Asian backpacker

7days to go 0

Planning

9 Dec, 2013

7 days to D-DAY

Time is flying! It’s been a while since my last post here. It’s my last week in cold Belgium before heading for the sun! Last Friday Dec, 6th was my very last working day! It ended in a very long day *_*I had a nice farewell drink with my colleageas around 5.30pm (office closes at 6pm) meaning that work was waiting to be finished. My boss gave a me a compass as farewell gift. You would think he meant something with this gift 😉 Don’t you worry Bob, I’ll know my way back to work after 6 months..I think 😀 Thanks...

My travel medical kit 1

Planning

9 Dec, 2013

My travel medical kit

Vaccines and Medications Most people go the ITG (Institute of Tropical Medicine) for informations regarding vaccines and medications. A few years ago, when I went to South America, I did the same. They are very professional and you get the shots on the spot. (TIP: bring something to read as waiting time can be quite long, 1-2 hours waiting time is no exeption) If you want to spend your time better, than just go to there website. Look up your destination and you’ll get a list of needed vaccines. Print it out, go to your regular doctor who will prescibe...

Strawberry shortcake 0

Asia / Hong Kong

28 Oct, 2013

Small selection of foods in Hong Kong

It’s not the first time I’m in Hong Kong, in fact I come to Hong Kong quite often and last time I already went out and did a bunch of adventure stuff. This time around, I didn’t do anything new really, but I did go out to eat a lot more often, albeit not the most adventurous foods but it’s still food! I had a personal food photographer this time so it wouldn’t look as pathetic if I was eating and taking pictures myself. 🙁 Some of the pictures were taken with a smartphone so it might not be the...

Charming hotel/tea house in outskirts of Yangshuo 0

Asia / China

26 Oct, 2013

Biking around the outskirts of Yangshuo and boatride to Yangdi

When you come to Yangshuo, they often recommend you to take the bike and bike around the outskirts and visit the villages and fields around the mountain areas. Since our hotel was already in the outskirts, we were kinda “halfway” already. We rented a pair of bikes and headed off towards one of the more popular sights, Yulong Bridge to get a nice view of the Yulong River Valley. We didn’t manage to get there since we left kinda late so if we did go to the Yulong bridge it would have been dark already on our way back. Since...

Downtown Yangshuo 0

Asia / China

25 Oct, 2013

Strolling around in the city of Yangshuo

In the morning we took the express bus from Guilin to Yangshuo, it took us roughly an hour and half, no stops in between. You could already see a lot of limestone rocks and karst peaks along the way to Yangshuo. It’s also possible to go from Guilin to Yangshuo by boat but that would take you a whole day. We opted to take a boat cruise instead once we were in Yangshuo. Yangshuo itself is a huge tourist city for both domestic and international tourists, that’s why I’ve booked us a room outside of the city, which was more...

Local specialty: Beer Fish 1

Asia / China

25 Oct, 2013

Food in Yangshuo

The most famous dish to try out in Yangshuo is without a doubt the beer fish. Tons of restaurants on the main street advertise it and prices are pretty much the same in all those places. We just randomly picked the cleanest one from outside and went on with our adventure to order Beer Fish. We looked at the menu and ordered a fish with no bones in with the help of our waiter (who didn’t speak English). On the side we ordered some Chinese cabbage since we wanted to be healthy as well. I’m not a big fine dining...

My first expenses 0

Planning

25 Oct, 2013

My first expenses

Tickets I decided to just buy a return ticket BRU-BKK/SHA-BRU. As I work at a travel agency (yep, I do :-)), I could get a serious discount if flying with KLM. As so I got my ticket for a bit less than €500, where the normal price would have been +/- €900. Travel Insurance You can’t go on a long trip without a good travel insurance. Through my work I bought the year insurance World Gold Protection with Allianz Global Assistance. But because such insurance only insures 3 consecutive months of travel abroad, and I was traveling for 6 months, I had...

Night time night markets and restaurants 0

Asia / China

24 Oct, 2013

Quick transit through Guilin: Street food goodies!

We arrived in Guilin a little past midnight so we had to take a taxi out to our hotel in the city center. It took us roughly 30-40 minutes and cost about 100RMB, not too bad to be honest. I did notice that at night it is fairly dangerous to drive fast on the highways. There are still people driving around on their electric scooters without their lights on and turning at big crossroads. People don’t exactly use their common sense here in traffic it seems…. Anyway, I picked a hotel right in the center close to where the action...

Water cube spa complex - lounge area 0

Asia / China

23 Oct, 2013

Shenzhen – Visiting a Chinese spa complex

The main reason why we stopped by Shenzhen for our last day was to get a spa treatment at one of the many places around the city. A lot of Hong Kong people come over the border and get pampered here. We looked up some on the internet and eventually picked Water Cube, which was about 5 minute walk from one of the border crossings. The place was FREAKING HUGE! About 4 floors all with massage rooms, big and small and private, there were lounge chairs in a big area for you to chill at and get other services. Services...

Sky lanterns during Mid Autumn Festival 0

Asia / China

23 Oct, 2013

A day of wandering around Shenzhen and Mid autumn festival

Soooooooo, as I said before, eventhough my 1 year gap trip is over, it doesn’t mean that I’m gonna stop traveling! This time I went back to Hong Kong for some administrative stuff and to visit my girlfriend. I took the opportunity to check out the South of China, more specifically: Yangshuo-Guilin-Shenzhen. To get to Guilin-Yangshuo I originally planned to go by overnight train from Shenzhen, but “luckily” there weren’t any tickets available anymore so we booked a plane ticket from Shenzhen to Guilin instead. My traveling partner was quite pleased to hear the change of plans… But in the...

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