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Note that the title of this post is untrue, Xi’An is actually really good aside from the terracotta warriors, I was worried there wouldn’t be enough to do for more than two days and it’s simply untrue. There are another 3 full day excursions I could have done as well – and I spent nearly [...]

After catching the night train from Shanghai I arrived into Xi’An – First I went to my favourite restuarant (McDonalds) for breakfast. After that I made my way down to the south gate to look for some accommodation. I found something right by the south wall which was good and cost ¥40/night. I found later [...]

On my final day (Monday) in Shanghai I first had to buy some new shoes. My “bargain” shoes from New Zealand which cost NZ$25 (£8) turned out to be not so great and they were still so wet in the morning that I had to borrow the orange plastic flip flops from my hostel to [...]

On my second last day in Shanghai I headed over to the gardens of Suzhou. I left on the 10.30am train after getting my Xi’An ticket and sitting around for the requisite amount of time. I got to go first class as well which was nice but unnecessary. It was my own fault though as [...]

I arrived into Shanghai on Thursday afternoon and then headed to my hostel on the metro where in the evening I settled into my hostel. I met up with a canadian and we went out to buy some (fake) designer fake leather belts – I needed a belt to hold up my trousers so I [...]

Note that £1=¥9.71, $1=¥6.84 On Thursday I relaxed in the morning in my private room – the first since Cambodia and the last for the rest of my trip before catching the train to Shanghai. For breakfast I had a “British breakfast which consisted of fried eggs and tomato and orange juice and tea which [...]

I woke up moderately late on my first (and only) day in Hangzhou. I had a fairly cold night as I didn’t figure out how to get the AC to heat my room but otherwise it was fine – after all the dorms it was nice to have a private room, though at ¥140 it [...]

I flew into Hangzhou, China tonight. The airport and the airport bus into town went very smoothly. The AirAsia flight was fine though a little boring as the entertainment was extra and I was too cheap to spend the £4 to get it. I have a few first impressions of the language to give. Firstly [...]

My next few days on Langkawi continued the pattern of lounging around and relaxing. I read some more books and headed to Underwater World an aquarium which started off not very good and got better. At RM22 (£4.50) for students the price was OK too. I also headed to a Reggae bar on the beach [...]

My friend Rupert has kindly uploaded a bunch more photos for me, which I’ve started to name, I’ll finish when I’m not in the most expensive internet cafe in Malaysia in the KLCC complex (it costs RM8, 1.60GBP for 1 hour!). I’ve named some of them as well