Today was a slow start. Didn't even get out of bed till about two in the afternoon. Went for a walk around the area. I have to admit im loving all the attention I get just walking down the street. I can imagine in the future it will grate on me but for now its awesome. Spent quite a lot of time watching a game of Chinese chess played in the street. Its amazing to watch everyone interacting over what in England is a quiet game between two people. Here they yell, s...

I touched down in Xi'an at about 8.30 after about 23 hours flying with no sleep. I wont lie, all I wanted was to get to my hostel and go to sleep. Despite my conviction to only get busses so that I was able to challenge my Chinese language skills as often as possible I decided to get a taxi. This is my second major mistake. After successfully driving down my potential driver down from 200 yuan to 70 I was feeling pretty good but that quickly changed. Driving in ...

Leaving England was as you would expect, last min rush to pack and do all the little things that disorganised people like me always leave to the last min, small stuff like changing currency and checking to see if London's superb underground system (the oldest in the world don't ya know) was going to play ball and get me too terminal 4 or not. It did! Breaking bags and daylight robbery aside, the moments before I passed through security were as Hollywood and ...