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Map of our trip as planned and as executed except for a more direct route from Hengshan to Longyan


Tangential Asia 2014 our latest 9 week travel blog to Bali, Vietnam, overland across China, to South Korea, Kyushu and Taiwan


Bali First Visit 2014

Into Northern Vietnam

Yunnan Overland: Yuanyang and Jianshui

Guizhou: Xijiang and Zhenyuan

Hunan: Hengshan and Nanyue

Fujian: Tianluokeng and Xiamen

Jiansu: Suzhou and Tongle

Xinchang and Shanghai

A Tortuous Crossing of South Korea

The Beauty and Senescence of Kyushu

Traversing Taiwan's Mountains in the Typhoon Season

Bali and Ubud again: Was this a Rest Stop?


Here is the story as it was laid out as we left: To fly to Bali at the end of May and then, after a four day rest stop, on to Hanoi via KL where we will head up to Sapa and the hill tribes. From there we cross by land to Yunnan to visit the Yuanyang rice terraces, mushroom villages, some of the local markets and the nearby old town Jianshui en route to Kunming. From Kunming we take a night train to Kaili to the local Miao hill towns. From there we go north to Zhuzhou and Hengshan mountain, before taking another overnight train to Fujian Nanjing close to where the Tulou roundhouses are. After Xiamen and its islands we head north to Suzhou where we will visit some of the old canal (water) towns, Tongli and Xinchang, departing from Shanghai for South Korea. We plan to then spend a week in each of Korea, Kyushu and Taiwan, traveling by rental car through the countryside, visiting national parks, old towns and temples, before heading back to Bali to recuperate for a few days.  Except for a slight change of route and time on the train link between Zhuzhou and Longyan where we traveled direct by K-class train rather than via a bullet to Guangzhou, we followed the plan as shown in the above map, returning at the end of July - nine weeks in all.