Category: China
The Kindness Of Strangers
| August 18, 2012 | Filed under China, Indonesia, Personal Musings, Thailand |
The main thing I’ve learnt from travelling is that people are really nice and the world is quite a safe place. Not exactly headline material, but an observation made through personal experience. Bouncing around Asia for the last six months, I’ve been continually impressed and surprised by the kindness of strangers who then became friends, either for a fleeting moment or a while longer, and always leaving me better than they found me. In June I spent a month in Indonesia without Tyrhone, so it was probably the time that I was… more
Last Days In China: The Highs And The Lows
| August 10, 2012 | Filed under China |
The thing that amazes me about traveling in China is the roller coaster of emotion that it evokes. I mean, it’s like cramming a life time of weird and wonderful experiences (no wait, ten life times) into a short space of time and pressing ‘spin’. Yes, I’m comparing China to a time capsule washing machine, but that about sums it up. China has built me up and brought me down without warning, when I least expected it. It has thrilled… more
Kangding – A Welcomed Retreat
| August 8, 2012 | Filed under China |
I knew I needed to escape the city, the question was, where? I had always wanted to visit Tibet, and had hoped to be able to get there, but alas, permits are required and are not currently being issued to British citizens (my bearded boyfriend). I was a little disappointed, but after doing some research on the wonderful site The Land of Snows, I learned that we didn’t have to visit the Tibet Autonomous Region to experience Tibetan culture. And… more
Lazy as a Panda in Chengdu
| August 1, 2012 | Filed under China |
The 16 hour train journey from Xi’an to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, was relatively comfortable since we managed to procure “soft sleeper” beds for the journey. Despite the fact that we left at 6am and arrived at 10pm, we slept through a lot of the day. Panda in Chengdu Not that you would have known it, because the following day I was exhausted! I couldn’t really understand why, after all the sleep I’d had (maybe it was a case of too much?), I spent… more
Beauty And Chaos: Discovering Xi’an China
| July 27, 2012 | Filed under China |
I didn’t know what to expect from China’s ancient imperial capital, Xi’an (pronounced She – an), except for the famous terracotta warriors. Even then, I had no idea how they would be exhibited, or whether or not they would blow my mind. They did, in a ‘oh-my-god-they-went-to-so-much-trouble-to-bury-their-dead-emporer’ kind of way. Discovering Xi’an It was a similar feeling to visiting the Pyramids and The Valley of the Kings in Egypt, with the addition of a few thousand Chinese tourists. That’s the… more
Good Times On The Great Wall
| July 21, 2012 | Filed under China |
On Thursday morning we awoke to the first smoggy day we’d experienced in Beijing. Shit. It was the day of our Great Wall hike, and we hadn’t banked on not being able to see it. Shit. Shit! We shouldn’t have been so cocky about the clear blue skies we had been having. I shouldn’t have prayed for a cooler day. It was a clear cooler day, God, you read my mind wrong!!!!! A bit dejected, we boarded the tour bus to ‘The Secret Wall’… more
Welcome To Beijing!
| July 17, 2012 | Filed under China |
I arrived in Beijing in the early hours of Saturday morning, excited to be visiting a completely new country, and even more so to be reunited with Tyrhone. It was like christmas! He greeted me at the gate and we chatted away for the whole taxi ride to the hotel and into the wee hours. After a month apart, communicating only via email, there was a lot to catch up on! more
