Day Trip to Cambridge

Only 2 hours from London, Cambridge is a pleasant city, famous for its university, it is also a very green and clean city.
How to go there from London: from Victoria Station, the National Express leaves every hour, the ticket costs about £13 return, depending on the time, it can be cheaper. http://www.nationalexpress.com/home.aspx

What to do there:

• a rowboat cruise for 45 minutes, we paid £13 each (student price) with a student as a guide, there are cheaper tours, just walk along the riverside and you will find several or you can also just rent your own boat £18 (can fit til 5-6 people) but boating can be quite hard.
  
• walking around the historic city, many colleges to visit
• the art & craft market on weekends
• museums, botanic gardens
  

Traffic jams

My hometown, La Rochelle

History

La Rochelle has more than a thousand years of history. During the 10^th century, it was a fisherman city. From 1154 to 1224, the city was under English rule until Louis XIII recaptured it. Then in the 13^th century, the port of La Rochelle became the most important among French ports. In the 16^th century, La Rochelle became a free city, during this time its inhabitants were mostly Protestants. La Rochelle started to be seen as a threat for the unification policy ordered by Richelieu Cardinal. Soon, the royal army besieged the city for 13 months. It lead to a period of starvation until La Rochelle Mayor, Jean Guiton, chose to surrender rather than letting the Rochelois starving.

Tourism

La Rochelle, with its old port and its towers are very famous. St Nicolas Tower, Chaine Tower and Lanterne Tower have protected the gateway to the old port & city center for seven centuries. These towers were designed as residences and prisons.

La Rochelle has a rich architectural heritage, many pedestrian and arcade streets, you can also see half timbering houses. You can admire many houses built between the 15^th and 18^th century. Strolling from the old port to Place de Verdun, you will walk by the Clock Tower, the Law Courts, City Hall, the Stock Exchange and the Cathedral…

Several parks, markets, 3 beaches, 4 ports, Ré Island facing La Rochelle, it is perfect to discover it riding a bicycle. In summer, you can take the bus-vélo, a bus that carries bicycles from the city center to the island. All year long, you can do a cruise around Fort Boyard and Ile d’Aix.

• The aquarium, open 365 days/year http://www.aquarium-larochelle.com/
• Museums : Musée Maritime, Musée d’Orbigny Bernon, Musée Rochelais d’Histoire Protestante, Musée du Flacon à Parfum, Musée des Automates, Museum d’Histoire Naturelle, Musée des Modèles Réduits, Musée du Nouveau Monde, Musée des Beaux-Arts
• Water parks, Palmilud et le Centre Aquatique de Châtelaillon

More information about Tourism in La Rochelle here
INFORMATION FOR TRAVELLERS:

Transport :

From/To La Rochelle:

London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds, Southampton, Bristol, Birmingham, Glasgow, Dublin, Cork, Brussels, Oslo, Lyon et Nice.

From the airport:

Take the bus n°7, it goes to Place de Verdun, where you can take another bus. Price: 1,30€ (ticket is valid for 1 hour), 15minutes to the city center.

From/To the train station:

Located 10 minutes walk from the old port, you can also take buses n° 1, 10, 17 and 19.

Timetable of the buses here.

My top 5 favourite destinations in the world

Top 1: Angkor Wat
Where? Cambodia
When? January 2006
With who? Lukas and Monika
Anecdote: Remember the lost temples in the movie Tomb Raider (Lara Croft)? This is it, Angkor Wat, the 1000 years old temples where trees are growing on it. The most beautiful place in the world on my list.

Top 2: Perhentian Island
Where? Malaysia
When? September 2009
With who? Sarah, my colleague
Anecdote: Translucid blue sea, turtles, sharks, sun, a paradise on earth. But be aware, on this island there are some innoffensive pretty huge varans (till 1,5 meters long!)
Top 3: Rotorua
Where? New Zealand
When? April 2005
With who? Solange
Anecdote: The whole city of Rotorua smells like rotten eggs :) It's a geothermic site with geysers, bubbling mud...Amazing to see

Top 4: Guilin, Yangshuo
Where? China
When? July 2009
With who? Stephen, my colleague
Anecdote: Great scenery, you can do a tour on a small wooden boat (5 people max), less tourists if you go at 12pm (everybody goes there at 9am).
Top 5: Santorini Island
Where? Greece
When? May 2008
With who? Louise, my best friend
Anecdote: Santorini has a white, a red and a black beach.

Back to the origins

After one year spent in Asia, 2 internships, 1 in Malaysia, 1 in China, 6 countries travelled, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and China, I am now back home in France at my hometown La Rochelle. I will keep this blog updated for my next trips, as I can't live without travelling...

