D5675, Shanghai South Railway Station to Hangzhou, 17.58 scheduled arrival time. This wasn’t a train that I was anticipating sitting on. A couple of weeks ago I booked a flight from Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur on Air Asia X. I never took too much notice of the airport as I figured I’d sort it out when I arrived in Shanghai.

Taklamakan Desert, Xinjiang, China – Images by Jamie McDonald
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Well, we were on the road to Rome, in Kashgar, a crucial silk road stop after and before the Taklamakan Desert.
The name of the desert in local folklore means Go in and you won’t come out, and the fierce heat and sandstorms could easily allow one to dissapear very quickly. We wanted to go for a ride into the desert by camel, so we contacted Ali at Uighur Tour and Travel Centre (mailto: silkroadguide@hotmail.com) …

Tiger Leaping Gorge, Yunnan, China – Images by Jamie McDonald
Chengdu Airport, Sichuan Province. Departing rather than arriving, which means I’ve had about a week off from the blog, which in turn means I’ve got rather a bit to catch up on!
We left Shangri-La under the guidance of one of Daisy’s (from Sean’s Cafe) friends who had a hostel in Haba village, under the snow capped Haba Snow Mountain. Our journey was quoted to be three hours, but after stopping for every person with a thumb out on the way (and …

To arrive in Shangri-La we very willingly left Lijiang at 1pm on a bus from the central bus station in the city. Despite the cost being 37 Yuan our smiling western faces could do nothing to obtain the 3 Yuan change from the 40 that we handed over. Alas, 4.5 hours in a bus for AUD$7.30 was nothing to complain about considering the 20 minute tram from Glenelg to Adelaide is $4.50.
Nervously handing our packs to the driver to strap them onto the roof I then quickly rushed  (Chinese Style) …

 
Dali was a great town. Given that the author of the old Lonely Planet that we refer to suggests that Lijiang is the must see tourist mecca, and is a better experience than Dali we were obviously keen to make it up to the road to see our new home for the next few days.
 
Lijiang isn’t much chop.

The beauty of this old town with its canals, stone bridges and cobble stones is apparent immediately, and the small shops selling ponchos, scarves, stone combs, and bars on the river give …

Dali, Yunnan – Images by Jamie McDonald
There are always the tourists who insist that they’re travellers because they go harder, go further, and poo-poo anyone who has a day off the trails. Then there will be the armchair-traveller who cannot fathom not checking out sites or new food stalls etc on a day because each hour away is precious.
I’m letting both down today. Into my third week away and I awoke to a pretty drizzly dark old morning in Dali, Yunnan, so the decision to walk to our favourite cafe …