SHANGHAI SURPRISE The surprise is that China is actually growing on us. We have now met some nice people who are actually prepared to speak to us. We have also adopted a new tactic in the food stakes and now have a daily stop at Starbucks in hope of picking up some free cheesecake samples with our cuppa. We also found a Wal-Mart in Xian so we now have some instant soups which don't require a microwave. The train journey here was a long one and when we arrived w...

FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD Our sleeper train to Xian was great. The trains are fitted out with individual TV's on each bunk, there are flasks of hot water and slippers. Even better was the fact that the two other passengers due to be in our cabin didn't turn up so we had the whole cabin to ourselves! The weather in China is appalling at the moment; it's very cold, wet and smoggy. Some days it has been so bad that it barely gets light. It's a bit like being trapped in...

LOST IN TRANSLATION The journey from Kathmandu to Beijing was a bit of an adventure. The flight was via Lhasa and then involved a change of flight at Chengdu. We had amazing views of Everest from the plane before we stopped off at Lhasa. In Lhasa they took everyone off the plane and we spent an hour in the world's coldest airport filling out various forms to satisfy the Chinese love of bureaucracy. All our hand luggage had to be re-checked and the Chinese offici...

THE LAUGHING TAXI DRIVER Our trip from Dhulikhel to Pokhara was a nightmare. The route usually takes about 6-7 hours and the roads are mostly congested mountain passes. We hit a number of accidents and breakdown that added a few hours to the journey. The ordeal was added to by our drivers enthusiam for taking pot-holes, fords, speedbumps and bends at dangerously high speeds. The result was a ten hour, edge of your seat, rally. There were also some scary security...

BACK TO THE FUTURE We've travelled an hour out into the Kathmandu Valley to a beautiful mountain-top village called Dhulikhel. The main lure of the village is its views of the Himalayas beyond the local mountains. The views of the mountains alone are incredible which is just as well because the weather, altough lovely, is too hazy for most of the Himalayas to be seen. Still, we did get to see one snow-capped peak so not all is lost. We are staying in an amazin...