The FIRST PART of the journey, from Milan to Bangkok, was brought to end, after ten months, with a surprise.
The SECOND PART – an adventure which I imagined for years, along the ancient Silk Road – started in Hong Kong.
Almost a month, to cross the old path in Yangshuo, explore the Tibetan regions of Sichuan and Qinghai and reach the mythical cities of Turpan and Kashgar … before passing into Kyrgyzstan.... Read More
Relying from a day-dream, I realized that my Chinese Visa was about to expire.
The passage for Laos was still hundreds of miles away, and so, on December 9th, I left again.
Always in Yunnan, but southwards.
First towards the blue shores of Dali Lake, then towards the first palm trees and Siam huts in the land border called Xishuangbanna.
My Chinese days had come to the end, and I still remember the sensations of those moments: a great desire to explore new countries, the tiredness of those two difficult months in Zhong Guo (ancient name for China) and a bag of joy and gratitude for all the experiences I had the fortune to live and which I had to list, before going out, in order to be able to believe that I had really lived them.... Read More
8 December, Shaxi (China) | Day 190 🇨🇳
I’m not used to write down the detailed history of my days (as I think it’s boring for me and for those who read me), but today I’ll make an exception.
What will follow may seem coming out of my fantasy, but nothing is invented.
A surreal day, between dreams and reality, which I’ll keep forever among my best memories.
Of this journey, and of my life.... Read More
After 40 days at the Yanghsuo Outside Inn, I felt it was time to move on.
I wanted to walk through new roads and explore some unknown regions; Southeast Asia was very close, but I decided to follow the call of a Chinese region I had so much heard about and which had been nourishing for years my hidden travel fantasies.
Yunnan, for a few weeks, would have been my new horizon.
My theater. My jubilation.... Read More
A town (Yangshuo), a calm river (Yulong), an enchanted valley and hundreds of mountains worthy of the best poems. And then Betty, Laure, Michelle, Xiaoping, the whole staff of a beautiful little Guesthouse and a friend named Ronald.
This, my Chinese “home” for over 40 days: Yangshuo Outside Inn.... Read More
A night train for a Tolkienian border-town named Zamyn Uud, an electronic cathedral in the middle of nowhere as a “gate”, a rusty truck to reach Erlian bus station, a whole night lying on the cot of a night bus to Beijing, loosing my sight on the contours of Inner Mongolia and trying to combine the dots of the stars, under the tender and reassuring look of my first Chinese moon.
This, the first impact with Great China.
Then a glimpse of Beijing and Guilin, and a slow ride between Guanxi‘s green mystic pinnacles.... Read More
