We’ve been a bit quiet on the journal since we got to Laos, but it is because we’ve been doing a whole lot o’ nothing: days relaxing/lazing at the hotel, reading book after book or watching (often bad) movies on HBO. In the afternoon or early evening, as the temperature dropped, we headed into town …

Relaxing at Le Leela Hotel in Vientiane, Laos, and it’s time for a long overdue update. Wifi here is fast! Probably because we’re the only guests. We’ve had a bit of an adventure in Laos so far, largely due to “travellers’ belly” that hit us in Jinghong, near the border on the Chinese side. I think …

So you’ve probably noticed it’s been rather quiet from us of late, and you may have guessed why: the lovely Chinese government decided to block this website with their beloved Great Firewall. They also blocked Facebook, Blogger, Flickr and a whole bunch of other sites at random. But we’re in Laos …

A soft-sleeper from Beijing brought us to Xi’an, a Shaanxi city which has expanded past its ancient walls with the same flurry of activity and industry that we saw in the north. Once the capital-city of the region, Xian is now most famous for the discovery of the Terracotta Warriors nearby. And …