The Last Post.

Our rig in the Kimberley.

Not many people get to Steep Point!

As they say in the classics, "all good things must come to an end!" So it is with a tinge of sadness that I write the last post of John & Carolyn's Big Caravan Adventure. No bugles or fanfare, just one  short last post. To all of those that have followed our journey, a big thank you. I have enjoyed your feedback and hope you enjoyed our adventure. To those casual readers, I hope you found it informative and entertaining. As most already know, the journey has ended with our settling in Noosaville, Qld. We are very happy indeed, to call Noosaville home. It is almost 40 years since two young lovers holidayed at Noosaville and started a romance that never ends. We always said we would come back to Noosaville, and we did!! The caravan is stored nearby, and there is no doubt it will be calling us regularly!! In fact, as I write, it is appropriate that we are parked in Shellharbour Beachside Caravan Park, taking a short trip south for Christmas and New Year with family and friends.

Our new Noosaville address.

Noosaville, a relaxed lifestyle!

The 18th December marked 8 years since we pulled away from our home at Lilyfield, to embark on an adventure that had no planned itinerary and no time frame. Who said it wouldn't last!! We are so proud of ourselves, that we took a huge leap of faith, and undertook what so many wish for, and only a few turn into a reality. What an adventure it has been. So many great sights, so many new friends all over Australia, and so many memories, forever recorded here in our blog. Australia is a wonderful country full of amazing sights, and incredible people. We are blessed to have seen so much and met so many characters. Those eight years have seen a huge increase in nomadic travellers, throughout remote Australia. Who let the secret out!! Remote camps now crowded, caravan parks crammed and overflowing, tours booked out days ahead. Definitely time for a break!!

Mitchell Falls.

On the banks of the Pentecost River.

Everyone asks us what is our favourite place. We unequivocally reply, The Kimberley! You cannot adequately describe the Kimberley, you have to experience it. It is a vast and remote area, of incredible natural beauty. El Questro, The Gibb River Road, The Bungle Bungles, Mitchell Falls, The Pentecost River, the many amazing gorges, like Bell, Manning, Geicke and Windjana, Lake Argyle, and of course at the western end, Broome & Cable Beach, Cape Leveque, the giant tides and the unbelievable Horizontal Waterfalls. Just talking about it makes me want to hitch up and head there!!! We will certainly go back.

In the future, if we embark on short trips to interesting places we will start a holiday blog to share the dream again. Believe it or not, there are a few spots we missed! And of course, there are plenty of spots to revisit, and friends to catch up with. See you out there on the road!!

China - A Classic Tour

China has long been on our list of countries to visit. The fascinating culture and history, plus the mystery of the Far East have long tempted us, and 2018 was the year that our visit finally took place. It was back in June when we did the holiday, and I have now finally completed a blog post to record the events of this amazing holiday! We chose a 21 day tour operated by Wendy Wu Tours, and our friends Wayne & Debbie Ayers, who shared our fascination for China, came along with us on an incredible journey, shared with a great crew of fellow travellers.

In Tiananmen Square.

The Pagoda, A symbol of China.

We flew Qantas direct to Beijing, arriving late at night, and getting our first taste of how big everything is in China, firstly with a lengthy taxi to our arrival gate, followed by an equally lengthy walk through the enormous airport, to Immigration and Baggage Claim. Our private driver was waiting for us outside the baggage area, and whisked us away to our hotel, at high speed, much of the time in the breakdown lane!! Sitting in the suicide seat up front, I certainly wasn't nodding off!! 

Lily.

Our Guide.

Lily with the cormorants.

