A combination of the shift in schedule and our room not being available, meant that we got to the hotel and had time just to drop off the luggage before starting our afternoon visit to some of the most iconic sights in Beijing, with our precious english speaking leader. Lucy is going to be our guide for the duration of our time here in Beijing. She seemed to laugh a lot at my very ‘not funny’ jokes...not sure what to make of that :-).

As we didn’t have time to do anything with our luggage, I ended up carrying both my travel backpack with a change of clothes, documents, money etc and my camera bag with lenses etc... it was the longest, hottest and most humid 4 hours of my life! And it seemed to make the guide laugh even more as I quickly started to melt under the strain and the heat.

We visited Tianamen Square (huge!), the Forbidden City (amazing!) and Jingshan Park (hot!)...the latter required climbing 260 steps to a building overlooking the Forbidden City...on the way I must have sweated out another litre of water :-).

First impressions: indigenous population very rude and crude...

They would bump into you and wouldn’t even acknowledge the fact...would push you out of the way for photos, taxis, anything...not a word of sorrow...spitting etc are pretting common also (men and women).

We reached the pinnacle of crudeness at dinner: we let ourselves be directed to the nearest duck restaurant. I won’t even comment that no one, and I mean no one, speaks a word of english (we were in an upmarket restaurant in a mall next to the hotel), but to top it all they sat us down in a shared table (Wagamama style), right between two chinese families.Their table manners were beyond belief...the funny thing was that the restaurant was huge and the ONLY shared table was that one! Why us? ...would be the question to ask...if only we had taken the trouble to learn Mandarin!!!

Ordering was an interesting experience: one waitress brought a menu that looked like a volume from an encyclopedia. She then sent over a colleague to help us in english and who spoke no english at all :-). It took a while to understand if we had actually ordered any food but we did not go hungry...fear not!

After dinner, we took a short walk to look for bottled water but made our way back to the hotel pretty swiftly. I can’t even describe my level of tiredness at the end of this first day...The room is awesome...the hotel amazing! And the bed soft...

On the menu for the day: the great wall and the summer palace!

The ride out to the section of the wall we would be visiting took about an hour and a half (Mutianyu). We got there ahead of the crowds. Nothing prepares you for the majesty of this iconic sight. The original length of the wall is 6,000km but you just wonder how it was possible to build such a chunky structure on the mountains in an era of no trucks or cranes...every single rock taken up by thousands of men forced to work on the structure. And, let me tell you, even just walking along it, not an easy task! They didn’t take the trouble to flatten out the sections between the towers as they were building it! There is a lot of steep up and down walking...and again...sweating! :-) 

Daredevil stunt of the day: using the chinese chairlift to get to the wall! It looked a little rickety but it held up for our ride at least.

Mr Liu (our driver for the next couple of days) was waiting for us at the bottom to take us to the Summer Palace. We stopped just before for a quick lunch as the suggestion that we may skip lunch and go directly to dinner had sent us into a bit of a panic (well not panic but at least concern). Lucy took us to a dumpling place that works a little like a MacDonalds for dim sum. You pick your filling, you drink and before you know it you are gobbling down some of the nicest dumplings I have ever eaten. The one curious thing about the place was that they did not serve/sell water...only a choice of 6 juices.

We walked over to the Summer Palace entrance a few minutes away. It was very very crowded. As you walk through the first few courtyards you catch sight of a beautiful lake. There are drangon boats and all sorts of floating vessels taking tourists around. This palace and it’s grounds were used as a relaxing summer getaway by the Qianlong Emperor and they were was originally built as a gift for his mother. He came here to rest and took his empress and his top concubines only. This place is also closely tied with the Dragon Lady...a woman that makes Lucrezia Borgia look like a saint! She rose from nothingness to being the emperor’s favourite concubine and gave him a son (his first) that allowed her to rule the country in the background (the son was only 6 when he became emperor). If you want to know more, it’s worth a read...google her!