Weizhou island

From Beihai, i decided to go to Weizhou island, as it was not touristic (only mentioned on Lonely Planet). There are 2 kinds of ferries to go there, the speed ones (1,5 hour, 120 to 240 yuan for a seat) and the slow one (2,5/3 hours, 80 yuan). I took the slow one, it departed at 5pm from the International Wharf. As expected, only Chinese on board, it was funny, the sea was a bit agitated, so big waves were hitting the ferry, so it was pitching all way long. 10 minutes after the departure, 1/3rd of the passengers were hitted by seasickness. I guess they didn't think about the problem before! That's why so many locals on the island try to sell you medicines.

I was disappointed to see that we had to pay an expensive entrance fee for the island (I mostly went there for the beach so...) which is 90 yuan for adults and 50 for students, quite a lot of money, mosty because government decided a few years ago to class this island as a volcanic reserve. Ok, this is the only volcanic island in China, but I went in Greece in Santorini Island, didn't pay any fee and it was much more beautiful. I was quite disppointed because I booked a hostel there Piggybar Youth Hostel with a very nice overview and photos, which didn't mention the island entrance price and which actually was not as nice as the pictures. A night in dorm was only 35 yuan but it was a 0,5 cm mattress!! and sleeping in a prefab. Most of the bicycles you can rent were broken.

Fishermen

No comment about the translation

Then, the beach, dot not worth Thailand or even Beihai, because the locals throw their waste in the ocean! Ok at least the sea temperature was hot, and I got tanned, what I wanted!

Riding around the island was not very convenient, there were big up and downs road as many hills.

Surprising Beihai

Fresh seafood at the market

Beihai Old Street, a mix between Chinese and European style

Many hotels like this one in a castle shape on the road to the beach, so kitsch!

Beihai Silver Beach, hot water and white sand

Still in the Guangxi province, I went on my own to Beihai and couchsurfed at Grant's place (Stephen left to Chengdu). As going on holidays to the beach is quite recent for Chinese, they are so excited about the sea! The first week of paid holidays date back from 1992, then the 2nd one from 1999, only 10 years ago.
Beihai used to be a start point for the Silk Road and also part of the colonial Indochina (1858-1954), so there I've seen the former French consulate, now a hotel, and also the former UK consulate (now a school).
On the road, I once saw a farmer walking his goats on the tarmac roads of Beihai, and cows eating the grass near from the beach! Unexpected things happen in Beihai!
Bus from Nanning lasts 3 hours (50 yuan).

Magnificent Guilin

I went with my colleague and friend Stephen to South China for 10 days. We took the 22 hour train on 'hard seat!', the worst class on train but I never experienced yet sleeping on a hard seat.
Train was leaving at 17.01 and arriving at Guilin at 14.25 the next day. Ticket was so cheap 194 yuan (20€) for 1 631 km!
Once in Guilin, there is not much to do, just a few spots to visit, wandering in the city is quite pleasant (a few free parks with pagodas) but people actually want to go to YANGSHUO (about 1 hour South-East from Guilin). There are buses every 10 minutes from Guilin train station, even if you don't speak Chinese, there are touts (rabatteurs) everywhere and same price everywhere (15 yuan). Actually this is the express bus (with air con), there are also 'normal' buses going to Yangshuo from the Bus Station, but not worthy (too many stops and not sure about air con).

Here is a good map of Yangshuo surrounding http://www.chinahighlights.com/image/guilin/map/yangshuo-scenic-map.jpg

Here it is the famous landscape from Guilin: the Li river cruise. That was as I expected, MAGNIFICENT, quiet, clean.
We took a bus to Yangdi from Yangshuo (8 yuan/1,5 hour) then found a boat (there are many waiting for customers) that we shared with 3 Cantonese students. We paid 30 yuan each for a 2 hour cruise, what a bargain when you imagine most people book the tour organised by their hotel for 350-400 yuan/person!! And frankly, this is much better to do the cruise on a small boat (max 5 people) than on the big touristic & expensive boat. At the end of the cruise, there was the scenery of the Chinese 20 yuan banknote.
For going back to Xingping, there were buses (5,5 yuan, 45 min).
Yangshuo city is welcoming. It became very touristic (many clothes and souvenirs shops as well as may pizzerias!) though it is still a charming city.

the Cormorants (help you fishing)

Chinese acupuncture: the suction method in a small mountain village

Local minotities living not only from agriculture but also tourism

Then, we went to Longsheng, 2 hours drive from Guilin (17 yuan) on local bus that stopped nearly everywhere to try to have more people getting in. Once in Longsheng, we regretted not staying on a village like some locals offered us, Longsheng is so boring! Anyway, we've been to the LONGJI TERRACE RICEFIELDS and it was amazing. It took again a couple of hours driving on a minibus (minibuses leave every 1.30 hour from Longsheng, 8 yuan). As we arrive on the late afternoon, we were the only foreigners. Locals were offering us to stay the night at their home in one of the many villages settled in the middle of the ricefields. Too bad we already booked a hotel in Longsheng.

A map of Longji Terraces Ricefields on http://www.chinadiscover.net/china-tour/guilinguide/longsheng-map.htm

Guilin city