sleepless night. We met some young Chinese people from Guangzhou – they said that since arriving in Tibet they had started calling bed-time - the time of suffering. I know what they meant – falling asleep at this altitude is difficult and I keep waking up because of a feeling of suffocation.

27th June 2010
Left Lhasa and went on a long scenic drive along the Friendship Highway to Yamdrok Lake. The lake is breathtaking, the water is clear and has clear reflections of the mountains surrounding it. We stopped at the Mama Dam and the Karola Glacier – 5020 meters above sea level. Even though it is so barren, windy and cold even in June – people live up there.

We stayed in a hotel in Jianzang where there is another temple – Baiju Temple. We climbed to the top of the Stupa – on the way up there are many rooms with various bhuddist deities.

26th June 2010
We went to Tsamkhung Convent and Ramoche Temple. We saw many nuns studying, praying and working hard in the garden and scripture rooms.

25th June 2010
We went to the Dalai Lama’s summer palace today. It is a fantastic building in beautiful tranquil gardens and lakes. Just outside the gardens is another really good coffee lounge and we had some great coffee there. We had lunch in the Lhasa Kitchen and had some nice curries.

After lunch we went to the monastery school and saw the afternoon debate in one of the gardens. Lots of loud talking and hand-clapping.

24th June 2010
We visited the Potala Palace and the Jokhang Temple, which is the spiritual centre of Tibet. It is the main temple that Tibetans are going to when they go on their huge pilgrimages. The pilgimages can take up to 2 years because they have to walk – and frequently prostrate themselves on the floor.

The Potala Palace is very special and is the highest palace in the world. It is quite tiring to walk around it – there are many steep stairways and the thin air at this altitude is not easy.

23rd June 2010
Lhasa Express
The hard seats were not comfortable, the train was full and the lights are very bright and left on even at 4.00am. By the time the sun had risen, the scenery was already awesome with beautiful mountains, valleys, and plains. The journey took about 15 hours.

Our guide was waiting for us in Lhasa and took us straight to our hotel. The Yak Hotel is good and is decorated in traditional Tibetan style. Our guide showed us a Nepalese restaurant and we had Nan Bread and Chicken tikka.

22nd June 2010
Golmund
We took an overnight train to Golmund on hard sleeper. Fortunately this train was much newer than the one we took from Turpan and for some reason the other passengers were much quieter. John’s Café in Kashgar had booked us an okay hotel right by the station because we are taking the Lhasa Express early tomorrow morning. The only seats available are hard seats and the train leaves at 4.00am.

Golmund is a quiet town. Some wide modern streets lined by fairly modern shops and a market area next to the town main square. The town appears to mostly be under development and construction. We had lunch in a small spicy noodle restaurant in the market, next to a construction site.

We then had coffee in yet another very nice coffee lounge. There seems to be at least one of these in every town in China.

19th June 2010
Xining
We took a bus to Xining – it took 71/2 hours. We went for a late lunch in the market and had spicy noodles that were freshly cooked – they were really good. They had all the ingredients in the restaurant and you choose what you want to have with the noodles. We then went to a nice coffee place for really good coffee. One of the waitresses – Li Xe – showed Lian Choo how to use Han Ye Pinyin on the computer.

The next day we went to Xining Museum – the museums in china are really good. Well laid out, with good captions and fabulous exhibits. At this one we saw vases, pots, musical instruments – some of which were 5,000 years old. They were found in Xinghai province graves.

21st June 2010
We took a bus to Pinang and hired a taxi for the day. We went to Yu Lin Xi and the Dalai Lama’s birthplace. The roads were very bad and we were lucky to find a town taxi driver who knew all the places we wanted to go to, and how to get there. The area is very hilly and mountainous because we are on the edge of the Himalayas here. The temples are all in difficult to get to places and always involve a lot of climbing to get to them, but of course they are all beautiful.

Unfortunately we could not get into the Dalai Lama’s house. Apparently, it is very sensitive because of the political situation. Instead our taxi driver took us to his house to meet his family. They are very nice and they gave us home-made bread, water melon and tea.


17th June 2010
Zhangye
Zhangye has some very nice areas. In the evening we went to the wooden temple in the centre of town and saw many people doing their evening exercises, communal dncing and singing.

