DMZ (The Demilitarized Zone) What is the DMZ The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is a strip of heavily land-mined strip of land (4km wide x 250km long), that separates North Korea from South Korea. It roughly follows the 38th parallel and includes both sides of the cease-fire line as it existed at the end of the […]
Taipei to Seoul We were excited to be heading to yet another new country. Thanks to a house sitting assignment in Incheon, we had the opportunity to arrive earlier so we could explore some of Sth Korea beforehand. We flew from Taipei to Seoul, another short trip (2.17 hrs) and we landed in Seoul at […]
Sun Moon Lake to Taipei We were back on the THSR (Taiwan High-Speed Railway) from Taichung through to Taipei. We were considering a visit and stay at the settlement of Alyshan which is over a 3-hour drive south of Sun Moon Lake (145km). The most direct access by mini-bus was closed because of slips. Apparently, […]
Our day trip to Taroko Gorge warrants a blog and video all of its own. Before I launch into a complete ‘photobomb session’, Taroko Gorge absolutely has to be on your ‘must visit’ list if you ever come to Taiwan. Where is Taroko Gorge? Travelling in a South/East direction, Hualien (the nearest city to Taroko Gorge) […]
We had to make the decision on where we wanted to head to next. We were at the bottom of Taiwan so we could go in either direction. Rail transport circumnavigates the island so we started to investigate what there was to see as opposed to how much time we had. Sun Moon Lake won […]
Arrival Day in Kaohsiung We only had a one hour flight from Hong Kong to the city of Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan. At only $384nz for both of us, it was a cheap option for our next country to visit. Taiwan wasn’t even on our radar to visit but as it was so close, seemed the […]
China to Hong Kong It was a minor miracle that our taxi turned up at 6.30am to take us to the airport in Xiamen, China for our flight to Hong Kong. Our host made two phone calls to the taxi, one Chinese argument later and our ride arrived. We could not have done it without […]
A Day Trip to Macau Island After the cluster of disasters with our attempt to get to an island in China without prior bookings, we didn’t want to make the same mistake getting to the island of Macau (also spelled Macao). We only had one chance to get there so we wanted to make sure […]
Arriving in Xiamen Our flight from Guilin to Xiamen took us around 55 minutes and cost us 1200CYN/$260NZ for both of us. There are certainly other ways that could be cheaper but our time in China was running out. Our 1-month visa was nearly expired and we weren’t keen on overstaying our welcome in China. […]
So Where is Guilin? Guilin is a really scenic city and therefore one of the best-known tourist destinations in China. There are many scenic spots within short travelling distances from the city of Guilin. It is only about 500km northwest of Hong Kong. It is famous for the scene which is printed on the back […]