Our day would have normally ended here, but we had asked Super Lucy to take us to a train station to pick up the train tickets we would need in the days coming and to arrange for us to see some chinese acrobats!

Beijing South station must be at least twice the size of Terminal 5 at Heathrow! Huge. There is security to get in even if you are not getting on a train (x-ray etc). The station was absolutely packed! Luckily it didn’t take us long to have the tickets printed but we hit a snag when we tried to get out the same way we came in. In China you follow rules! So...there is a way in and a way out...and we had to walk all the way to the opposite side of the station despite our guide’s best efforts to convince the security people otherwise.

...so the acrobats! We turned up to the theatre well ahead of time because although you book a certain class of tickets, the seats are not numbered...so the sooner you get there the better! We had a surreal experience. First of all a chap got on stage and talked (in chinese) for about 20 minutes about calligraphy (we only found that out later due to our ignorance in mandarin). Then the show started, but, as the calligraphy artist was also selling his work, for the next 40 minutes, people would randomly get up (and therefore have the whole row move) to go and buy his work. All of this with the performance going on and the rest of the crowd chatting away loudly. There was very little clapping for the performers as the people were paying very little attention...the show itself was a scaled down version of cirque du soleil. A little rougher round the hedges but pretty good. We really enjoyed it in between having to get up to let people through!!! Last but not least, they all got up to leave just as the last performer finished...no time to have the performers do their customary bow at the end of the show. Never been in a theatre with such a performance by the audience!

We had a little more luck with getting a taxi than on our first day. We were driven to a restaurant that Lucy had recommended the day before. It isn’t possible to book, but you turn up, take a number and wait your turn...sometimes 2 to 3 hours! We agreed to share a table (second time in two nights) and therefore speeded the process along...and it was worth it. We ordered with Lucy’s help and we had the most awesome meal since we landed! The duck was the best yet! We shared with two chinese families again. This time they were a little more ‘polite’ with their eating habits, with the exception of a 14/15 year old boy that ate like a pig to be completely honest. You can’t have everything I guess!

The hotel was just a five minute walk away so we made our way back to our very comfy room! Another day another dollar they say...new adventures await us tomorrow!

Un blog speciale per Raffa: Tempio del Cielo stop. Vecchi nel parco stop. Casette cinesine stop. Buddah giganti stop. Solita cena cinese stop.

For those who have the time, please continue below...

Quite a sleep in this morning! We set off at a very leisurely 9 am for the Temple of Heaven, a place where the Emperor could pray to his heart content without being disturbed. It turned out to be an inspirational place: access to the park in which the Emperor’s Temples are, is open and free to the older generation. You could see groups of women singing together, people exercising, playing cards, etc. It’s a place for the older generation to gather, be in the open air and not feel lonely.

Scary realisation: a man of about 80 years old was doing a split...I couldn’t do that even at 15!

Old Beijing was a pleasant change of scenery. We visited the main pedestrianised street of single storey houses and shops which runs parallel to a lake. Busy but not mobbed like everywhere else. It gave you more of a feel of a different time...before the condos and skyscrapers took over Beijing.

We finished off our sightseeing day with the Lama Temple. It’s a buddhist Temple. The buildings are in a sequence that sees gradually bigger Buddhas on display. The tallest one is 18 metres high and cut out of a single tree (feel free to look it up in the Guiness book of records).

Personal record of the day: surviving the 38 degrees outside!

As we got back relatively early today, and for the first time since our arrival in Beijing, we had some free time! Me and Lucia had a different view on how to make good use of it: she went to the gym...I did not! 

For dinner, our aim was to try one speciality that had escaped us so far: the hot pot. Lucy had recommended a place famous for it and we set off with the best intentions. We ended up eating in the correct mall but NOT in the right restaurant...needless to say there was no English spoken...and in an attempt to get water, we were brought about 3 different things, none of which resembled water. However, we did not go hungry! Again! ...thanks to the power of indicating photographs of food! 

