Grand Escapades
Travel Photography & Travel Experiences of Africa, South America, the Middle-East & Asia
“Cruises” on Li River, Yangshuo, China
What makes this area a prime tourist location are the amazing rock formations that are especially spectacular to watch from the Li or Yulong River. They are best described as a never ending cascade of pointed hills covered with lush green vegetation, often coming in bizarre shapes given names like Moon Hill, Nine Horse Fresco Hill… Continue Reading →
Macau lacks the glamour and sophistication of Hong Kong and looks like a lot poorer relative, but it has undergone similar dramatic changes. Now the centre sports lots of neatly renovated old colonial buildings and the whole place is buzzing with Chinese tourists from the mainland
Macau was our destination for the weekend and also our port of entry into Mainland China. The otherwise scenic one-hour crossing by hydrofoil from Hong Kong unfortunately was more like rushing through a tunnel of fog, the same kind of fog or smog that had blanketed Hong Kong throughout our entire stay. The “Chegada a Macau” is usually via ferry from Hong Kong. Already on the boat, less informed visitors are thrown into confusion by bilingual immigration forms in Cantonese and Portuguese. Continue Reading →
Gui Lin Train Station, Guilin, China
We decided to describe this first stretch of our trip in “China proper” in great detail, simply to show how easy it is to travel in an environment where communication is rather difficult. It took us about 23 hours to cover the approx. 750 kilometres between Macau and Yangshuo, but it was hardly tiring or boring. The public bus in Macau took us to the border at “Portas de Cerco” where we crossed into Mainland China together with zillions of gamblers who had spent the weekend in Macau. Despite the big crowd things moved smoothly. Continue Reading →
Arriving in Hong Kong was as much of a shock as a delight: after spending months on small Pacific Islands and in New Zealand with its sheer unlimited space, we were suddenly surrounded by skyscrapers, traffic jams and millions of people rushing around
“Have a nice flight” shouted the driver of the car rental shuttle after dropping us off at the international terminal of Auckland airport. Seconds later our eyes were scanning the huge board listing all departures, one flight was cancelled, flight Cathay Pacific CX 108 to Hong Kong, ours. Not good! Continue Reading →
Halong Bay, Vietnam
We traveled through Vietnam from July 18th to August 18th 2003. First we stayed a few days in Ho Chi Minh City at a friend’s place, visiting the city and discovering the Vietnamese cuisine, which we found extremely delicious. From Ho Chi Minh, we explored the famous and really spectacular Cu Chi Tunnels dug by the Vietcong during the American War as it is called in Vietnam.