We weren’t in Beijing long before it became clear that there are two strata of vehicles in Beijing – probably reflecting the two economies, capitalist and communist. The Mercs and the Beemers were there, but what fascinated me were the transportation of the masses. Here are a few pics:
The woman beamed at me. And slipped her arm around my waist to give me a quick squeeze. She’d stood back to let me off the boat to the former Emperors’ Summer Palace first, and I’d attempted a ‘thankyou’ in her language. She seemed not only astonished by my gesture, but by my appearance. In … More Putting up walls: a sweet and sour taste of China life
Introduction Time of year: Mid-October 2016 Purpose of trip: This was a one night stopover during our round the world trip. We particularly wanted to experience a traditional ryokan whilst in Japan. Why we chose this place: Miyajima is an island with many Shinto and Buddhist temples and shrines, set amongst beautiful wooded hills. It was a place that we … More Review: Ryoso Kawaguchi, Miyajima, Japan
It was lunchtime on the Shinkansen between Tokyo and Hiroshima and the immaculately dressed food hostess was passing. I had heard that they sell bento boxes on the trains, so I asked the lady what was on offer. She handed me 4 cards, each with a different option. One consisted primarily of braised beef tongue, … More Bento: the art of the unusual food experience
This was my fourth trip to Hong Kong. In fact, I was here as recently as March 2015. The main reason for repeated visits is that my younger brother, Dan, lives here with his wife, Philippine, and two children – Zara and Louis. In many ways, it is an incongruous place. It’s very Chinese in … More Hong Kong: a personal guide to this vibrant city
Cue Earth, Wind and Fire. Start digging out the knee-high, brown suede boots. Think about ordering logs for the wood burner, and sourcing those warming, home made soup recipes.Those are the kind of things I’ve always thought about at this time of year. But I only realised the other day that, for the first time … More Another kind of autumn…
Digital nomad. I love that phrase. It evokes in me an image of a robot astride a camel … a T1000 Lawrence, if you will. But since Jane and I got into the travel blogging thing, we’ve seen the term again and again. It’s used to describe people whose means of earning an income does … More Nomadism in the 21st century
Now we’ve done all of our research and we know exactly where we are going to be and when, we thought we’d independently list the top 10 things we are looking forward to. It’ll be interesting to compare this to our view when the trip is finished. It’s impossible to rank these, really. There’s going … More Planning done. Now what’s our top ten?
Actually, the injections were fine. It was just the price list that made me flinch. I had no idea that some of them might be £200 per course. So–how do you find out whether you need any jabs before you travel–and what could it add to the cost of your trip? For me, the first stop was … More Travel jabs? Ouch !!
According to the UN, there are 206 countries listed in the world. 16 of these states are disputed by someone or other, so that leaves 190 ‘official’ countries. So how do you choose which places to visit when planning a round the world trip? Well, for us, it was relatively easy and this is how the logic … More It’s a big world out there …