2002-2005 (c) GetJealous.com, All rights reserved. http://www.getjealous.com/mazandtom/rss.xml This is TOM AND MAZ'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE blog. We will keep you posted on all our adventuring so you can all get SUPER jealous. Our basic stops are Peru, Chile, New Zealand, maybe Fiji, Sydney, Bali, then from Singapore to Hong Kong over-land (scary!!) where we fly home. We'll do the stops along the way on the map to get in all the individual cities. Hope you are all jealous!! http://www.getjealous.com/mazandtom http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2721781&go=mazandtom After 3 days and 2 nights of travelling we arrived in Guilin. The only thing we planned to do here was the Dragons Backbone Rice Terraces. We got all the info we needed about that (how to get there on the bus!) then promptly slept for a while!The next day we headed early to the terraces. Our bus dropped us in Ping'an and we were walking to the next big village, Dazhai. There were some scenic spots... http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2721781&go=mazandtom Sat, 4 Aug 2012 12:00:00 GMT http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2721778&go=mazandtom Beijing proved to be the most sight filled stop on the trip. First day, we arrived in the early morning, checked in then made straight for Tein'anmen Square. We were going to visit Mao as well, but he was closed for business so just headed back for a bit of a rest. That evening we had Peking duck (in Peking, as Beijing used to be called) which was delicious! It was basically the same as back home... http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2721778&go=mazandtom Sat, 28 Jul 2012 12:00:00 GMT http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2721734&go=mazandtom Our guide book said that history buffs could easily spend a week in Xi'an and we could easily have spent much longer but, alas, we had to limit our stay. We decided to tick off the biggest attraction in Xi'an first so we definitely didn't miss it: the Terracotta Warriors. There were plenty of tours going here with guided tour and all but we opted for the public transport route, as per usual, and i... http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2721734&go=mazandtom Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:00:00 GMT http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2719887&go=mazandtom After leaving Chengdu we headed for a highly recommended national park called Jiuzhaigou. Many travellers had told us of the beauty of this park so we decided to stop of and see it, dispite the price. It was right on the border with Tibet so we got to have a little taste of their culture and as it was so high up it was cold!! Although we didn't have the clothes for the cold we liked it after being... http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2719887&go=mazandtom Sat, 21 Jul 2012 12:00:00 GMT http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2719885&go=mazandtom After a 24 hour journey we arrived in Chengdu and were greeted with a lot of rain! It proceeded to chuck it down with rain the whole of our first two days in Chengdu. We decided to brave the rain however, and ventured to The Tomb of Wang Jian within hours of arriveing in the city. This was an interesting tomb as it is the only tomb found with carvings of an entire music troupe with a couple of dan... http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2719885&go=mazandtom Tue, 17 Jul 2012 12:00:00 GMT http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2719446&go=mazandtom Our very first stop in China was a lovely town called Lijiang. We didn't have much time to have a look around before we headed to Tiger Leaping Gorge, a gorge that was fabled to have had a tiger leap across it. Tom and I both agreed that it must have been one special tiger to make it as the river at the bottom of the gorge was very wide and the water was extremely fast moving. We enjoyed a lovely ... http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2719446&go=mazandtom Fri, 13 Jul 2012 12:00:00 GMT http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2719189&go=mazandtom Our last stop in Laos before heading into China was Luang Prabang. This was a lovely small town with a huge, souvenir filled night market. The best bit of the market was food alley, an alley of the side of the market that had several stalls of a variety of food where you pay 10,000kip (about 60p) for a plate and pile the food on. You're only allowed one trip so you have to really fill it. We went ... http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2719189&go=mazandtom Sat, 7 Jul 2012 12:00:00 GMT http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2719188&go=mazandtom There was only one sight we wanted to see in Phonsavah; the Plain of Jars. This was a field in the middle of nowhere full of giant stone jars. No one knows what they were for or who put them there. One had a lid on with a bit of an opening so Tom and I decided they were for fermenting rice wine, as one historian had suggested, and they had massive parties with straws coming out the jars! They were... http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2719188&go=mazandtom Fri, 6 Jul 2012 12:00:00 GMT http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2719185&go=mazandtom After a very bumpy and winding road we arrived in Vang Vieng, the capital of tubing in Laos. Before floating down the river in truck tyre inertubes we decided to visit some other local sights. On our first day in Vang Vieng we hired some bikes and ventured onto yet another bumpy road and cycled 7km to a cave in the hills with a 'blue lagoon' at it's base. When we arrived we were quite wet from a s... http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2719185&go=mazandtom Mon, 2 Jul 2012 12:00:00 GMT http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2716720&go=mazandtom Today we go the 22 hour bus trip to Vientiane in Loas. The border crossing took a while but was really easy and soon we were in our next country. Vientiane was a lovely change compared to the crowded streets of Hanoi. It is the capital city but is very small and you can walk pretty much everywhere and without having to worry about being run over by a motorbike or tuk tuk. The first thing we di... http://www.getjealous.com/blog.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=2716720&go=mazandtom Sat, 30 Jun 2012 12:00:00 GMT