Category Archives: Travel

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On the Trail of J.G. Ballard and New Wave Art in Shanghai

The overnight train from Hong Kong to Shanghai was very comfortable and fast, a pretty standard sleeper train that goes at 160km/h with four person berth cabins, a toilet at the end of the corridor and an open plan sink … Continue reading

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Hong Kong

Hong Kong is familiar to most people as a nexus of capitalism and is often portrayed as the world’s busiest city, where individualism and the rule of the dollar note have always gone unquestioned. However, it is actually a much … Continue reading

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Menacing Hills and a Brush with Food Poisoning: if we can just make it to Hong Kong…

For the last few days of our stay in Yangshuo, we were transferred to the Mountain Retreat’s sister establishment, the Yangshuo Village Inn at Moon Hill (so called because of the mountain peak with a moon shaped hole which overlooks … Continue reading

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Among the Karst Peaks of Yangshuo, Guanxi Province

The moment we arrived at the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat, we knew we were somewhere special. We were dropped off by taxi on a deserted, wet mountain road which wound its way through immense karst peaks (irregular limestone formations) that dominated … Continue reading

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From the City to the Mountains by Train and Bus

When it came to navigating our way through China, we knew that we wanted to spend some time in the more rural countryside outside of the power and manicness of its cities. We were due to meet Alex’s parents in … Continue reading

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Into the mists of China we go…

The last train we caught in Vietnam left late in the evening. We hopped into the taxi arranged by our guesthouse and were soon rushed through the laneways of the Old Quarter, flanked by a stream of motorcycles and scooters … Continue reading

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