Just over 2 years ago now I wrote this post discussing the various reasons why I'd given up eating meat. The cruelty, the environmental impact etc etc. Now, anyone who has read the latest issue of The Idler will know the secret we had been keeping until it's publication... Andy and I have both eaten meat in the last year. Several times now in fact, and in no way by accident like we often did while we were away. No, indeed, this was fully intentional devouring of charred flesh. What has happened? Well a number of things really. Firstly we spent several months travelling around the UK WWOOFing with the intention of picking up hints and tips for gardening our way to self sufficiency at some undefined point in the future. Along these travels we saw animals kept in the respectful way they should be, children being brought up knowing exactly where their food came from, including the explicit gory details of the animals' execution (which, by the way, didn't seem to upset them in the slightest), we also thought a lot during that time about whether or not a strict vegetarian diet for the UK to feed itself was really possible. ...

If you want something a bit more than sight seeing and sunbathing from a trip then Karma Waters is definitely the place to be. The home page of the website opens with the statement, "At some point we understood and accepted that life is Karma and this is our place", from there follows an explanation of their "Busi-ness" (that activity that keeps you busy) model of Karma Investment, "Karma Investment is to consciously invest in improving your own life and that of all others (people, environment, animals, etc.) by consciously making the focus of all "investments" (time, energy, knowledge, etc.) to improve personal & collective karma" Regular readers may recall we came here on one of our first days and ended up in a conversation with the owner, Paul, which somehow convinced us Hoi An should be our home for the month. We've since been back many times and enjoyed inspirational conversations covering, as you can probably imagine, life, the universe and everything. Aside from the spiritual guidance we received here, another draw, if you need one, ...

We've left China, sob :-( After almost exactly a month there I'd really grown to love it. Before we got there I was a little worried. I didn't know what to expect. There is a lot going on in China, especially the politics/censorship etc that's not great to say the least (My blog stats were censored can you believe it! Obviously I'm dangerous...), but day to day at the level we were interacting with the place and the people, it was great. I suppose most people there are just getting on with living their lives and don't really get involved. It's difficult though. We spent some time working in an English school which gave us the opportunity to speak to young Chinese people and even in the short time we spent with them some really interesting issues were coming up. It would be great to spend more time there and really be able to see things from their perspective. The last couple of weeks in China were spent down in the south with a trip to Hong Kong and a couple of it's islands and then a week stay at the English school in Yangshuo. I have to say I think ...

I had drafted a post about how all the travelling was, in a subtle but effecting way, a lot more tiring than I was expecting. I'm sure anyone who's been away for a long time will know what I mean - never being quite sure what will happen in any given situation, being unable to communicate even very simple ideas to people blah blah blah. However since arriving in China we have been met by such a friendly reception all seems twinkly and nice so the post seemed completely inappropriate for now. As a bonus now we have moved a little further south it has warmed up somewhat too. It is now -1. Feels like t-shirt weather! So anyhow the depressing post has gone in the bin for now and instead here's an update on our shiny happy trip from last week, the end of Russia and the beginning of China. Our last stop in Russia was a couple of days in Irkutsk, including a day trip to Listvianka on Lake Baikal. The lake was amazingly beautiful. It is the largest fresh water lake in the world at around 400 miles in length, so looking across the lake was more ...

From Vilnius we caught an over night train to St Petersburg. Our apartment was on the main street running through town, Nevsky Prospect or Nnnyeeeevski Proooovspekt as it is announced much to our amusement on the Metro. Nnnyeeeevski Proooovspekt! We had a fairly quiet first day really. We went to pick up the tickets for the next stage of the journey from our friend John. However when we got there he realised he'd lost them. Oops. Two tickets to Moscow thrown out with the rubbish. Luckily he was able to get them re-issued although it sounds as though it was a complete nightmare. Russians seem to have a great fondness for bureocracy. The process involved many forms,lots of signatures, much confusion and of course a fine. Something he tells us you get used to after a short time of living in Russia. It seems that as well as the liking for official documentation that corruption and bribes are very much an accepted part of everyday life. 30 kph over the speed limit? 300 rubles = no problem. While we were over at John's we went to the supermarket, where we bought some of the amazing salads the seem to sell pretty much ...