On our stroll back to the hotel, we saw a side of Beijing we had already glimpsed around our lodgings: luxury and super modern malls. We took a walk down a pedestrianised street where there must have been at least 10 huge shopping centres carrying all the top names: Gucci, Prada, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Rolex etc...as well as some personal favourites like Zara, Gap and H&M. Maybe this is China’s way to try to get consumption up???

One very last consideration: me and Lucia had come to the conclusion that probably English was not taught at school as even the very basic words (hello, thank you, water...) are a mistery to them. So we asked the guide today. She says they do study it at school for at least 3 or 4 years (in fact the new generations are starting classes from kindergarden), but that they do not speak it because they don’t get to practice it. They must have a channel in their brains that throws unused things out entirely...

We leave tomorrow for Suzhou and Trongli and will be taking our first train...quite a long ride (5 hours). Lets hope we don’t need to speak to anyone! :-)

Train adventure day, is more accurate :-)!

Some of us went to 7am mass in Mandarin this morning, but I slept in late...and after a quick Starbucks breakfast we made our way to Beijing South station. Despite being a little apprehensive, checking our luggage through security was uneventful. However, it proved a little more difficult to find a suitable lunch establishment. We settled on Burger King. I looked after the luggage and Lucia went off to buy a beef burger and a chicken burger...and came back with two burgers! (a little language situation again).

First class on a Chinese train is nothing to write home about by the way...but the train was on time (a feat I have yet to experience in Italy).

I took advantage of the 5 and a half hour fast train ride (302 km/h) to finally start reading a book and as always took a little nap. Along the way, now and again, cities sprouted up like mushrooms...tall condos grouped together with identical design and colours...very odd. 

Our driver was waiting at the station. Getting our luggage in the car was, as always, challenging (we do not travel light). We ended up with a bag on the front seat this time.

The hotel here in Suzhou (a small town of six million people) is very beautiful and when we arrived there was a lady playing the lute in the entrance hall close to a little pond...very relaxing.

Harris will be our guide for the next 3 days (here and in Shanghai)...and he’s picking us up at 9am...so...goodnight guys!

Harris picked us up this morning, and was taken by surprise at how much luggage we are travelling with :-).

Suzhou is known as the garden city (there are many gardens!), and it is where most of the architects of the imperial gardens in Beijing have come from. We started off visiting two gardens. It is important to know that by garden they don’t mean our European version. It means a series of wooden buildings connected to each other by courtyards and generally surrounding a pond with fish. It all makes for a very peaceful setting.

We moved onto Tiger Hill and the leaning pagoda (build 200 years before the tower of Pisa but with similar foundation issues). Humidity today was dreadful...climbing to the Pagoda was very sweaty work.

Trongli was a 40 minute drive away but a completely different setting. Old traditional houses set amongst canals. The original boats used as transport have been replaced by gondolas for tourists, but, despite all of that, it is pretty and relaxing. We had a lovely lunch in a place suggested by Harris and it was lovely to have the pressure taken off and have him order for us. 

We strolled around, visited a few courtyards, did some shopping and yes...we also had a ride on a Gondola. 

Highlight: spending some time with one of the local older artists who hand wrote special charachters (poems) on one or two of our purchases. The paintings also looked amazing...but...alas...our luggage is already at capacity :-).

We then drove on to Shanghai. Our home for the next couple of days. The traffic was terrible...and the rivers/crowds of people walking around are unbelievable. We took a walk after checking into our amazing sleeping quarters (the Fairmont) and had to ‘flow’ with the crowds, directed by the police. Like going to a concert but without the concert...urgh!

Bad choice of the day: we picked our evening dining establishment randomly...not great...worst meal since we arrived in China. But the staff spoke some English...there is a saying: every cloud has a silver lining!

Most amazing view in Shanghai: the skyline by night!

I started off my day at Starbucks! (and abandoned Lucia for breakfast). I’m feeeling a little tired of having my morning meal in front of people chewing rudely on garlic and onion in the morning. 

Today was a walking and public transport day and we started off along the Bund looking over from our older side of the river over to the new and modern skyscrapers that only started sprouting up in 1999. It’s amazing what they’ve managed to build in less than 20 years.