In the hotel foyer we met our guide for the next 21 days, the absolutely gorgeous Lily. Just 26 years old, she taught herself English in two years, by reading English magazines and books, and watching American TV shows!! Over the next 21 days everyone on the bus  would fall in love with this delightful young lady with the boundless energy. When we met her in the foyer it was almost midnight. She had a  hamper for each of us containing sandwiches, biscuits, chips, chocolate and water. She thought we might need a snack!! Every day Lily gave us some history lessons, and taught us some Chinese phrases, and we quickly learnt that Lily's interpretation of English was very literal, with no understanding of sarcasm or puns!! So many English words are similar, and we all fell about laughing as we

Contrasts of China.

heard about the Emperor who had many concubines and

Simple pleasures.

mattresses!!! When we met her she had a cold, which almost everyone on the tour caught, but no one cared. At one stage she took herself to hospital on the back of a motor bike to get treatment, the next night she was back at the hospital being treated for an allergic reaction to the medication prescribed. Not for one minute did she complain. We were "Lily's Family"and she was looking after us!! And boy did she look after us, arranging extra treats like delicious fresh fruit from vendors, and ensuring no one was taken advantage of at the "ruthless" street vendors!! Those with food allergies, like our Debbie who can't eat Pork, a Chinese staple!!, were always over catered for with extra food!! The amount of work the guide has to do is unbelievable. Every flight, every attraction, required ticketing and passports had to be checked. And on top of that, there were the little extra impromptu things she would just do. Each day on the bus she would detail the events to unfold, reading from a notebook she always carried, into which she had translated the tour notes from Chinese to English. At the end of every explanation she would exclaim "I like It!!", and this phrase would become the catch cry of the bus!

Our group.

The Group.

At our last stop, Shanghai.

Next morning we met the rest of the group. There would be 28 in total, 6 from the UK and Wales, and 22 from various parts of Australia. There were some great characters among them, and we fitted right in. The dissenters were quickly educated & brought into line, and the resultant group was fantastic!! There would be no room for big noters and know alls in this group!! After a couple of days we all settled into "our groups". Our "group" comprised the four of us, Welsh Graeme and his beloved Anne, Martin & Little Deb, Smokin Martin, the only smoker, & his wife Fran, who always had a flask of Scotch at the ready, plus Larrikin Dave, a three times divorced character who you could write a book about, travelling with his mate of many years, the quietly spoken Ian. Every group has a pain in the arse, and ours was a diminutive know all preacher from Tasmania, living proof of why religion is in decline! Larrikin Dave had him sorted in no time at all! Dave quickly dubbed him Mighty Mouse!!

Delicious dumplings.

The Food

Carving the Peking Duck.

All our meals were included. Breakfast was English style, lunch and dinner were Chinese food, featuring the local cuisines of the region we were in. The English breakfasts varied a lot from good, all the way down to awful, in some of the rural regions. Staff did not speak any English, making communication difficult. Our Debbie with her jar of vegemite proved a saviour on these days, and on one occasion when we stayed 2 nights at a particular hotel, Dave arrived in the dining room carrying knobs of ham and punnets of fruit he had found at a street vendor and convenience store!! Overall the food was pretty good, but it had a sameness about it most days, and on many a day, any free time would see group members buying satay sticks off street vendors, or ducking into a KFC or Maccas or Starbucks for something familiar!!! I can still hear Dave begging "can't we just go get a steak???"

Tiananmen Square 

The Sights.

Entrance to the Forbidden City.

Day 1 saw us visit Tiananmen Square, a massive concrete square and one of the largest in the world.  Tiananmen Square can hold over 1 million people!! It also houses the Monument to the The People's Heroes, which is Chairman Mao's final resting place. Each day, 80-100,000 people queue to file past Mao's grave. The format for our tour was a full time guide, Lily, aided by a series of local guides, experts for each region or destination we were visiting. Our Beijing local guide was Teddy, old enough to remember the Cultural Revolution as a boy, and thus able to speak with authority on the enormous progress that has been made over a relatively short

Debbie & Carol in the Forbidden City

time, as China emerged as an economic world super

Forbidden City.

power.  The Square is enormous, and the crowds of people are huge. Welcome to China where everything is huge and there is always crowding!! Walking across the square, we squeezed through the entrance into the Forbidden City, the centre of the Chinese Empire for 500 years covering the Ming & Qing Dynasties. What opens up in front of you when inside the walls, is breathtaking as to its size. Huge squares, huge buildings, giant pagodas and temples, all built primarily from wood and not a nail used!!! The complex covers 180 acres and comprises over 900 buildings.

Temple of Heaven.

Roses were in bloom.

