Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park has become one of the most talked about destinations in Vietnam, mostly due to the discovery of Son Doong, the world’s biggest cave and those incredible National Geographic images. Situated in the skinny central bit of Vietnam, near to the Laos...
Imagine yourself being rowed along a tranquil river, surrounded by fairytale limestone karst mountains while rice whispers in the breeze at the water’s edge, the river appears to end at a rock face then you notice a low cave, a tunnel, the river slips silently through...
Five in the morning is an interesting time to arrive in a city, and to be in Hanoi at this time of day is to reveal its hidden side. All around Hoan Kiem Lake you will find locals stretching, jogging and practicing Tai Chi. Walk...
Two months of travel in China drew to a close, it was time to move on, with a few days left on our visas we departed Yangshuo on the bus to Guilin, a journey we had made a few times since basing ourselves in the...
The Climbing Lesson from Rachel A Davis Vagabond on Vimeo. If China has an outdoor capital, then Yangshuo is probably it. With so many hiking and cycling trails, rivers, caves and rock faces it draws adventurous visitors from all over the world to play amongst...
The note in question being the 20 Yuan note, and tourists flock from all over the country to see the beautiful view that is depicted on their money. Luckily, December wasn’t a time they chose to do it and we found Xingping to be rather...
In the mountains to the north of Guilin, a spectacular dragon slumbers. Here rises Longji, a mountain so coiled in rice terraces that it resembles the back bone of a mighty dragon. Every bit of this famed mountain is covered in terraces and the rice...
Yangshuo is a small town nestled in the incredibly beautiful limestone karst landscape of southern China. It draws tourists from all over to witness the scenery, hike, climb or cycle and this in turn has made it somewhere very amiable to stay. It makes an...
After our little break in Hong Kong we headed back to mainland China just before christmas. Our destination was Yangshuo, we took a train from Hung Hom to Guangzhou East which was a pleasant, smooth ride complete with Hong Kong egg tarts and a cup...
Wow, Macau was busy! This was the first time on our trip that we had encountered mass tourism. The narrow European streets were mobbed with Chinese tourists, all marvelling at the architecture, the abundant food and the glittering Christmas decorations. We had taken a day...
Towards the end of our week in Hong Kong we woke to a vivid blue sky, no rain was forecast, so we took the metro to Lantau Island, Hong Kong’s second largest island. The metro drops you off, rather handily, at Tung Chung, a small...
I stood on the promenade in Kowloon, overlooking Victoria Harbour and the spectacular skyline across the water, and marvelled to myself that we had reached this faraway land without ever stepping into an aeroplane. It seemed a wonder of railway engineering that I could...
So we escaped China! The huge country had been enthralling and fascinating but we needed a break, and we found it on a small, tranquil island in Hong Kong. Technically still China, Hong Kong is an autonomous, separate special administrative region and it comprises of a...
Zhujiajiao is a pretty canal village an hours bus ride out from Shanghai, it makes a perfect day out from the city with its quaint old atmosphere and attractive canal-lined streets, a complete contrast to modern Shanghai. Of course, all this prettiness and close proximity...
Shanghai Museum The day following the ‘smog from hell’ I was still on my own so I took myself off to the Shanghai Museum. The air was still pretty unpleasant so the calmly lit, air-conditioned interior was heavenly. The slick museum was built in the...
Shanghai. What is it like to experience toxic smog? We spent six days in Shanghai in total, after our initial introductory exploration of the city we got stuck into sight-seeing, dipping into our guide-book for ideas. The glittering views of our first couple of days soon...
