Fermax

Today is the final day of my 3-week trip to China. I occasionally see something that reminds me of an event earlier in the trip (such as discovering my bike pedals in my bag) and I find it amazing that I'm still on the same trip. And I have 1200 photos to prove it! After packing my bags (more about that later) and checking out of the hotel, I thought I'd head to Pudong on the eastern side of the river. That's where all the large office buildings congregate, including the big bottle opener. As I was walking to the subway, someone asked me to take a picture for them. It was a local Shanghai guy with his cousin visiting from Beijing. We had a chat about various things and the cousin admitted that Shanghai is ... read more

I quite like Shanghai. I've only been here a half day but I think I like the 'feel' of this city more than others on my trip. Cars actually stop at traffic lights (except for those turning right, which ignore both lights and pedestrians); it has a nice-looking harbour featuring interesting buildings, with enough bright lights to rival Hong Kong; it has an extensive subway system (but some really mis-aligned changeover points); and there's more foreigners here than any city I've visited. But most of all, it's probably the fact that I now have the freedom to do what I want rather than being on an organised tour. Just yesterday I was contemplating cutting my holiday early and heading home. It had become too much of a slog rather than a holiday. It reminded me of ... read more

An early start this morning to head to the Great Wall. While we were originally scheduled to go to the Huang Ya Guan section that is 3 hours away, it was changed to the Mutianyu section, only 90 minutes away. The drive out was fairly monotonous, with no information from Our guide for the day, Cecelia. Once we arrived, Cecelia purchased our tickets, handed them to us and said "You go up this way. See you again in four hours!" Lyle and I were both shocked that our tour guide was not going to be our 'tour guide'. Nonetheless, we headed up the slope, with innumerable steps up to the Wall. Less physical people can opt to take a cable car or chair lift. The Wall was fantastic and exactly what I had expected. It was ... read more

Day 14 This was a changeover day from the 2-week cycling portion to the remaining 1-week touring portion. We used our last hours in Yangshuo for some final activities. Some people had massages at Dr Lily ("as seen in Lonely Planet") while I looked at local shops and parks. We farewelled Birgit, who is flying out at night, and we were driven 2 hours to Guilin Airport. Our tour guide pointed Lyle and me to the airport, said "Look for the JD flight" and said goodbye. Thankfully, we found the Capital Airlines flight going to Xi'an and they had our booking. We also said goodbye to Graham and Jane, who are flying back to Australia. In Xi'an, we were met by our new tour guide, George, and driver, Mr Jai. One thing I must say about ... read more

Distance: 30km People who enjoy travelling typically also enjoy immersing themselves in the local culture. This tour group was no different - we have enjoyed sampling the local food and we much prefer ambling through narrow streets with authentic shops rather than visiting large shopping centres. Thus, breakfast became a point of interest. Here at the Li River Hotel, the restaurant serves two types of breakfast. To the Chinese visitors it serves congee, noodles, steamed buns and eggs. To Western visitors it serves fried egg, bacon, tomato and toast with marmalade. Our group didn't like this distinction, so this morning Lyle, Jane and Birgit decided to change the standard by ordering Chinese. It was a fun experience for them, but I suspect that tomorrow they'll be ordering the eggs! Today was our final day of riding. ... read more