The next day we took a taxi to the Great Bhudda Temple which is also in the town. It is an extensive range of very beautiful buildings. Kublai Khan was born there. Then we went to the Mati Temple to see a 3,000 year old stone carved Bhudda. We climbed the hills where the ancient Bhudda and many others have been carved into the mountain.


15th June 2010
Jiayuguan
We took a bus from Dunhuang to Jiayuguan. We went to a modern shopping mall to have lunch a late lunch in a Taiwanese café. After we went to a nice lake in the town and had some beer and tea. The television tower in the tower is tall and shaped like a dolphin – don’t know why.

Next morning we hired a taxi for the day and visited ancient buildings in the area, a very large and beautiful Wei dynasty fort, a Wei dynasty tomb and museum, we climbed up the first fort along the Han dynasty Great Wall and visited the Great Wall museum.

When we returned to town we went to a great restaurant that is one of a chain opened by Mao Tse Tung’s children. It is decorated all in red and has a statue of Mao inside the entrance.

13th June 2010
DunHuang and surrounding area
This is a really good place to visit. The town is small, modern, clean, friendly, surrounded by the Gobi Desert and most of the new buildings are in a Chinese style. Each street has its own design for the street lights – many are Chinese lanterns and we saw one in the style of a Chinese bell. The town because of water supply from melted snow from the Tien Shen Mountains brought by the ancient underground irrigation system. Although, I guess there will need to be a solution because of the reducing snowfall, which is apparently increasingly worsening.

The hotel is one of the best we have ever stayed in – it is in the style if a medieval Chinese fort and looks as if it is built of sand – I guess they were going for an adobe appearance. It has a roof café with great views of the huge dunes in the Gobi Desert. We ate in the hotel restaurant twice and both meals were really great – and so cheap, about £7 and £5. The other meals we had in the Night Market, which is the cleanest and best organised I have seen. The meals there cost about £3.

Whilst here we visited Crescent Moon Lake which is an oasis in the sand dunes, the Mogao Caves, a bronze statue of Bhudda in the mountains which is the second largest in China, Yadan National Park – which is a huge eroded dried lake-bed with strange rock formations, the remains of the Han Dynasty Great Wall and the ruined Yu Men Pass Fort.

11th June 2010
Turpan to DunHuang
We took an overnight train that left about 11.30pm. It did not have the option of a soft- sleeper, so we had to book hard-sleeper places. We arrived at the station about 10.45pm and the station was packed – it seems there are many trains leaving from this station at night. Stations in China are so busy, that they keep passengers in the waiting room until just before the train arrives – otherwise the platforms would be chaotic. They let us through the barriers about 5 minutes before the train pulled in. Several hundred of us piled through on to the platform – then we had to try to find the spot where our carriage would be – otherwise we would not have enough time to board before the train departed. One of the guards directed us to where he thought it would be – along with about two hundred other people. We thought this a bit strange – how could one sleeper carriage hold so many people? The train pulled in on time and of course our carriage did not stop in front of us. Two hundred people then started racing to the correct carriage. Somehow Lian Choo got to the correct door first – quite an achievement considering she was pulling her huge rolling trunk and a carrying a backpack. I was about 150 people behind her. I saw her climb the stairs from the platform up to the door – it was dark so I could only just make out what was happening. She then disappeared into the train. I was wondering how she managed to carry the trunk up the stairs so quickly, but then I heard her shouting at the other people clambering on to the train. I then heard her voice drifting across the heads of the scrum in front of me asking where I was – unfortunately – I was still quite far from the door at this point so could not help her. What had happened: Lian Choo had pulled the trunk to the bottom of the stairs and then climbed them, expecting the men behind her to help her lift the trunk on to the train. Instead they just pushed the trunk out of the way and all bundled up the stairs on to the carriage and in the process pushed Lian Choo into the carriage - hence her shouting at them.