We took an interesting taxi ride over to the Old Town market and Yu Garden. Yu garden was originally built 500 years ago and the market surrounds it. It’s a truly peaceful place, especially if you imagine it without the loud chinese tourists!

We also popped in to visit a Confucian Temple. People come here to pray for good things to happen to them and hang their wishes on the branches of the plants in the Temple. This place was also used as a ‘school’ and some of the scholars that graduated from here went on to become very important people in the chinese administration. It was strangely diserted...which made it all the more pleasant to visit. Harris says that Comfucius is such an inbuilt thing with the chinese, that they do not feel the need to visit his temples as tourists. Bah...

We then spent the rest of the day in various locations in the french concession. It’s a district in Shanghai that was in the hands of the french (funnily enough) and was developed ‘european style’. There are a lot of beautiful mansios and gated developments, as well as bars and cafes (and a lot of shops and some more modern malls). It is also where the building where the first meeting of the communist party took place is situated.

Hidden gem: we went to see a private museum of propaganda posters that is a little off the tourist trail. It was in the basement of a block of flats. It apparently has some government funding, BUT a little odd that there were no chinese tourists...only a handful of westeners.

Most expensive water of the trip: a small bottle of San Pellegrino for 45 CNY! To put in context, we have been paying between 3 and 5 CNY for bottled water of dubious origins.

As we got back early today, some of us went to the gym, whilst I took a nap. We then ventured out for dinner to a place that seemed to have excellent reviews: Lu 1039. It’s a classic Shanghai restaurant in a renovated colonial house. It was a little too...minimal I would say. And there weren’t many people about so although the food was ok, it felt a little bit of a sad place. We managed to enlist the help of a waiter to try and find a taxi back and explain where we were staying...and we got back safely without getting lost.

We are taking a last look around Shanghai tomorrow and then, we will be taking our first domestic flight. Given the number of people in town, I can only imagine the airport will be mobbed! 

This morning’s Starbucks run afforded a pleasant surprise: two groups of ladies doing thai-chi exercises to music. Inspiring how some people can be that coordinated at 7.30 in the morning...

We started off our day Longhua Buddhist Temple, a very well preserved example of such a contruction. Strangely enough though, like many other buildings in Shanghai, the exact position of the buildings in the complex had been changed from it’s original layout. Same as for a concert hall that literally was cut off from its foundations and dragged along 100 metres or so and placed above new foundations to move it further away from the flyover :-). I imagine it’s quite a feat of engineering!

Our pickup last night was puntual, BUT I hadn’t checked the exact location of the Hotel and realised we were about an hour away! At 11pm it’s the last thing you want! On the upside, it’s located close to the entrance of the national park, so it did save us the drive in the morning.

You know they say you rarely get surprised positively? We were last night. First of all the driver was soooooooo nice. He took us to the hotel, carried our ridicoulously huge pieces of luggage and waited until the lady at the counter put us in the elevator to the room to leave us...and secondly the room... The lobby had a tree growing in the middle. Not a small tree, quite substancial. The room was very much in chinese classic design. Amazing...and guess what: we had our own tree in the room :-). But, you know what did have us in stitches? The heated toilet seat! You could pick your own temperature.

So to the object of our detour to this location: the national park. Summer picked us up and we drove on to the entrance. We took a cable car part of the way up and then a shuttle bus but finally we got to where the trails begin. We spent the day walking in the forest on the side of the mountains overlooking the very distinctive sandstone pillars...the signature dish of the park you would say. There are different formations in various locations within the park. One such area is the glory mountains, also known as the floating mountains because the pillars look to float in the air when the haze (or clouds) surrounds them at sunrise. There was no floating during our visit, but the pillars are impressive. Some of them are 400m high. These are the views that inspired the Avatar mountains in the movie.