We eventually passed though the Forbidden City to see the Temple of Heaven, built for the Ming Dynasty Emperors as a place of worship. It is amazing, and the pots full of roses in the surrounding area, made the scene and scent spectacular. That night we feasted on Peking Duck, which was delicious, and served with all the traditional pomp and ceremony. Following dinner we were off to an Acrobatic Show which showcased incredible agility and balancing skills, and climaxed with 7 motor cyclists racing around inside a large metal sphere!! After that day, we all slept very well!!

A foggy day at the Great Wall.

So many steps!

Day 2 saw us attack another of China's icons, The Great Wall. A bus ride of a couple of hours through the outskirts of Beijing, took us to the Juyongguan Pass to take a walk on a section of the Great Wall. Sadly it was quite foggy, so we did not get to see the wall disappearing over hill and dale, but you can't help but be in awe of the engineering that saw this built by hand over 700 years ago. It is huge and climbs up and over very steep terrain, and at its peak measured over 8,000 kilometres. Today, a little over 2,000kms remains preserved. The section we visited was a steep, and I mean steep, climb on steps that vary in size quite a lot. We spent a couple of

At the Jade museum.

hours here, with the fog slowly lifting, and left with a real

Temple of Heaven & Roses.

understanding of the magnitude of what we had seen. We lost one of our tour group here! The quirky Wendy, as we would continually discover over the length of the tour, had difficulty staying with the program!! We eventually found her, and moved on to a Jade Museum, where we of course were given shopping time!! After lunch we visited the Summer palace, another huge and beautiful garden and lake, complete with Marble Boat!! The way in which the Chinese embrace the peace and tranquility of gardens and water features is a lesson for all of us.

Night lights of Xian.

Lots of Bikes.

Day 3 we were off to Xian, a 2 hour flight from Beijing. Here our local guide was Brittany, a real live wire with excellent English. Xian is a walled city, the wall being built in the 14th century. Today it remains in the centre of a sprawling metropolis. Our city tour started immediately we arrived at the airport. The drive into the city passed row after row of high rise apartment buildings. This would become

The walls of Xian old city.

a common sight in all Chinese cities, and is the residential

Ancient art of calligraphy.

side of modern China. Every large city has a modern Metro rail network and thousands of buses, not to mention the millions of motor cycles and bicycles. The bicycle hire business is now huge in China. Individual ownership has been forsaken, replaced by the convenience of GPS tracking and cheap hire, when required. We saw millions of these brightly coloured bikes, and huge piles of trashed ones. The highlights today, were a visit to see the city wall, The Wild Goose Pagoda, The Little Wild Goose Pagoda, and at dinner, a feast of the local Shui Jiao steamed dumplings, which were excellent!! After dinner we took a walk downtown to view the fantastic light show, left over from Chinese New Year. Just incredible!!

Pit 1 of the Warriors.

Restored rows of Warriors.

Day 4 we were off to see another of China's iconic attractions, The Terracotta Warriors. The site is enormous, a 15 minute walk or 5 minute golf cart ride, from the car park to the gate. Inside the museum, there are 3 undercover pits that house the excavation work. Pit 1 is huge, the size of 2 or 3 football fields under a single span roof. It is a breathtaking site, staring down into the trenches at row after row of warriors. It was here that the warriors were found by a farmer quite recently. I did not know that the warriors when found, were all broken! What we see today is the painstaking work of hundreds of people, putting the jigsaw puzzles back together!! There are over 7,000

How they were found.

life size soldiers, horses and chariots constructed by the first

Restored horses.

Emperor of China, to protect him in the afterlife.The restoration work is ongoing, with Pits 2 and 3 quite small and only housing small numbers of warriors and artifacts. On the way back to town, we stopped at one of the city wall gatehouses, and climbed the wall to take in the sites. After dinner we were taken to a dancing and singing show, which just sounded like cats being strangled to me!! Chinese Opera is not my scene. However I did enjoy the "English" translations rolling up on the TV screens beside the show. "The Emperor lobbed her very much!!!" 15 Love????

In the Reed Flute Cave.

Our hotel becomes a waterfall!