Luckily, the trunk had not fallen down the gap, so when I finally reached the stairs I lifted Lian Choo’s and my trunk up the stairs and we managed to pull them along the carriage to our bed space. We then realised why there was such a scramble to board the train – there was very little luggage storage space and we had to pull our trunks between our bunks, which meant there was no floor space left at all for us or the other passengers in our bay. Luckily, they were all nice about that. Also, we found out why so many people were on our carriage – the bunks were three tiers high – so there were six bunks in each bay. We had booked the two bottom bunks, which was just as well, because the two top ones were about ten feet or so high and climbing up to them was not easy – there were no steps – just two small foot plates on the wall.
We then tried to get to sleep. The bays had no door, so the noise from the other passengers was quite loud and the windows were open in the corridor because there was no air conditioning, so the noise from train wheel was also loud. Somehow though we got some sleep and arrived in DunHuang on time and we found a shared taxi which went straight to our Hotel

11th June 2010
Turpan and surrounding area
We stayed here just for 2 nights. It is the hottest city in China – the highest recorded temperature is 49.6C – we only experienced 38C which is hot enough. The town only exists because 2,000 years ago the people living in the area built an extensive underground irrigation system that brought melted snow from the Tien Shen Mountains – otherwise it would be desert. The system is still successful and the area grows grapes, melons and other fruit.

We visited historic sites in the areas around the city – including an old ruined desert town that was a resting place on the silk route, a vineyard, the Flaming Mountains – which aficionados of ‘The Journey West’ will know is the place where Monkey King doused the flames with a magic fan so that Sun Hoo Koong could continue the journey. The temperature at the Flaming Mountain was 55C when we visited – at 6.30 in the afternoon.

We had a really nice meal at a restaurant run by people from Harbin in the far north east. The dumplings were really good.

8th June 2010
Urumqi
Capital of Xin Jiang. A big busy city, where we only stayed for one night. We stopped here in order to get a bus to the areas around Turpan.

7th June 2010
Kashgar
We arrived in Kashgar after crossing the Torugart pass from Kyrgyzstan. We stayed in the Se Man Hotel which is on the site of the 19th century Russian Embassy. Both the British and the Russians had big Embassies here because Kashgar is so strategically important - on the borders of both Empires, so Kashgar was a major base for espionage and diplomatic activities with China, Central Asia, Afghanistan and northern India.

Kashgar has the biggest bazaar in Asia which is most active in Sundays. People come from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asian countries, China to trade. The livestock market is huge - they trade sheep, goats, donkeys, cattle, horses, camels. The men buying horses test them by riding them really fast around the market – usually with no saddle. Elsewhere, anything you can think of is sold from tents, stalls, goods arranged on blankets, the back of carts etc.

The city is looking quite prosperous – lots of new buildings are going up and the old Uighur town is being re-developed – many of the old adobe buildings are falling down anyway and modern buildings following the same design are replacing them although with modern amenities like running water – it is a big project and will take quite a few years yet. Some of the old adobe town is still functioning though – some of the buildings do look precarious – another mild earthquake would probably destroy most of it.

There are thousands of electric motorbikes here. I hardly saw any petrol powered. It means the streets are much quieter than usual for such a busy city. There are not many private cars – petrol vehicles are mostly taxis and small lorries, so you have to stay alert when walking around, they ride the bikes everywhere, on the pavements, pathways, even along the busy narrow walkways in the Bazaar.

4th June 2010
Issul-Kul to Kashgar
We left Issul-Kul at 3.00am in order to reach Naryn by 8.00am. The journey is about only about 250 kilometres but takes 4-5 hours because the road is in poor condition and very twisty when it passes through the Tien Shen mountains. We made it in good time – our driver kept going and we were in a Land cruiser which helped a lot. We then transferred to an Audi saloon to take us to the Chinese border – I was a bit concerned because I thought the roads might be too rough for an ordinary car, but the new driver was confident we would make it okay.

He makes the trip quite often and had all the necessary papers for him to take us to the Chinese side – which is necessary because it is 5 kilometres between the Kyrgysz and Chinese check-points along a very rugged mountain pass. We booked the driver via the Celestial Mountains Guesthouse who are experienced at getting people safely into China. The journey from Naryn to the border took about 4 hours. The road became progressively worse – it had completely collapsed in 2 places and we had to drive on the desert to get through. The traffic was very sparse and what there was, was mostly juggernaughts crossing from China to Kyrgyzstan bringing Chinese made goods into Central Asia. The Kyrgysz juggernaughts going to China were much less and mostly appeared to be carrying scrap metal.

