Sent from 35,000 feet over Northern Russia!!!
The end is nigh, currently we are waiting for the Beijing to Toronto flight. If the internet is working on the plane, I’ll send my first airborne log! Was trip worth it? Absolutely! Did we go over the top with the business class flights, five star hotels and private guides? No, Maybe and No for this particular trip. I can always use the excuse that the trip was to celebrate our upcoming 40th wedding anniversary therefore we were entitled to go a little crazy. Conversely, we have both agreed that for long or ultra-long flights we will go business class if a reasonable fare can be found. Hainan Airlines had a very reasonable fare and excellent service, so that was the one for us. The hotels we finished up in, for the most part, blew us away and we probably could have dropped down a category or two and still been happy with the accommodation. For us, in a totally different culture where there is limited or no use of English, the tour guides were great. Looking at all the tour groups been shepherded around in groups of 20 or more just reinforced the fact that we had made the right decision (for us). This was also borne out when were on our own in Hong Kong, although the Hop-on-Hop-off wasn’t a bad solution.
The beginning of the trip turned out to be a little too hectic for us, and Beijing could have been extended for a day or two. Tibet was the same, although altitude also played a part in us getting tired there. From then on the tour went at a more relaxed and better pace, and we’re glad we did all the sights we did.
One thing that has to be mentioned is Chinese driving! On our first day in Beijing I had our life expectancy measure in minutes while we were in the car, there appeared to be no rules whatsoever, BUT on observing for a few days I believe the following is true. There are no driving rules in China, all Chinese know this and obey the non-existent rules! Basically you just need the confidence to do whatever you want to do, push into traffic, do a U turn in the middle of the road etc. Just do it and you (within reason) will be OK and accepted by other drivers, but hesitate and you are in deep trouble.
That’s it from the Far East for a few years, the next tentative trip will be next fall. The current plan is to go to South Africa and take a tour on the Shongololo Express railway. I won’t be doing a blog in January from the trailer as we will be more in “living in the trailer” mode rather than traveling and exploring.
There were probably a few more typos than normal in these blogs, I am using a netbook rather than my laptop and the keyboard is a little temperamental. Although I follow spellcheck suggestions, and try to proof read a number of mistakes slip through when I miss a letter and the result is a word that spellcheck likes!
I will also have to think about how to do future blogs, as I found they were taking more time to write than I wanted. This was due mainly to slow internet (as the blog has to be composed on line) and the time needed to compress, sort and upload pictures.
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