I remember the first time I heard of the Ice Cap (also called the South Patagonian Ice Field or the Continental Ice Cap), many years ago now as I was just getting into the mountain scene. I was flicking through a Macpac outdoor gear catalog from NZ and they had a full double-page photo of their, Read More
What can I say, I loooooooove this city!!! I’ve been here for a few weeks now and am really getting into it. I arrived after a hellishly long trip across the Pacific. I first had an 18 hours stopover in Auckland overnight which sucked (ever wondered who “that guy” is sleeping on the lounge, Read More
I’ve always seen the UNESCO World Heritage tag as a good indicator of something worth seeing, like a sort of validation that it’s worth the price of admission. So here’s the complete list from the UNESCO website sorted by country, taken from their site http://whc.unesco.org/en/list. Afghanistan Minaret and Archaeological Remains of Jam (2002) Cultural Landscape, Read More
G’day again, and welcome back listeners. I’m in Australia for a couple of weeks right now and it’s fantastic to be home again. I definitely feel like it’s been a great chance to recharge my batteries. While backpacking the Silk Road was a unique and incredible experience, I definitely ran out of steam by, Read More
I hadn’t thought about it before, but Hong Kong is a fitting place to finish my Silk Road trip. The trip began in Istanbul, that great city where “east meets west”. Hong Kong, as a city where “west meets east”, neatly bookends the trip (while not having a think to do with the Silk, Read More
My last full day in China and one final stop along the Silk Road: some more Buddhist caves at Shuilian Dong! Shuilian Dong, or the Water Curtain Caves (I like the Chinese name better), are about 20km outside the small town of Luomen. I traveled from Tianshui yesterday afternoon through some beautiful countryside to, Read More
Nothing much to report today. I had a look at a “famous” Taoist Temple in the city today, but didn’t think it was anything spesh. I’m off to my last destination, Luomen, this afternoon, and have time to kill until then so I’m chilling in this internet cafe with about a thousand chain-smoking Chinese, Read More
I was disappointed to leave Xiahe, but also excited at the realization that I only have a handful of days left before it’s all over. I fly out from Lanzhou on the 15th for Hong Kong, where I’m going to chill (and stock up on yummy yum cha/dim sum) before I fly back to, Read More
After the deserts around Dunhuang I was keen for a change of scene, and jumped on board a 14-hour night train to Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province. It was an uneventful train ride along the Hexi Corridor, a famous strip of land wedged between the mountains of Qinghai and Tibet and the deserts, Read More
The town of Dunhuang turned out to be a pleasant little place, without much of a built-up town centre and thankfully without the massive, wide and soul-less streets that have greeted me at every town I’ve visited in China thus far. I’d heard from a few travelers about some massive sand dunes on the, Read More