The border crossing went smoothly – although we had to pass through 7 checkpoints and the actual crossing took about 5 hours. The last checkpoint in China was the main immigration and customs point even though it was about 100 kilometres from the border. Our luggage was searched only once – at the first Chinese checkpoint in the Pass. He seemed to be inspecting us to make sure we were not bringing censored printed materials. We only had some language books – which he approved of - saying it is good to learn foreign languages and that he is learning English. He was pleased to have an English person to do some practicing and he even tried out some Russian. Although his English was much better. It is strange how languages function – just 5 Kilometres away all the guards speak fluent Russian – and we met none who spoke English.

Our Chinese driver and Guide were waiting at the Chinese border when we arrived there. The journey to Kashgar took about another 4 hours.

The whole trip was memorable – from the mountain passes, to the terrible roads and the hundreds of Marmots we saw running about in the desert.

3rd June 2010
Kyrgysztan
We flew from Tashkent to Bishkek because we spoke to various people and decided that following the troubles in Kyrgysztan the Uzbekistan border might be too problematic. The flight was good, an Uzbek airways Boeing with good leg-room, although the flight only takes about an hour. The Tashkent airport was strange in that once through Passport control, there was no café, not even somewhere to buy a coffee and the Duty Free would not take Uzbek currency.

We had arranged a driver to take us to Issul-Kul and he was waiting for us. It took about 4 hours to get to the lake. The lake is huge – the second largest alpine lake in the world. It is beautiful, surrounded by the Tien Shen Mountains. We spent 3 days here and the trip into the mountains was the highlight – we drove up a canyon for about 4 hours – nearly to the Kazakhstan border.

I am just starting to put all the entries for China because this site is not accessible from China.

Tashkent 28th May 2010

We took the sleeper from Khiva to Tashkent. The train was okay - newer and cleaner than the one we took from Moscow to Tashkent.

We found a hotel with a fast internet connection so I am hoping to load all the backlog of photos onto flickr whilst we are here.

Khiva 24/05/10

We are in Khiva now. We took a taxi from Bokhara which took seven hours, mostly through desert. It was very interesting, we saw falcons, marmuts, loads of goats and sheep and sand-dunes.

Khiva is a beautiful historic walled town that was renovated by the Soviets and it looks fantastic. It is an open air museum really, with many grand old buildings - mosques, palaces, a fort and an intact city-wall. Few people live here, it seems most people were moved out during the renovations, which does give the place a rather unreal atmosphere. Anyway, at least it is still here.

We are staying in a hotel just outside the walls. We chose the hotel because it advertised that it has wireless internet which we confirmed over the phone with the hotel manager. We wanted wireless so I could clear some of the backlog of photos to be put onto flickr. However, when we arrived we found that it not only did not have wireless but the hotel internet connection is a slow old-fashioned dial-up, so I could not load any photos after all. Finally we found another place with wireless and we are spending quite some time here in order to access the internet.

Today we took a marshrutka (mini-bus with a fixed route) into the local big town where the main railway station is, to buy tickets back to Tashkent. We are taking the overnight train that takes about 19 hours - it must go very slowly to take that long. It is cheap though - we bought first class sleeper tickets and they were only about £50 each. Trains in Uzbekistan are a very good and cheap to get around.

We will stay in Tashkent for a few days and then fly to Bishkek.

Bokhara 20th May 2010

We took the Sharq express train from Samarkand to Bokhara. The train is comfortable and quite fast, but all the carriages have Uzbek television playing the whole time with the volume turned up really loud - enough to give a headache. I was so glad I bought a good MP3 player and then bought a good pair of noise reducing earphones - I wore them for the whole 3 hour trip. This was much betther than the 4 hour trip from Tashkent to Samarkand when I forgot to keep the earphones handy and could not use the MP3 player.

Bokhara is a much smaller and quieter city than Samarkand and the old town is fairly separate from the new part. The old town is an arabic-style place, with narrow streets and walk-ways and lots of old buildings leaning into the street. It is so much like the old town in Cordoba. The old monumental buildings are the same design as in Samarkand and the Alhambra in Granada. Most of them have been renovated by the Russians during the soviet period, so they are in quite good condition even though they are quite old. It is like being in an Arabic tale from 1001 nights.