Day 5 we boarded the plane to head south to the city of Guilin where we met our local guide Nick. We liked Guilin, set among the mountains on the banks of a river. It is a very popular spot for Chinese too, with many weddings taking place in the area renowned for its scenery. The major event today was a tour inside the Reed Flute Cave, which was interesting, with most of the chambers colourfully lit to show the limestone formations. Our hotel itself is a tourist attraction, as each night the back of the hotel which faces a large square, becomes a man made waterfall cascading from the roof to the moat below. Glad we closed our window!! The water flow is

Boys at the German Pub.

orchestrated with music and was spectacular. There was a big crowd to watch it all happen, and we spent quite a bit of time with locals who wanted to get their photos taken with us! This would become a regular thing on the holiday. We will adorn the mantelpiece of many a Chinese home for years to come! We finished the night in a German Pub that was full of young Chinese. There was live music and the girls got to have alcohol for the first time on tour!! At dinner and lunch the only beverage offered is beer!! Yay cocktails!! We had a great night, again getting photos taken with young energetic strangers!!

Cruising the Li River.

Incredible formations.

Day 6 we boarded the coach to head to our departure point for our Li (pronounced Lee) River cruise. We were really looking forward to this cruise, through what is regarded as some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. When we arrived at the departure point I was amazed at how many people and cruise boats were involved!! We found our boat and boarded. Lily had arranged a box lunch for everyone, and we found a table downstairs then headed upstairs to take in the scenery. It was a hot sunny day, and the scenery did not disappoint. The river winds its way through hundreds of huge limestone Karsts covered in lush vegetation. These mountain formations

Everyone got a lunch box!

On the 20Yuan note.

are so revered in China that the Li River is featured on the 20 Yuan note. There were so many cruise boats following like a daisy chain, and heaps of local little boats and rafts, ingeniously constructed from poly pipe, and powered by a car engine mounted on a long drive shaft, similar to the Thai long tail boats!! We sailed past many villages small and large watching the villagers go about their daily life. Water buffalo grazing and lazing in the river. It was a lovely day. Our

River life.

lunch box proved a hit too. We arrived in the small city of

Water buffalo grazing.

Yangshuo, and walked the gauntlet through the endless and ruthless market vendors. It was hot and noisy, in fact it was oppressive!! Reaching the street, our guide Nick offered us a golf cart taxi ride to our hotel at a fee, or a short walk through town. We opted for the short walk in the 36 degree heat. A little over an hour later we reached the hotel, grease balls!! That night after dinner, we wandered the streets of Yangshuo, which were alive and full of tourists. The girls shopped and the boys enjoyed the vibrant street life from the balcony of the German Pub. We liked Yangshuo, and would have enjoyed more time here.

Carol with the cormorant fisherman.

John's off fishing!

Day 7 was spent in the countryside around Yangshuo. Firstly we drove into the country and walked among the rice paddies and corn fields, before stopping at the home of a local farmer. The people were friendly and the old lady at the farmhouse was happy to show us her very basic home, complete with his and her coffins in the spare room!! Apparently this is a normal practice for aging people in China!! From there we headed back to the Li River to meet an old Cormorant Fisherman. This ancient practice is now almost extinct, but fascinating all the same. The fishermen train the cormorants, and attach a ring around their neck to stop them swallowing the catch!! We each had a turn to pose with the fisherman and his cormorants, in a beautiful spot on the bank of the Li River.

Kunming.

Serving up the soup.

Day 8 we flew on to China's Spring City, Kunming, renowned for its climate and close proximity to South East Asia. Our local guide was Liz. Vietnam is just a short train trip away. It is an impressive new city with so many raised expressways, that give the impression of driving in a concrete forest! The main attraction to visit was the South China Pearl Museum, where we learnt all about the pearl industry, and had plenty of shopping time. Debbie and Carol both made the most of this time!! Dinner that night featured the local delicacy, Across the Bridge Noodles. A rice noodle soup. Pretty underwhelming for me, but by this stage I was seriously in search of a good steak, in fact any steak!!!

In the Kunming Stone Forest.

Kunming Stone Forest.

