So, as we mentioned in the previous chapter, leaving Hong Kong was very tough for us. It has surpassed all expectations and has even overtaken Brugge as the best place we've visited on our trip so far. But as we already have our Vietnamese visa's it meant that there was a schedule to keep and therefore we needed to move on. In order to continue our trip across China towards Guilin we could only take a train from Shenzhen, which is the city directly above Ho...

As we write this blog you'll be glad to hear that since leaving Xi'an we've made a great deal of progress (although most of it unplanned) towards the south of China. We've miraculously overcome the completely underestimated Chinese New Year travel rush and along the way we've seen some amazing places, met loads of interesting people and experienced a little more of China, which has taken us by surprise in many ways. Anyway, more of that as we carry on the stories...

As we are having our weekly organisational day today, it seems like a good time to fill you all in on our escapades since leaving Mongolia and journeying through China over the past 7 or 8 days. We arrived at Ulaanbaatar Train Station in good time, however we think that the taxi driver may have fleeced us out of 1,000 Mongolian points, but seeing as though it was only 50p we let it go (By the way, our Swedish friends, Tim and Jens introduced us to the points sys...

Here goes potentially our last blog entry until we're safely over the Chinese border to Vietnam, due to the firewalls on the Chinese internet. We're unsure if Offexploring is on the black-list, but if so, be prepared for the next entry to be the length of the distance we've covered! We woke up on Wednesday morning feeling excited for the train journey ahead. As the train wasn't due to depart until 21:35 that night, we spent the day checking out some more Moscow ...

Unfortunately, this chapter will have to be rather brief, as it's the eve of our Trans-Siberian (Mongolian) journey and there's quite a lot to sort out. Also, there's a small French child hovering near the computer who keeps tutting rather loudly and four beers are chilling nicely in our dorm room for us. We've hung them from the window in order to benefit from nature's own fridge. After leaving Vaasa behind, we headed for another stint at Hannu and Reetta's pla...