I gave my body a favor and lied down on my bed. That was the first time I comfortably stretched my body in the last 42 hours. It was a glorious moment and I just want to retire to dreamland, but it was not that easy, my mind is not cooperating, I was too excited to walk around and start my date with Beijing and I can’t keep my mind off the pre-conceived images in my head. So I procrastinated on sleeping, it was 3 in the afternoon and 3 …

With the RMB coins from heaven, I immediately dialed the Philippine Consulate Office. That’s when I realized that it was a Saturday and there was no office. I called a hostel instead and finally got someone who can speak English. What a relief! But her guess was as good as mine, that a tourist information center here is like most elected local government politicians: USELESS.
So I sat, lit a stick and tried drawing resolution from the nicotine rushing through my brain. Until I spotted a group of young policemen a …

I will be dedicating all my posts about my trip to China to the people I met on the road, people who helped me along the way, strangers who transformed my lonesome trip to a very meaningful journey.
I never tried doing lone backpacking before. It was three days before our flight to Shanghai when I found out that Monette ran short of time for her visa and I will definitely be flying out alone, I thought of canceling the trip.
Few hours before my scheduled flight, I was still contemplating of scrapping …