Well, we finally arrived home safe and sound (though still a bit sick) on the 1st of October. It was a strange feeling to board those first two planes - it hadn't sunk in that we were actually heading back to Oz...it didn't feel real. That changed once we landed in Brisy - and we felt like we had never been away. Thankfully the customs process went quickly, and we were able to make the domestic flight out of Brisy and back to Gladstone. Cath and Simone were waiting for us at the airport, and it was so great to see [View Full Entry]

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After making the effort to get up for breakfast, Iz and I soon realised we weren’t well enough to go traipsing around Shanghai. We decided on staying put for the day, as it was only a half day of touring, and boy did we make the right decision. The whole day, we lay in bed, with the shakes and shivers, suffering from the flu. I don’t remember Iz being so sick in a long time ( I had experienced this kind of flu earlier in the year) - so much for the Flu Shot. It wasn’t until 1:00pm that we finally [View Full Entry]

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It probably isn’t a good idea to be behind in our blogs, but at the moment I am trying to recall what we did 3 days ago - a hard task when you are feeling fluey - yes Iz and I have both come down with the dreaded wog in the last few days, and aren’t feeling the best…but here goes nothing! The 27th of September saw us partaking in a tea ceremony in a small village outside of the town. Hangzhou has definitely been my favourite city on this trip, because it is just so beautiful, but it is still [View Full Entry]

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The day kicked off before the cock crowed with a wakeup call at five in the morning. We had a plane to catch at 8:30 and had already had our bags collected last night at 10:30. Naturally Chelle and I set our own alarms twenty minutes later and rushed breaky just in time to catch the bus. The plane flight was about two hours and passed over central China. It was a bit of an eye opener to fly up over the layer of pollution and to finally see some clouds and blue sky again. I was hoping that the pollution [View Full Entry]

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XIAN I guess one of the things that really drew us to China was the thought of seeing the terracotta warriors, and today that dream would be realised. We were up by 7:00am, and on the bus by 8am with our group. They have been a fabulous bunch of people - all American bar one couple from Canada. It kinda feels like we are ending where we started out…in the States, where we had such a great time. So with everyone ready to go, it was off to an area that was once farmland. The warriors were only discovered in the [View Full Entry]

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As usual, we didn’t really know what we were up to today, until someone else let us in on the itinerary - I always forget to check mine, but manage to figure things out as we go along. Today, we were taking a Hutong Ride through Beijing’s streets, visiting a traditional Chinese family in their home, AND a cute kindergarten. The Hutong ride was mayhem - all our tour group (about 33 of us) on tricycles with seats. The riders are often poor farmers who have come to Beijing to make a living - and this is one hard way to [View Full Entry]

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Well, it ain’t called the Great Wall for nothing! Our tour bus left the big city behind to head out to one of China’s most recognisable icons - even from space! The Great Wall is only 1 hour’s drive from Beijing and is visited by millions of people every year. We didn’t get there too early, as that was when a lot of the Chinese crowds would be there…but it was still very crowded. What else do you expect in a country with more than 1 billion inhabitants? There are a couple of choices when you get to the wall - [View Full Entry]

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Today is the first day of our Chinese tour. After breakfast we met with our Chinese guide and the rest of the tour group. It was a surprise to find out that the tour group comprised of one couple from Canada, us from Australia and the rest from USA. On our European tour there was one Canadian couple, one American Couple and 80% of the rest Australians. The tour guide, Barbara, is a Chinese lady from Beijing. At first impressions she doesn’t appear to be a knowledgeable as our European tour guide, but I guess she has a lot less experience, [View Full Entry]

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20th - 21st September Just a quick blog to report that we arrived in China, safe and sound, and with ALL our luggage - hooray! The flights were great - we actually caught an earlier flight to Frankfurt, because we had stupidly not checked our tickets, and just assumed we were flying from Heathrow - WRONG. We were meant to fly out from London City Airport, but the people at Lufthansa were wonderful, and rather than send us back on the train for another 40 minutes (from where we had just come) they got us on the earlier connection, without cancelling [View Full Entry]

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Just to let all our travelbloggers know, we are off to China today...even though the blogs aren't up to date (still). We aren't sure if that will be possible on our last leg, as the tour is pretty full on, and goes for 9 days, but we will continue to write our blogs, and post them when we get home if we have to. Thanks for all your comments so far - we love hearing from everyone! It's sad to think that the trip is nearly at an end...what an amazing time we've had! For now though, we'll see you in [View Full Entry]

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