Day 9 we travelled by bus to visit the Kunming Stone Forest. It was a fascinating place, almost too perfect not to assume human intervention! It was very peaceful and tranquil walking among the rock formations and waterways. The weather intervened, with a downpour soaking most of us! But it didn't dampen Lily's enthusiasm for dressing in the local colourful costume. At the gate, there were vendors selling lovely fresh fruit, and Lily made certain we sampled everything.

Lijiang Old Quarter.

Laneways & Canals in Lijiang.

Day 10 we were flying again. It has been amazing to see the huge modern airports that have been built to cater for the huge influx of air travellers in China. There are dozens of local domestic carriers, and we used a lot of them!! Our destination was Lijiang in Yunnan Province. It is beautiful. Our first destination with guide Cindy was the Old Quarter, a maze of canals and cobblestone streets. We were left for a couple of hours to explore, and found a great little rooftop garden bar looking down into the square beside a running canal. It really was a lovely scene. After dinner that night we were left to explore the town again, but as we all had the flu by now, opted for extra rest.

The Yangtze River,

The Tiger Leaping!

Day 11 it was back on the bus for a long drive to the fantastically named Tiger Leaping Gorge. Everything that ever happened and lots that didn't happen, is a legend or story in China. We climbed into the mountains and reached the Yangtze River. We followed the river for some time before reaching the Visitor Centre and about 100 tourist coaches! Always so many people!! The river rushes through a narrow gorge and it is a spectacular sight. The tiger is supposed to have jumped

The Gorge.

from one side to the other, using a huge boulder in the river as a

Posing with the bike riders.

stepping stone. There are wooden stairways and walkways taking tourists to various levels and viewing platforms. There are guys with sedan chairs offering to carry people up and down these steep stairways. I scared a few little wiry Chinamen to death as I approached!! Carol and I decided to walk up to the sign to take a selfie, but were swamped by a group of aged Chinese cyclists, who had just arrived, and wanted to be in the photos!! We happily obliged. On the way back we lunched at a dodgy place, where no one seemed over keen to eat!! Back in town we stopped at the Black Dragon Pool, a beautiful privately built garden, now public thanks to Mao. It was lovely walking around the gardens with its beautiful lake, Pagodas and bridges, all with the snow capped mountains in the background.

Baisha's Frescoes.

Jade Dragon Snow Mtn Park.

Day 12 we started just outside Lijiang at the old town of Baisha. This is home to one China's minority people, the Naxi. China treat its 6 minority peoples with great respect, honouring the different cultures. The Naxi dress and architecture is a bit more Tibetan like. Baisha is home to the some incredible frescoes that date back to the Ming Dynasty. The Naxi are also famous for their needle work, and we were treated to a factory tour where we witnessed some extraordinary pieces

Beautiful waterfalls.

that looked more like photographs than needlework!! After

Yaks.

lunch we travelled by bus to the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Spectacular scenery of snow covered  mountains, crystal clear streams and lakes, and lush green forests and meadows. We took a cable car up the mountain and did a walk around the mountain plateau, before descending to the Visitor Centre and the beautiful lakes where we saw our first and only Yaks. We reached an altitude of 3250 metres today, and I for one really noticed it, making sure I didn't over exert myself. This was a memorable day.

Ear Picker at work.

Chinese love to dress up & dance.

Day 13 we were gain airborne and headed for Chengdu, home to China's most famous resident, the Giant Panda. But our visit to the pandas would have to wait a day. Our guide was Kiki and our first stop was at the People's Park downtown. The park was packed. It is full of Tea Houses, where you can see the Ear Pickers at work. These guys walk around with a small surgical kit, and for a fee will clean out your ears and trim the ear hair!! I just couldn't bring myself to give it ago!! The

Tea is very important.

Chinese love to get outside and sing and dance. Line

Exercise is a big part of daily life.

dancing is popular and there are thousands of amateur dance companies. This park had a huge event happening, with a band and colourful costumes. I reckon the average age was 75!! In another part of the park was the famous Matchmaker's Corner, where parents come to seek suitable partners for their children. They put photos and stories on display. There are hundreds of them, both selling and seeking love!! That night, we went to a show titled the Face Changing Show. It was fantastic, watching these guys change face masks so quickly you could not see it happen!!

