A common question would-be travellers pose in online chatrooms is: ‘Is Jaipur or Udaipur nicer to visit?”, with each destination typically getting half of the favourable votes. Jem and I are in despair at the comparison. Whilst Jaipur is much like being ensnared in Lucifer’s raging infernos having led an extremely sinful life, Udaipur is…

Parachuting into a filthy and chaotic Indian capital city with 4.5 million inhabitants sounded like a good idea at the time. Jaipur’s famed pink walls looked quite romantic, with its picturesque forts and palaces, as well as the novelty of visiting my favourite beer’s namesake. The city was painted its terracotta-pink shade in 1876 to…

It was not until we were queuing for our flight to Kalkuta that I realised how much I missed the carefree and banterous exchanges familiar in the UK. The Indians are a gregarious and expressive bunch who love a laugh. The vibe of the Indian territories is the Ying to the Chinese Yang; where there…

Just a quick update to let you guys know that we have cancelled our trip to the Philippines. We have been keeping a close eye on the natural disasters unfolding, with the 6.9 earthquake on October 10 which hit the east coast of central Filipino island Cebu, killing 74, and then Typhoon Kalmaegi, which killed…

Shanghai is a cosmopolitan whirlwind of extravagant high-end shopping malls, neon lights, raging counter-culture, and incessant hustle and bustle. The global finance and innovation hub could not be any further, culturally, from the repressive Orwellian regime of Beijing or the relatively unsurveilled lawless backwaters of Yangshuo. Shanghai is the third most populous city on the…

We arose to find some limp half-gnawed bananas on the table; our family suite is also hosting a mischief of mice who scurry around in the ceiling cavity in the twilight hours. Sharing our fruit with rodents is preferable to the hum the air-source heater on the roof, which, every 2 minutes and 38 seconds,…

Leaving the house in an exhausted grump wasn’t the best precursor to questing up a five-pitch climb at the top of our limit. To the unititiated, this means climbing five separate routes in sequence to the top of the mountain. I kept Jem up till 2 am doing a full starfish, and I arose at…

It seems apt that last week’s multipitch was called Penhouse Platforms. Due to our extended stay in Yangshou and desire to stay at this fabulous hostel, The Climbers’ Inn, we chose to upgrade to the last room available; the family suite on top of the building, complete with balcony and childrens’ room. A snip at…

The climbing in Yangshou has been a real treat. There is something for everyone here; overhanging roof thuggery, delicate crimpy wall climbing, huge multipitch adventures, and friendly single pitch scenes. The rock varies wildly from polished and highly-trafficked orange limestone to sharper and esoteric grey limestone – and everything in between. October and November are…

We woke up with serious climbing-related aches and pains, which were definitely nothing to do with middle age or rice wine. So, instead of cragging, we went on an adventure on our scooters to find out more about the geography of the area. Yangshuo’s extraordinary hills were made in much the same way as the…