Hi all, I am now back in the UK….I guess I owe you all an explanation of why I decided to cut short my trip and come home after only 6 weeks like some form of lightweight.The simple answer is that I am following my heart and decided to come back to the North East and start a new life with Faye.Whilst on holiday I was in touch with her on and off and it got to the point I had to make a decision.I know many of you will think I am mad cutting short such a bril...

Its been a while... I am currently in Laos. (I say I, as things have changed since the last update, more about this in a mo) Laos is amazing, there are as many people in the whole of Laos as there are in Bangkok. Its so chilled out and the people friendly. Any must rewind back to China first. I'll do the highlights as not to bore you all. We left Xian on the train to Chengdu. We went to the Panda reserve and saw a load of pandas suprisingly. Chengdu is just ano...

We arrived at Xi'an (pronounced shee-an) around 7am after sleeping on the train with our noses on the ceiling (at one point I thought I had fused with the light). Almost like magic a hostel rep started to talk to me so I told him to b***** off, then once I realised his hostel was the one we actually wanted, I had to do some groundwork. The hostel was perfect, located just by the 'Bell Tower' in the centre of Xi-an. It had loads of facilities including free p...

After leaving UB, we got back on the Trans-Mongolian train for the final leg to Beijing. Ant was asleep for most of the day sleeping off the night before. The scenery became more arid, dry and hot as we made our way through the Gobi desert. I read, played on my DS, woke Ant up a few times and listened to music. Later that night we came to the Mongolian - China border - again a mound of paperwork to fill out. I tried out my chinese phrases on the customs offi...

We arrived in Mongolia (Ulaanbaatar) early on the 1st April. We were confronted by taxi drivers and hostel reps trying to get our business. After getting in and out of several taxi's (without leaving the car park) we decided to go to the Golden Gobi Hostel after I persuaded James that the 5 star hotel was a bit extravigant. The taxi driver and hostel rep then got dragged out of the taxi by other taxi drivers who wanted our business and we were nearly kidnapped. I...