Always eating!

It's a tough life.

Day 14 was all about the Pandas. We parked in the car park of the Panda Conservation Centre along with another 1000 coaches, and walked into the Centre which covers some 165 acres. The Chinese are very protective of their pandas, and this centre is all about research to ensure the numbers are maintained and hopefully increased. There are 80+ pandas at the Centre, and thankfully we got to see a few. Being naturally timid and incredible lazy, they don't venture

out much. The crowds rushed from one enclosure to another as word

Cousin Red panda

of any sighting spread! Inside some of the climate controlled areas, we managed to see some of the younger ones playing and eating. We walked a lot of kilometres to see the pandas and we were not disappointed. We didn't see any babies, but apparently not many people do!! The group photo of this years 24 babies was a beauty!! After our Panda fix and lunch, we boarded a bigger bus, for a 4-5 hour drive to Chongqing, to start our Yangtze River Cruise. I had never heard of Chongqing, but if I remember the information correctly, it is the most populous city in China with more than 30 million people!! Twenty years ago the population was just over 1 million, but the government decided its strategic position should be exploited, so they moved the motor cycle industry here. Today it is a huge manufacturing centre!! After dinner at a riverside restaurant, where Lily had arranged birthday cakes to celebrate Smokin Martin's birthday, we boarded our cruise ship, the Victoria Jenna. With the river at a very low level, we had to descend about 150 stairs to reach the boat!!

Leaving Chongquing.

Smokin Martin's birthday.

Days 15 to 17 were our Yangtze River Cruise. In the days leading up to the cruise we had been offered upgrades in cabin, dining and beverages at a cost, and we and half our group, opted to take up the upgrades. We were so glad we did. The cabins were double the size, the dining was a la carte instead of buffet, and we smashed the happy hour free drinks and wine with dinner!!! The ship was a classy smaller version of an ocean cruise ship, seven stories high, and operated by an American cruise company. It was a lovely change of pace, and perfectly timed given the hectic pace we had been going at on land. The weather was not kind to us as we

Our dinner friends on board.

cruised down the river. It was drizzly and misty most of the

A misty trip downriver.

time, with very restricted visibility. Each day there was a shore excursion. We opted not to do the Shibaozhai Temple. We had seen enough pagodas, and besides we could see it from the ship!! On the second day we did do the Goddess stream, where we transferred onto cute little ferries to sail up a side gorge, called the Goddess Stream. Despite the rain, it was a lovely diversion. We enjoyed the

Side trip up the Goddess Stream.

Captain's Cocktail party where the Chinese Champers

Taking in the view.

flowed. It was quite good, but then we had been wine deprived for days! The final night dinner was a great night. We made the most of happy hour and the wine flowed over a slow dinner. The food was excellent on the cruise. Our Welshman, Graham, had been dying to burst into song! When an adjoining table started to do a bit of a singalong, Graeme disappeared, heading for the loo. He returned wearing his life jacket and burst into song, singing Tom Jones (of course!!) Delilah!! He serenaded the staff, the adjoining tables, and the lovely Lily. It was so funny!! It was a very late night in the bar that night!!

Entering the ship elevator.

The descent begins.

Day 18 started with Dizzy Wendy, arriving in the breakfast room, wrapped in a towel! The night before, we had all been requested to keep our clothes for the next day out, and put our suitcases outside the room for a 5.00am collection.. Wendy had forgotten to keep any slacks out!!  No one was surprised, especially her husband!! The poor luggage boys had to search through all the bags, which were already ashore, in the pouring rain, to locate her pants!! We had arrived at the Three Gorges Dam. This amazing engineering feat, is the largest water and hydro electric project the world has ever seen. A communist country doesn't have to deal with minority groups, so they just got on with it!!

One of many bridges.

The wall of the dam.