There was a lot of wowing and a lot of picture taking. However, I do promise you, that the photos will not do it justice. They are too two dimensional. There are things you just have to see for yourself. And it was hard work, by the way, as the walk meant a lot of climbing up and down steps in the heat. But I am no stranger to sweat on this trip...Yuck! Fear of heights is more of an issue on some of the platforms...and on the cable car with the wind I felt a little queezy. But what was the ending to the walk? A glass elevator that drops down the side of the mountain! :-)

A taste of home: we met dishy italian attempting to order food in the same place we were at, and ended up ‘lending’ him our guide as an interpreter.

On the way to the airport, we stopped at a gallery where the artist ‘paints’ canvas using natural materials reduced to powder: rock, sand, wood etc. And paints local landscapes mainly. There were some beautiful pieces and despite fearing that we may balooning early on the trip on the luggage front, Lucia bought a piece.

The guide: we had Summer for the day (stage name for work). This young 29 year old kept up quite a pace throughout the day. If my phone is to be believed we walked 10km and went up 48 flight of stairs in the space of 3 hours!  But, she must have been a little blind as she thought mine and Lucia’s age as mid 30’s. Blind or wanting a good tip. Not sure which I prefer.

So, here we are now...a five hour wait for our late night flight to Xi’an. We won’t be finding our beds until around 2am, BUT, it was worth it. One word for Zhangjiajie national park: wow!

...second domestic flight that lands ahead of schedule! But still...between the late take off time and the 50 minute transfer, we only got to bed at 3 am. 

Rain had initially been forecasted for today but instead we got sunshine. But the heat was something else. The only saving grace was the slightly lower humidity...We met our guide for the day for a late 10 am start, Phoenix, and our first intro to Xi’an was to visit a neolitic site about 6,000 years old. They’ve done a great job in creating media etc that actually shows what life would have been like as the site itself needs a little imagination. 

Interesting burial habits: children were not buried with adults. They were put in vases buried under the floor, so that their mothers would have them close by and they would not be alone, and with a hole on top for their souls to come in and out.

We then moved onto one of the highlights of the whole trip: the terracotta soldiers! The park is a fair distance from Xi’an but there is no drive longer than 10 minutes that we’ve been on, that I have not taken the opportunity to have a little nap :-).

To get to the buildings that house the soldiers, you walk through a substancial park. The terracotta soldiers form part of the burial site for one of the emperors. It was suggested to him that having his soldiers killed when he died would not make him popular, so he opted for this version of a memorial. The work that has been done to reconstruct some of the 6,000 estimated soldiers is amazing. And seeing them lined up it’s quite a sight. They are still digging the site, and archeologists have ‘hospitals’ where the bodies get reconstructed. All in plain sight of the visitors. There is actually only one soldier that was found whole. 

Criticism: building number one houses the largest number of soldiers but you have to wonder how long they will last in the heat. Their ideal conservation temperature is around 20 degrees, but it must have been 35 to 40 in there today. It is amazing how a country that can build almost a whole new city in no time at all, cannot install a few air conditioning units to be sure to preserve one of the most unique sights they have.

Our last visit of the day was to the winter palace. It was build for one of the Emperor’s concubines. He treated her just like an empress. The place is huge. A small town really. A series of buildings and thermal baths at the foot of a hill. Very pretty, but most of it is not in it’s original form and has been rebuilt (a common feature in China).

Another fun filled day here in China!

We left Xi’an on our Hainan flight this morning and landed at 12sh in Guilin. I wasn’t all that social. For those who know me well, early morning starts mean I don’t speak for at least a couple of hours. After which, on the plane, I slept for the whole duration of the flight :-). Poor Lucia!

Guilin is a small town by chinese standards. The district houses about 4.7m people, but the city itself is populated by only 700,000 people. We found Colin waiting for us at arrivals and he gave us two choices (time was a little tight today): lunch or dropping our luggage off at the hotel. For those who know Lucia, it is clear what choice was made...

We stopped off at a roadside cafe (chinese fastfood if you like), and had noodles and a drink. We spent 34 rmb for the 3 of us...our lowest tally yet! (It’s about 4.5 euros).

