Last Country - Laos!

For the final chapter of this trip I went south in China and crossed into Laos. This country is so laid back it's unbelievable. This is a country where the main transport is on the back of pickups and a big town has 30,000 people. A far cry from China! From the border I went to Lang Namtha for a two day trek and then a slow boat down the Mekong for a couple of days. After that it was kayaking, climbing, tubing and caving - adventure central!

Hyah - our guide for two days of jungle bashing.

Lunchtime...

The village we stayed at for the night. We camped in the chiefs house...

Skip-rope! Having fun in the village.

Crazy old trees.

Modes of transportation in Laos. Tuktuks and boats!

Travel buddy's - Yenta and Dan

Slow boat on the Mekong.

Cooking our own cuisine in Luang Prabang.

Another useful sign!

If one is up at 6am in Luang Prabang they will see some of the local monks in procession to collect food offerings from people set up on the side of the road.

Climbing near Veng Viang

Buddha statue in a cave near Veng Viang

I'm rich! 50,000 kip notes gallore.

Tubing team heads down the river near Veng Viang. I've never seen anything like this in my life! The idea is to float down the river in your tube stopping at party platforms which serve drinks and have giant swings and ziplines. A great day out!

Jumping off a giant swing on the tubing route.

Tubers get pulled in by swing/bar owners.

The final leg in Laos - kayaking to Vientiane.

Over to the Wild West

After checking out chilly Chengdu I flew down to the Chinese southwestern city of Lijiang. Famed for it's beautiful setting and amazing old town, I based myself there for a week, checking out the yawningly deep Tiger Leaping Gorge a couple of hours north of here.

Chengdu. Eight million people and growing faster than you can say 'Develop the West'.

Warming up on tea at a chilly Sichuan Opera performance.

The Sichuan Opera is a medley of shadow puppetry, slapstick and magic mask changing. And uniquely Chinese.

Fire breathing actors.

Off to see the cuddly pandas at the Chengdu Panda Research base. They say there is only about a thousand of them left in the world - most of them in the bamboo forests west of Chengdu.

Choosing veges for a fiery hotpot lunch!

The amazing Old Town of Lijiang.

With Shine, a Chinese girl I met in Lijiang and her friend Maymay's Grandmother. It was amazing to see four generations living under one roof!

With Grandma.

Yunnan countryside.

Day trip to Baishia, a rustic village filled with drying corn, maijong and papaya smoothies!

Tiger Leaping Gorge. The twenty km hike took a group of us a day and a half. These locals with horses followed behind us on the uphill to make easy prey of stragglers!

At the top!

The appropriately named hotel which we spent the night.

Gorge team poses at the hotel which Michael Palin describes as having the toilet with the best view in the world!

Climbing up from the bottom on a ricketing wooden ladder.

Mama Naxi's guesthouse. Every night at 6pm she cooks for everyone in the guesthouse. A massive delicious meal for about 80 pence!

Travelling North

After leaving the backpacker haven of Yangshuo, I travelled north using any mode of transportation I could find and using any method of communicating I could think of. The language barrier is massive here! Mostly I end up pointing wildly at the phrasebook and nodding blindly. The village areas were amazing however. I reached the Yangzi river at Yichang and took a 36 hour passenger boat up the river to Chongquing.

Dragonback Rice terraces. Really nice area in the Hunnan province but it almost felt built for Chinese tourists. These "Traditional girls" were not even part of the entrance fee!

Fantastic sunset up on the terraces.

Great advice.

Chengyang, another touristy "Minority Village". Beautiful place though.

The Wind and Rain bridge.

A real village person. Hurrah!

People doing Tai Chi underneath an enormous bridge.

The Three Gorges dam. Shame about the heavy pollution in air.

Heading up the Yangzi river

I had great company in my cabin. A dinosaur archaeologist and an English language student. I could blabber English to them the whole time. Great!

Hiking in Emei Shan - a Holy Buddist mountain 3100 m high. I met some German guys in the hostel and headed up with them for some hiking. We stayed in a monastery at 2000m and froze our butts off! Great views and funny monkeys everywhere.

Marcus with his share of the fourteen blankets we divided between the three of us!