Lian Choo went to a Hammam today that is 600 years old. She was there for one and a half hours - they gave her a massage, bath, scrub, sauna - she loved it.

Samarkand 15th May 2010

Samarkand is beautiful. So many beautiful mosques and mausoleums. The Registan and Shah-i-Zinden mausoleum are particularly spectacular. The town is a mixture of old arabic-style and soviet straight streets with modern buildings. We had poblems finding a good internet connection so I don't know when I will be able to put the photos I took on to flickr.

The people in Uzbekistan seem to be very friendly wherever we go. they stop and talk to us and are interested in who we are, where we come from, if we like Uzbekistan, where we are going next. Most people speak very good Russian and some speak some English.

Tashkent

We took the train from Moscow to Tashkent. We stayed on it for 3 days and nights. It was a great trip, we ran along-side the Volga River for a long time and then crossed it via a long metal bridge to get to Samara. We crossed into Kazakhstan in the early hours of the second night. The 2 border crossings each took about 2 hours, but both were problem free, the officials were very nice and helpful in all 3 countries.

Tashkent is a big busy Asian city with obvious Russian/Soviet influences. The food in Uzbekistan is good and the bread great. The bread is sold in the street all over the city. We stayed in a very nice family run guesthouse not far from the Chorsu Bazaar, which is a very big market selling all kinds of fresh fruit. Everything was fresh, high quality and cheap and the people running the stalls were all friendly and sociable. We stayed in Tashkent for just 2 nights because we will need to return there before leaving Uzbekistan. We took the express train to Bokhara from Tashkent and got out at Samarkand - we will stay in Samarkand for about 6 days.

Vladimir and Suzdal, Russia

We spent 2 days in Vladimir and Suzdal whilst we were in the Moscow area. We stayed in a nice hotel in Vladimir and also visited suzdal from there. We took the train from Moscow to Vladimir, which takes about 2 hours and returned 2 days later by bus so we could see more of the country-side - which is pretty samey, but nice to see nevertheless. The journey mostly was pine forests and wodden houses lining the road-side.

Both towns are nice and Suzdal is a beautiful small country town. Although at one time it was an important Russian city and Vladimir was the Russian capital in the 15th century.

Moscow - 27th

We took the SAPSAN bullet train from St Petersburg to Moscow. It was really great - the train is luxurious.

We will stay in Moscow until Friday 7th May. But we will go to Vladimir and Suzdal 4th and 5th May.

In Moscow we went on a river boat and the Kremlin. We are enjoying Moscow - it is so easy to get around on the Metro. We took a trolley bus to see the Yuri Gargarin statue.

Vladimir and Suzdal are Golden Ring towns and are very interesting. Old churches, a Kremlin and museums.

St Petersburg - 22nd to 27th April

We took the overnight train to St Petersburg from Vilnius. It was great - comfortable beds and they gave us okay dinner and breakfast. Crossing the border was strange - it took one hour to get to the russian border staff after leaving the Latvian border.

St Petersburg is very beautiful. Loads of grand buildings, canals and Palaces. We went to Peterhof - it was styled on Versailles.

Lithuania - Neringa/Nida

We are staying in a nice guest house in Nida on the Curonian Spit. The town on the spit is known as Neringa and we are staying in the Nida part of it. We went for a nice bike ride and saw a huge sand dune - the biggest in europe. The spit is very beautiful - just a very thin strip of land off the Lithuanian coast. It is possible to see both sides of the spit in some places - one side the Baltic and on the other the lagoon.

Lithuania, Druskininkai

So we are in Lithuania now. It is a beautiful country - hilly landscape and many pine forests.
A great place for a visit. Druskininkai is a small Spa town that has been here for nearly 300 years. It was originally used by royalty from Lithuania, Poland and Russia and after the revolution by the soviets.

We are in a beautiful Spa hotel. Lian Choo is having lots of treatments in the clinic and she is really enjoying it.

We are going to the Baltic coast on Saturday for a few days.

Berlin - 7th to 10th April

I was last in Berlin about 35 years ago. So then the wall was still here and because we went from West Germany to West Berlin, I had to pass through checkpoints Alpha and Bravo in East Germany. Unfortunately I did not have to pass through Checkpoint Charlie, that would have been great.

