We wake early. Most people would think that you would get to sleep in on holidays, but this is not the case when you are partnered with an energetic travel companion like I am. Tea is important, the black leaf variety, essential ritual for the start to the day. Guess what? English tea is very hard to procure in China. I am sitting in my room, looking at the view through my open window. Typing these words, I realise how lucky I am. The world really is a small place these days. We are catching a bus at 11.30 back to Guilin, than another to Yangshou. Pretty uneventful really, wrong bus caught to Guilin, than wrong ticket bought to Yangshou. Anyone who has travelled with me knows the story. It always has a happy ending. Yangshou ... read more

With tickets in hand and confidence at a high we catch a Taxi for Guangzhou Railway Station. The driver speaks a rudimentary form of English. He and Kathy merrily converse along the way as he weaves in and out of traffic like a hare in front of headlights. At the end neither was much the wiser but both seemed pleased with their success in Chinese and Australian diplomacy. Twenty Two Yuan for the Twenty minute ride. About Three Dollars Australian. The cheapest, cleanest and most efficient ride I have ever experienced in the world. We purchase some noodles out the front from the local vendors. Hot water is supplied in the carriages. We pass through the security with the other thousands of travellers. How any one is apprehended I don’t know, it is just a mass ... read more

Waiting at Sydney airport. Drinking of course the only way to handle night flying. Children are excited. That is all for now.... read more