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Michelle and Israel
Hi, We are about to embark on a 3 month trip around the world...we leave in four weeks...AHHH! Can't wait to head off and see all the sights; just have to survive the stress of the pretrip organisation!Chelle and Izzy
Travel Blog Posts
October 1st 2007
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 some familiar faces...though it felt like I had just seen them both yesterday. Time plays funny tricks on your brain. Our most exciting moment was being reuinted with our little baby, Jaffa, who at first, ... read more
September 29th 2007
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 made the effort to get out of bed, and that was only to walk to the pharmacy and get some medicine. From what we glimpsed on our short walk, Shanghai seems like an amazing city ... read more
September 27th 2007
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 covered with thick smog, so it would have been even more breathtaking without the pollution. Many of the farmers produce tea on a large scale. There are three varieties, but green tea is definitely the ... read more
September 26th 2007
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 in China was only concentrated around the main cities, but the whole flight was over a sea of smoke. I could barely make out the mountains, fields and villages below through the thick haze. If ... read more
September 25th 2007
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 1970’s by a farmer who is now a very rich man! There are over 3000 warriors in the pits, and I’m sure there are many more that haven’t yet been discovered. The first pit held ... read more
September 24th 2007
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 earn your money. It can’t be easy lugging tourists around on shitty roads all day long, and the bikes are certainly not in prime condition. It was lovely riding along past the river, and through ... read more
September 23rd 2007
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 - right or left…we had decided to go left as it looked less crowded, but somehow took a wrong turn, which led to us trying to walk up a very steep section of wall, with hundreds ... read more
September 22nd 2007
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, we will have to see. The tour in China will be broken into three stages with a different local guide in each stage. Our first stage in Beijing for three nights, and our tour guide ... read more
September 21st 2007
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 any of our later flights. This gave us a bit more time to make our connection to Beijing, and before we knew it, we were on our jumbo to China. The flight was only 8 ... read more
September 20th 2007
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 Beijiing!... read more
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