vacation deals near me

“Where you from?”, the girl suddenly asks me. She must be about 15 and she and her friend can’t stop giggling every time they look at me. I’m on my way from the Great Wall of China to Beijing. The bus is packed and people are standing in the aisle. I’ve waited for almost 3 hours to get on it, because there were so many people and not enough busses. The space between seats is too short for my long European legs and my knees are starting to hurt. Trying to put at least one leg in the aisle, I accidentally kick her. I apologize, she smiles, and instantly pops the question, almost as if she’s been waiting for an excuse to talk to me. It seems like the most basic question ever, those 3 words simply asking where I come from. But it’s not. Not for her.   “From Belgium”, I say. Silence… Knowing Belgium fits about 300 times into China, I can’t blame her for not knowing it. “ It’s next to Germany.” Still ...

How to get from Hong Kong to Yangshuo: the stressful way. During my travels, I’ve encountered all kinds of adventures. Good ones but also… well let’s say ‘less good ones’… Now I’m the kind of girl that thinks any travel experience is a good experience – that is as long as you don’t get robbed, violated, injured or things like that, of course – so I decided not to choose the easy way out of Hong Kong in an attempt to save some money. Always a good reason, right? We were going to Yangshuo, at about 600km from Hong Kong and had different options to get there: take a plane from Hong Kong to Guilin (+- 1h30), followed by a bus or taxi from Guilin to Yangshuo (+- 1h30). Total price +- € 280 pp for our travel date take a bus from Hong Kong to Shenzhen (China) (+- 1h30, price +- € 10 pp), followed by a sleeper train from Shenzhen to Guilin (13h, prices from € 15 to € 40 depending on the train class) and a bus or taxi from Guilin to Yangshuo (price +- € 2 pp for the bus (no busses at ...