Now - Berlin is so different. The wall is gone, the death strip is now redeveloped with much fabulous modern architecture. Potsdamer Platz in particular is incredible - and of course until very recently - a wasteland between two opposing countries.

We visited the Jewish Museum, The Monument to the Murder of European Jews and Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. Don't let anyone tell you that Germany is trying to hide the dark times of the Nazi era. For example, it is compulsory for all German children to visit a concentration camp at least once during their school time. We rode the metro and passed through the "ghost stations" - these are the ones on the S1 Line that were closed after 1961 until the fall of the wall because they were in East Berlin - the West berlin trains would pass through the darkened stations without stopping.

The Brandenburg Gate is beautiful - it is all cleaned up and renovated and it is a moving experience to be able to freely walk through it. The Gate was also in the death strip during the time of the wall.

Most of the monuments to the recent past have been done with restraint and taste. Although Checkpoint Charlie is a bit different - there is a re-built border station - I think it must be a copy of the one first built straight after the wall was built. There are people dressed in American and East German uniforms posing for photos with tourists. I suppose in a way it is appropriate for it to be such a tacky area. The Checkpoint Charlie museum is not State run, the copy of the border station was built by a private group and they no doubt are making lots of money from it all. After all, this area was the front-line of the face-off between Capitalism and Communism and therefore is above all, about the triumph of Capitalism. There is a Mcdonalds being built just next to the location, which will just about put the icing on the cake.

Spain

We leave Spain for Berlin now. Spain was a great experience. It is so beautiful - I will miss the scenery, the cities, the old preserved parts of the cities, the people who are so warm and friendly, the food - especially the suckling pig. I won't miss; smoking in restaurants and bars, witnessing the abuse of planning laws and too many housing developments in scenic places - the bribes to planners in order to gain permision to build must have been extensive.

The mix of cultural influences in Spain has left a rich culture that remains very strong and distinctive. It is even possible to still see in the faces of the people the mix of races that go to make up modern Spain. Moor, Jewish, Romany, Goths. The further south we went, the more we saw in the faces, the arabic and jewish past.

Sevilla 040210

We went to a Flamenco place last night. It was in a back street and there were no signs outside to say where it was. We asked 4 people if they knew it before we found someone - 2 catholic priests who knew it. The performance was great - the singer was so emotional, he had a sob in his voice as he sang. If he does that every night, he ust be exhausted all the time. The place was recommended by Lonely Planet and the place where we are staying. I think we were lucky, it was a very simple venue - brick walls with just a few hand-drawn pictures of dancers on the walls. It was packed with people, but we were near the performers. The performers just wore ordinary clothes, the two men jeans and open-neck shirts and the woman a black t-shirt and long skirt.

Seville really is beautiful, we walked around much of it yesterday.

Sevilla - 1st April 2010

We went to the Alcazar today. It is much more intersting and beautiful than we expected. As beautiful as the Alhambra. Very intricate Arabic tiles and plasterwork, lovely arches connecting the rooms and fabulous gardens with a heavy scent of wisteria and orange blossom - it seems this is a good time of the year to visit.

The cathedral is huge - apparently it is the biggest church in the world. It has the Giralda tower - which was originally part of the islamic building that used to stand there. The tower is obviously islamic, even though the christians added a top tier to house bells.

Ciudad Real to Sevilla

We took the bus. There is no direct route from Ciudad Real to Sevilla, so we travelled to Cordoba first and we had to change buses at the first stop along the way, the Cordoba bus was waiting there. They did not warn us about that in Ciudad Real, so it was lucky we realised in time! We completed the journey on a bus to Sevilla from Cordoba.

It was a great trip - loads of great scenary - mountains, olive trees, valleys, rivers.

When we arrived in Sevilla we found out that many roads are closed and bus routes diverted and tram routes shortened because of the Semana Santa processions. It took us 5 hours to get to our hotel from the bus station because the road it is in, is connected to the main procession route. The only reason we made it before midnight was because a Spanish couple who live in Sevilla helped us - they persuaded a security guard to let us through a barrier when there was a small gap in the procession. It was the fifth guard they tried!

