Tag: Backpacking

Travel Planning, Blogging, and Life Post-China

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I love planning. I love lists, researching and organising, and I love the implementing of said plan. However, with travelling, I’ve come to realise that planning only gets you so far, and then you just have to go with the flow. Mitch and I planned to go to Vietnam together two years ago, but unexpected eye surgery got in the way of that. When we travel, we have vague plans, and that’s what I like. We finish our teaching jobs here in China at the end of June. Naturally, we have begun to talk about our plan for afterwards. We’ll …

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Liebster Award: Bristolian Backpacker

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It’s been about 3 months since I made a domain name for my Bristolian Backpacker blog. So I am excited to say that I have been nominated for a Liebster Award by What Way Today – thanks guys! How does it work? Well, the Liebster award is for newer or less high profile blogs to gain some recognition for their hard work and awesome content. Once you’ve accpeted the award, you then answer 11 questions from the blog who nominated you. Find 11 more people to give the award to, and give them 11 questions. Awesome right? So here are …

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Visiting Guangzhou: What to see and do

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This year, there were many pictures on the internet of Guangzhou during Chinese New Year. As a major transport hub for China, the city was overrun with people trying to get home as a number of trains and planes were delayed due to snow and general bad weather. Luckily, we arrived in Guangzhou after spending Chinese New Year in Hong Kong. The city was much quieter and, thankfully, we had no transport issues. So, what did we do in Guangzhou? The Cathedral of the Sacred Heart Stepping into this courtyard is like stepping into a European city. Apart from all the …

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The challenges and joys of teaching drama in China

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When applying for teaching jobs in China, the most relevant experience I had was as a youth theatre drama teacher. Due to this background, the teaching agency I ended up working for in China placed me at an arts school, and the job offer I was given was English and drama. Fine by me. I love drama and think it can be used in many ways to teach English. When I arrived at the school, I was told that I would teach drama club every Friday for an hour. Great. However, it wasn’t until I started that I found out …

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Hong Kong Highlights

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Hong Kong is a busy, dizzying city. We stayed in Kowloon, which was both crazy and brilliant. Coming from mainland China, one of the first differences we noticed is how expensive the city is. You realise this when you are forced to pay £20 for the smallest room possible in a hostel (and if you’re lucky you’ll get a window!). Aside from that, alcohol is expensive in bars and you may need to wander a bit to find some cheap eats. Getting around is fairly cheap if you get yourself an Octopus card, and a lot of the things to see …

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Tranquiltiy and Adventure in Xingping

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If you’ve ever had a 20 RMB note, you’ll have seen the gorgeous karst mountains and the Li river that roams in the South West of China. The location on the note is in a small village called Xingping. On most days, the small village is home to lots of tourists, taking lots of photos with their 20 RMB note and enjoying boat rides down the river, looking in awe at the surroundings. It really is a spectacular sight. However, my favourite part of Xingping wasn’t the place where we match up our note with the river and mountains. There are parts …

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