Our day would have finished here, but Colin asked wether we had had a chance to see a tea plantation. We looked at each other and although we were really tired, we decided that we would not travel these parts again any time soon (I fear it’s been our motto every day :-) ). And so off we went to the tea farm. It turned out to be a very informative visit. Just so you know, the tea we drink in europe in our little sachets, they use as compost! We were also shown the tea ceremony and tasted some of the teas. And, of course, we did not let the chance to buy something pass: we bought some tea! I confess having never spent that sort of money on tea...not even over a whole year! But, the guy seemed to think the tea would make us live longer...so it may turn out to be money well spent.

We had a difficult night! At around 2am a group of drunken chinese holidaymakers came back to their rooms on our floor, and shouted, laughed and slammed doors for about an hour and a half. The guard downstairs tried timidly to tell them to be quiet, but they went ahead anyhow. This meant we got nearly no sleep at all.

Some chinese peculiar quirks we’ve picked up on: lack of spacial awareness, complete lack of respect for other human beings, totally uncapable of standing in a line...I could go on...

So, tired and a not in the best of spirits, we dragged our luggage from our drop off at the station to the entrance to a very old version of a train station in Guilin. It was a challenge to find the right boarding point but we managed to get ourselves on the right train and before we knew it we were in Guangzhou. The scenery along the way was beautiful countryside and rice farms.

Unfortunate coincidences: the train station only had stairs, our pick up person decided to wait quite a way from the exit, and it was raining cats and dogs!

Our accomodation in Guangzhou is amazing. The hotel is in one of the skyscrapers and occupies the top floors. So reception is on the 65th floor and our room on the 60th. The view is spectacular. And...incredible but true, the staff speak english! 

We spent the afternoon sightseeing: city flower plaza, a memorial to a king from 200 bc and the old medicine market. There were many dried up root and vegetables we did not recognise, but one of the strangest things we did see, were bags and bags of dry sea horses...a very expensive item (it is ground into powder to then be used).

Language breakthrough for Lucia: we dropped her off at the beautiful french built catholic cathedral for a sunday mass in english...a real treat as last time she had to go to one in mandarin!

Coffee break: this was my alternative to mass. I took the chance to get to know our guide, Janet (stage name). She’s single, likes travelling and gave the impression she felt alone. She has the same problem that many of us single people have as we get older: friends get married, have children, and therefore less time (or oppurtunity) to hang out. Be it in normal day to day life or on holiday. You then have to decide whether you still do what you want to do or wait around and be miserable. She seems to have opted for being a little miserable and if any of you men are interested out there, I believe she’s in the market for a husband! 

Our last visit was to Shamian Island, a small island just across the bridge from the market. It is a similar spot to the french concession in Shanghai. It is much quieter and very relaxing. And...well, pretty. It used to be the customs and trading area for goods back in the old days. These days, Starbucks occupies one of the beautiful buildings overlooking the park running through the middle.

And that’s it for China! We went back to our hotel to shower and get something to eat. We leave for Hong Kong tomorrow morning on our last asian train ride.

We were quite sad to leave our super amazing hotel this morning...but no rest for the wicked! ..and it took some thinking to load the luggage in a normal sized taxi :-). We took our last chinese train from Guangzhou East to Hong Kong. It currently takes about 2 hours as it is the equivalent of a regional train in Italy. BUT, three weeks from now, a bullet train will connect Hong Kong to several cities in mainland China.

We found a chinese man born in Tunbridge Wells picking us up! He moved to Hong Kong about 26 years ago and his brother still lives in Orpington. How unlikely is that??? The first thing that hits you, having crossed the border, it’s the wide spread use of a language we understand: english! Oh how we have missed it...

As always we were on a tight schedule, so having dropped off the luggage in our smallest room to date (still perfectly fine of course), we grabbed a bite whilst waiting for Timothy. He is the tour leader for a group orienteering tour of Hong Kong. There was only 11 of us, and amongst us there was an australian couple from italian descent (so they spoke both italian and english). We only know because Lucia managed to strike up a conversation...she was the friendly sort today.

