I forgot to mention that in the first village we stayed at a small boy posed under a tree for a photo, but was pretty shy. In the second village (last night) there was another small boy who took great interest in us whistling and me making Donald Duck impressions. He then joined us after…

14th March 2008 Today is the first day of my three day trek. I was picked up at about 9:30 and joined the four Spaniards and five Danes in the truck taxi (a Toyota pickup with bench seats in the back and open for ventilation). Our first stop was at the Thai tourist police station…

15th March 2008 After a night of very broken sleep thanks to the hard bed and cockerells we were given breakfast of scrambled egg and toast, followed by pineapple! After that we set off on the four hour trek to the elephant centre. We stopped for breaks fairly frequently and then half way at a…

Despite the heat I slept really well last night, but did wake up early. I had breakfast at the hostel and then walked into Chiang Mai city. I got a hair cut and shampoo for 150 Baht and have gone from novice hippy to grade 4 skinhead – at least it’s cooler and less to…

I was up at quarter to five and got the hostel taxi to the airport. They use the same minibus as the tours and the driver looked more asleep than me. I found out later, when I bumped into the Brazilian couple (who, you guessed it, were on the Great Wall tour) at the airport…

After the non-stop sight seeing so far I decided to take it easy today. I had vegetable omelette and toast for breakfast – I didn’t make it up it was on the menu! I then got the subway up to the silk market to get a couple of cheap t-shirts and to see if I…

After the drinks last night I was up relatively late, had a shower and then nipped out with Suzan to grab something for breakfast. I got a pancake with egg from a roadside stall. We went back to the hostel to eat and get tea to go with it. The pancake tasted ok, but probably…

I was up early to grab some breakfast before heading off at 7:30am with nine others to go on the secret wall tour. It took us a couple of hours to get there, picking up our guide on the way. We walked up a track to the wall and then for a couple of hours…

Apart from the noise the journey last night was ok and it would definitely have been extravagant to have splashed out the extra 200 Yuan. However, for any longer journey I think the extra space and privacy of soft sleeper is worth paying for. We arrived in Beijing at just after 7am and I met…

Xi’an to Beijing was by sleeper taking approximately eleven hours. The attached sums up the journey nicely! 0.amr