China Day 15/16

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6th October

Our final day in China started with furious packing and discovering that we hadn’t enough space for all our many purchases. This resulted in a mad dash into Xi’an to try and find a small extra case. We pre-booked a taxi at reception to take us to the airport, and headed back into the centre. We chose the Hyatt “all you can eat” buffet, which turned out to be one of the nicest, and most plentiful lunches we had. We walked back to the hotel to catch our taxi, and were surprised to see that the mode of transport we were to be taken to the airport in resembled a Sooty van. At the first attempt, they were unable to fit us all in, and only by taking out the seats and re-arranging them were we able to fit all passengers and luggage. It was certainly cosy! We got to the airport in one piece, to await our flight to Shanghai and then onwards to Dubai.

7th October

Our Emirates flight landed early in the morning, and once again we struggled to find a taxi to fit us all in. When we arrived at the hotel, we were too early to check in, but we were offered coffee and then breakfast was served. We changed and headed out into the city to try and beat the heat, and visited the Spice Souk and the Gold Souk. Dad also developed a fascination for the fish market which we had to walk through. We returned to the hotel and later took a taxi to see the famous Burj Al Arab, and although we couldn’t get in, we walked along the beach and did have a drink in the Jumeriah Beach instead. In the evening we went to a shopping mall which was advertised as being an entertainment centre with bars. There were some themed bars, butut wasn’t very busy, but were in a great position to see the building work that is going all around Dubai. It was late at night, yet the vast crane was still working to build another skyscraper.The next day we caught a midday flight back to Manchester, before returning home for a well deserved rest.

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