Ciudad Real 30thMarch2010

We took the train from Toledo to Ciudad Real via the Madrid main station.
We are here just for one night. We thought we would stop here on the way to Sevilla. It is a nice ordinary town and we visited a great Museum about Don Quijote.

Toledo26th to 30th March

We stayed in a nice small hotel near the river, just by the wier. The river runs through a deep valley so it is beautiful.
Toledo is really hilly - we got lots of exercise walking about the town. The town has many monuments in good condition - including a castle and synagogues.
We had partridge and venison in a nice retaurant that specialises in game.

Segovia - 23rd to 27th March2010

We had a nice flat in the centre of the old town, next to the cathedral, so seeing the town was really easy. The town and Roman Aqueduct are very beautiful
We walked the length of the aqueduct, it is spectacular and hard to believe that no mortar was used in its construction.
The other great monument is the Alcazar , a castle out of a fairy tale. It is quite like the disney castle.

Madrid 20th to 23rd March 2010

We stayed in a luxury hotel - The Puerta America - because it was our 30th wedding anniversary and we wanted to do something memorable. The hotel is spectacular - each floor is by a different designer, but all very modern and space-age. We stayed on the 8th floor and it really was like being on a brand new spaceship, the room was decorated all in white and had lots of electronic gadgets like the automatic television that appeared from the ceiling. Also, we went for a meal in the oldest restaurant in the world. We had suckling pig that was cooked in a wood-burning oven and it was great, the meat was tender and the cracking really crispy. The restaurant is very pretty, with lots of old decoration and furniture. We ate in the cellar room which is very atmospheric, with brick and stone walls and old looking wooden doors.
I took a few photos of the Plaza Mayor and surrounding area.

18th March - Cordoba

We went straight from the south coast - the Malaga area - to Cordoba. We took the bus again - it is great to see the countryside from the buses. So far we have been lucky and always get the front seats because we buy the tickets a few days in advance. Seats 1 and 2 are the best, they are behind the driver with a clear view out of the front and side windows.
In Cordoba, the Mezquita is as beautiful as I hoped it would be. It is a huge area with red and white arches throughout - I took loads of photos. Photographing the Mezquita was difficult though - the photos only give an impression of how beautiful it is. Something that makes the mosque really strange is the vandalism of the catholic cathedral, that was built, literally, right in the middle of the mosque. Even the Spanish king of the time when the cathedral was built, Charles V, complained to the Church that they had vandalised a unique and beautiful building.
We also visited the synagogue. It is small and one of only 3 left in Spain - the other 2 are in Toledo. The Jewish Quarter around La Mezquita is fabulous. Narrow lanes and very old buildings. Jewish people have tried to gain a foothold in the area again and have opened a very good museum nearby the old Synagogue.

We went to a small town in the Sierra Nevada - not far from Malaga. It was an Arab town and was the last Arab town before the Christain reconquest of Spain.

It has a ruined arab castle at the top of a small mountain. We climbed up it. It was hard work but worth it. The view from the castle was incredible. We could see about 4 miles of Spanish coastline, the Mediteranean and the outline of the African coast. To the north are the Sierra Nevada mountains. I was impressed that Lian Choo could make it up the mountain - although when we reached the top she collapsed for about 15 minutes getting her strength back. I took photos and will upload them when we get a better internet conection - probably in Madrid.

We went by bus from Granada to Malaga and then hired a car to go Estepona on the south coast. The coast is a very built up area with high rise flats and hotels. the area we are in is a bit less built up but still very much a beach holiday area.
We went to Malaga - it is okay - a big city on the coast with a beautiful castle on the hill overlooking the port.
Today we went to Ronda - a small town in the Sierra Nevada. It was the last place held by the Arabs in Spain. The old arabic town is on one side of a gorge and the newer town on the other - connected by a bridge spanning the deep gorge. As usual for this area - small whitewashed buildings with narrow streets and lanes. the air is very crisp due to being high up in the hills. I took quite a few photos.
We went to Cadiz - usual old town - narrow streets and nice buildings. It is more rundown than other places we visited. I only took a few photos.

