This is my second day in Bejing - what an amazing place and we have only scratched the surface. The city of Bejing is approx 190km by about 140km and houses 22 million people. Yesterday most of the tour group arrived at different times. Those that had arrived had our first experience using chopsticks. Most of us are determined to master them, although some of the chinese food is more difficult to pick up than others. Success today at lunch - I didn't have to use a fork at all, things are improving! Anyway this morning we went to Tiananmen Square. It is such an amazing place - it is so huge that the photo's don't do it justice. We took a walk around the square but fortunately we didn't line up to see Mao's Tomb ... read more

Today we had a day full of shopping (although I was thinking of shopping in China but that didn't stop the others). Shopping fever had struck. We explored every floor of MBK and nearly every shop. Bags were very very expensive here, although the new DSi was about $189 Australian and you could buy 100 games for about $44 dollars Australian. We then decided to venture out of the shopping centre at about 3 O'clock and went shopping at the discount jewellery store (ThaiLocal). They had some lovely stuff at great prices (times are hard hear in Bangkok and they were desperate to sell). I got a few silver pendants for a great price (and they don't take up too much room in the suitcase). We then decided to go to the night markets and grab ... read more

What can I say! Dodgy Brothers eat your heart out. We had by far the worst tour we have ever been on - Beware of Andaman Safari Far Far Away tours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Their slogan is 'You come We care'. Yeah right and pigs might fly too! I guess I had better fill you in... We got picked up at 7.45. We were quite excited as we were supposedly going to do some of the things that we really wanted to do. Our guide Nina greeted us and told us that we were the only three on the tour today (warning bells ringing yet????). Apparently she had a busy day yesterday with two mini bus loads of people! She then told us that we could spread out and have a sleep if we wanted as it was a ... read more

We had another lazy day to begin with - getting up, having breakfast... just taking it easy. We went down to our mate Roo and he organised a tuk tuk driver for us. He took us to the obligatory gem stores first and yes we bought some lovely stuff. I bought a lovely stirling silver necklace and at the pearl shop I found some black pearl earrings that I just had to have. We went touring to the temples which were just as amazing as I remember. We then went to the big budda. This is amazing and it is still under construction but it will be a fantastic place when it is all finished. The budda is on a hill overlooking phuket and you have an amazing view. The majority of the budda is being ... read more

We finally arrived in Phuket! The plane was late leaving Perth and we were left sitting on the plane waiting for 45 minutes before we even looked like leaving. Something about a hatch not closing propery (not used to the thai english/accent yet so it could have been anything!) . The service on Thai airways more than made up for it. We were like kids in a candy store watching all the movies that we hadn't seen yet and the airline food was surprisingly good. After being on the plane for so long we were glad to finally get off, find our ride and head to the hotel. The Patong Merlin is a lovely hotel... great pools, great location and the rooms aren't too bad. We are taking bets though on who will take a tumble ... read more