People were relocated and rehoused as well as compensated. Huge areas of land were flooded, but now flooding downstream in the rich farm lands, is non existent. On top of that, 38 turbines generate clean energy for a vast percentage of the population. There is a 5 stage lock system that allows huge barges to navigate the river, which is now a key transport corridor. We didn't use the lock system to move downstream. We used the world's largest ship elevator!! Our huge cruise ship sailed into a chamber where the doors were locked and our massive bathtub full of water and ship was lowered 85 metres to the river below, all in just 45 minutes! Incredible!! Once in the lower river we docked and did a coach tour of the dam site, taking long escalators to the various levels. This was a highlight for all of us. That afternoon we transferred by bus to Yichang, to await an afternoon flight to Shanghai. We enjoyed some free time in Yichang shopping and relaxing before going to the airport. 

Yu Gardens.

The silk museum.

Days 19 to 21 we were in Shanghai. Our local guide was Lily's best friend and her name escapes me!! This amazing city is the most modern in China and the most westernised. We have visited twice before. The history of Shanghai is incredible, and all along the famous Bund on the Huangpu river, we are reminded of how East met West in Shanghai. You can almost smell the opium!! Grand

Shanghai from Jinmao Tower.

old sandstone buildings that housed banks and stock exchanges

Along the Bund.

and wealthy trading companies, line the Bund, whilst across the river is a vast array of the most innovative skyscrapers in the modern world! The food in Shanghai is the closest to what we know in Australia, and I think the group was relieved to get some "real"Chinese. Our tour in Shanghai, included a walk along the Bund, which has been greatly revamped since our last visit in 2008. We also took a visit to Yu Gardens, which is a wonderful step back in time to the old Shanghai. It is a bustling area full of shops and restaurants and street vendors, and one of

The night skyline.

the cities top attractions which means super crowded. A

That's fast!!

visit to the Silk Museum was a unique experience, learning how this industry works from silk worm to finished product. The very large shop did very well, with many of us taking the opportunity to buy a light weight silk doona at a greatly reduced price!! There were a couple of side trips organised for us, which everyone did. A lift ride up the Jinmao Tower, not the tallest, but still a very tall building in Shanghai, offered amazing views on a day that was about as clear as it ever gets in Shanghai. From there we went out to the Maglev Train Station. This is the world's fastest train, reaching speeds of 430 km/h on the 34 kilometre trip to the International airport. We were there in 7 minutes!!! And the speed reached 431 km/h!! Quite exhilarating!! The night finished with a cruise on the Huangpu River. The light show on the buildings that line the river is world renowned, and in my opinion is better than Hong Kong due to being so close. It was the perfect end to the day.

Shopping around Yu Garden.

Peaceful Gardens in the city.

Our official tour ended in Shanghai. Our final bus ride back to the hotel was quite emotional. Lily got all teary thanking us all for treating her like our daughter or grand daughter, and saying she had never been so close to a tour group before. Our final dinner was also quite emotional, with Larrikin Dave making a wonderful speech to thank Lily for her amazing work as our guide. Dave is obviously used to making thank you speeches, and he spoke from the hearts of all of us on the tour. Mighty Mouse tried to crash the speech with his poor attempts at humour, but Dave quickly sat him down, advising him that "I also do eulogies,and would love to do yours!!!" Lily responded by saying that she was touched, to which the three times divorced Dave replied "I haven't been touched in years"!! And so ended the tour with lots of hugging and back slapping. 

Real Beer!!

Cocktails!

Wayne & Debbie and Carol & I added 3 days to our tour to unwind and see more of Shanghai. Wayne & Debbie did a local tour on one of the days while Carol & I took it easy, shopping locally. On the other days we jumped on the cheap and reliable Metro system to visit parts of town including the Copy Market and back around the shopping precinct of Yu Garden. We wandered along the shopping street of Nanjing Road, and each night we found our way to the French Concession, a modern new precinct with great restaurants and bars, most of them featuring Western Food!! We dined on pizza and pasta and enjoyed the cocktails and real beers on offer. It was a perfect way to unwind and recap on our fantastic holiday in China. Our last day was lazy, and ended with a late transfer to the airport for our overnight flight home.

We had loved our tour and really enjoyed the company of Debbie and Wayne. It was our first overseas holiday together but I am sure it won't be our last!!