Beijing and -6
In the restaurant by 6am for breakfast (food choices were excellent) Our male tour operator collected us and we then collected 2 more passengers who hailed from Istanbul Turkey,very friendly couple and great to spend the day with. For the first time in an age I wore long trousers (jeans) simply because it was fffffffff……..freezing and so cold that lakes had frozen over ( we saw brave people actually walking over them !) First trip stop was at a Chinese Medicine University where we were treated to a great foot massage (naturally a fee was involved).A world renowned Doctor (according to him he treated non other than past Prime Minister Paul Keating!) worked on our health via feeling our wrist pulses and was fairly accurate in his opinions so much that Annie bought lots of herbal remedies! Lots of walking today and I,m still suffering the after effects !Continuing on we did a comprehensive tour of Beijing and amazed at the number of people around (apparantly Beijing has a population of around 25 million).After a lunch that included Peking Duck (very common food here) we travelled on to The Forbidden Citythe Temple of Heaven and The Summer Palace.In the parks people were enjoying themselves by dancing both modern and traditional and the favouriteChinese pastime Tai Chi .To the delight of the Chinese ladies I decided to ” avago” One particular Chinese gent went out of his way to have a photo taken with me ,naturally I obliged ! Facebook is banned in China (except for some reason in Hong Kong) It is very cole here (-6 early morning) the Palaces are manificent .We were taken for a look around a Pearl shop ( purely promtiobal for the tour guide to make a bit of extra money) and this was a complete waste of time. Thank for making the day to Nazli and her partner Nodi tour guide david and driver Mr Lee Pictures to follow
Beijing and onward Publishing wee bit awkward here
After a fairly good trip to Brisbane we caught the midnight flight to Singapore.On the flight Annie had one of her massive Migraines and at one point we considered cancelling the holiday because of the severity of the illness. I didnt escape eother I had the most horrible sniffles with a tissue stuffed up my nose for the latter part of the trip ,both our ailments settled down as we arrived ay Changi Airport Singapore.We caught the flight to Beijing with the flight attendants being fantastic.Immigration and passport were very quick (one of the best I have experienced on my travels) Lillian our escort greeted us at the Airport and she is a lovely young lady.the driving to the hotel was an experience I am unlikely to forget,drivers are almost suicidal,the air was thick with the infamous smog that is known world wide .We checked into the Novotel Hotel that gave us great service and after a quick cuppa we retired 6 pm
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red at 6pm
China and Asian Cruise and into 2014
Dec 15 th we are due to set off on our Asian Cruise including 4 days in Beijing China.Annie has started packing 2 months ago !! We then fly to Hong Kong (I love that place) to meet up with our ship The Volendam.The trip will see us onboard being (hopefully) well catered for over Christmas and New Year.Places we will visit are China/Vietnam/Cambodia/Thailand and the wonderful Singapore (where will stay for a few days afore heading home).2014 is already beginning to look very busy including meeting up with my eldest daughter in Brisbane .Suncoaster (of which we are members) visits .We are hosting a rally in Woodbridge for fellow Nomads in July (Queensland Coast near Bundaberg) and hopefully another tour around Australia in our motorhome mid year
Watch me play Didgeridoo
Geoffs Life After Work ! 