Incident of the day: I managed to stumble on some costruction material on the sidewalk and flew in the middle of the road. Fear not for my health though, as my camera got the worst of it. I got away with a scraped knee and a bruise.

The choice of the orienteering tour was to then have a full day (the day after tomorrow) of Hong Kong touring on our own and seeing what we were actually interested in. We haven’t really ventured much out alone without a guide whilst in China. English gives you a some sense of security I guess!

First impressions: we expected a shiny Hong Kong so we were a little disappointed as it feels a little scruffy from the street level. BUT from the hill tops of Hong Kong island looking down, it looks pretty amazing. 

There is a lot of refurbishment and general building work going on, so I am guessing that a couple of years from now we will be looking at a shinier city again. For example, amongst the new builds there is a chinese opera house. 

The one constant throughout is the height of the buildings...so many sky scrapers! There is a funny mix of newer constructions and old, ugly and decrepit ones...more on Hong Kong Island from a first look. In Kolwoon where our hotel is, there are a lot of posh shops and swanky hotels, so the decrepit, at least close by, is down to a minimum.

We have a pretty special experience planned for tonight: we will be eating in a three michelin starred cantonese restaurant. As luck (not really because it’s the reason I booked our room here) would have it, it’s in our hotel! On the downside, we are eating chinese food yet again :-))).

I look forward to boring you with the details tomorrow!

Our starred dinner was a little bit underwhelming. The atmosphere and decor were ok’sh but felt a little tired. The service was questionable. With the menu in my hand I attempted to ask for advice but as I had pointed to the menu wanting to ask questions, the waiter pretty much just said: have the set menu. There was no explanation, no talking up the dishes...nothing. The food was ok but again there was nothing that you really thought was outstanding. And they topped it all with an espresso the size of a cappuccino...not just a little long, an actual cappuccino sized cup full of coffee. This begs the question: are asian Michelin stars different from European/US ones?

Today we took the ferry over to neighbouring the more portuguese Macau. On the hour long crossing we arranged to meet our guide Clara a little earlier than scheduled and saw the new bridge (yet to be opened) between Macau and Hong Kong. A massive undertak8ng! It is due to open at the end of the year and it is as beautiful as it is long (55km).

Clara: the guide merits a more in depth introduction. She was, as Lucia put it, a little Hitler! Relaxed is not a word that would ever apply. From start to finish we felt like naughty schoolchildren being led around, almost afraid to ask questions. She was going to keep to the schedule whether we liked it or not. BUT, she was one of the best guides we’ve had on the trip. Very knowledgeable. On the downside, she did attempt jokes now and again, but she was laughing on her own (some people say I’m the same).

Sydney needs little introduction. Its iconic symbol, the Opera House, is known throughout the world. Sightseeing falls a little short on historical content (after all Australia was a penal colony for Great Britain), but the Opera House, the harbour bridge, the bothanical gardens with Mrs Macquaries seat, and the tastefully developed docks, make it a town that feels homely. Somewhere you might actually want to live in...if only it wasn’t so far away from the rest of the world!

I have been here before of course...the year was 1999. I was young and on garden leave, and no idea of what the future held. I had three weeks to take a peek at a country that’s the size of a continent! 

This time we’re JUST getting to know Sydney, and for some of us, Lucia, it’s the first time. And after the overpopulation in china and the lack of european etiquette we’ve endured for the past two weeks, it’s actually nice to just be here amongst overly polite english speaking people...even though they might be descendants of jailbirds :-).

We treated ourselves to a concert at the opera house followed by dinner on the quay tonight. I was glad I took a nap in the afternoon (not much sleep on the overnight plane for me last night), as it meant that I was able to enjoy the evening. Not the same can be said about the ride around town earlier in the day, as I kept nodding off after lunch...and so I finally gave up (and Lucia with me) and went back to the hotel.

A final consideration: the harbour bridge and the opera house are even more beautiful at night!