Granada

We went to Granada, of course, to go to the Al Hambra. And it was worth it. Wonderful Arabic buildings and gardens and Spanish style buildings that were added after the Arabs were finally defeated.
I did not realise how much Granada is a city built in the high hills. It is surrounded by mountains - many were covered with snow - apparently they are high enough to have snow on them all year round - which is quite something considering how hot this part of Spain becomes in the summer.
We went to the Central Market and bought some high quality fruit at very cheap prices. A kilo of oranges cost 79 cents - and they were fabulous, sweet and juicy - not like the ones we have to buy in England. We went to Malaga by bus. It was another great trip - 2 hours through the Sierra Nevada.

Valencia - 05/03/2010 to 08/03/2010

We went to Valencia during the Fallas Festival. It consists of fireworks and parades. They set off daytime fireworks - the explosions were deafening - my ears were ringing for hours afterwards.
Valencia is another beautiful Spanish city - Spain really is beautiful. Although - it is the centre that is beautiful - the suburbs are more ropey - lots of tall boxes for people to live in.
Especially great in Valencia is the Central Market - it is in a huge building that has many grand features, such as a high dome in the centre. The produce is fresh and high quality and the market is very busy - loads of local people milling around doing their weeky shop. Most of them use shopping trolleys because they buy so much. I have noticed - there are nice looking well-made shopping trolleys on sale everywhere - I guess you need one if you shop in such markets. Every town we have ever been to in Spain has a good municiple market - why can't we do that in England? I suppose Tesco would not stand for it.
We decided to go to Granada from Valencia and took the bus - a 9 hour journey. The journey was interesting though. The road follows valleys along the Sierra Nevada mountain range, so the scenery was spectacular. The valleys must have good soil - there was food growing all along the way - olives, orange trees that were all in blossom, lemons etc.

Barcelona

Barcelona was great. We saw loads of it in 3 days. It is a really beautiful city - lovely buildings, museums, coastline, restaurants, the central market on the Rambla. We bought a tourist bus ticket so saw most of the city from the open top of a double decker bus. The highlight was Gaudi - Park Guell, La Pedrera, La Sagrada Familia. We took the slow train at 9.30am and arrived in Valencia at 2.15p.m. A really nice journey - the train follows the coast most of the way - so hills on one side and the Mediteranean on the other - great.

Big trip departure

We departed on 1/3/10 from St Pancras on the Eurostar at 2.04pm and arrived Paris Gare du Nord at 5.26, a two and a half hour journey. We took the 8.34pm Trenhotel from Gare d’Austerlitz and arrived Barcelona Estacio Franca.

The trip was great. We went GranClass on the TrenHotel - had a nice meal and breakfast on the train included in the ticket. Our cabin had en-suite shower. The cabin was incredibly small and we had to store our luggage in the shower so that we could get into the room. We were laughing so much as we climbed over the luggage to get into a position to manoeuvre them, that I hardly had the strength left to budge them. Whilst we were having dinner the Steward opened the folding beds. They were comfortable and we slept well.

In Barcelona we are staying in a Pension near the Rambla. We got a very good deal on the Late Room web-site. It is basic but okay.

Planning the Trip - visas

Visas. We got them all from Consulates in London:
First - Russian - 30 days. It cost £76 each plus $30 each for the Letter of Introduction from Russia. We got the LOI from "Way to Russia". They are recommended by Lonely Planet and the Moscow Times. We just needed the application form, LOI and one passport photo. The processing takes 5 working days.
Second - Kyrgyzstan - 30 days. Costs £50. Just an application form, 2 photos needed. The process takes 3 working days.
Third - Uzbekistan - . Cost £57. 30 days. Just an application form and one photo needed. 5 working days.
Fourth - Kazakhstan Transit Visa. 5 days, cost £13. 3 working days.
Fifth - Chinese - 6 month double entry. We can stay up to 90 days in any one visit. Cost £85. We just needed application form and a photo. 4 working days.

We plan to get the Vietnamese and Cambodian visas in China

8th February, London UK

Andrew is showing us how to use the website. It's very simple. To add a hyperlink, you have to first copy the url of the website you want to link to. Then highlight the text that you want to set up as the link, and click the 'Link' button at the top on the 'New Blog Post' box - the one that's a little circle. Paste in the link, click ok, and the link will be established.