Entries about travel

Lhasa is out of this world. After several 4:30am starts we slept in til 8:00 am. Celina has jury rigged her sandals and has been walking for hours around the Bakhor market and the Jokhang Temple. We have had some wonderful experiences in exotic places around the world but nothing beats this. It literally takes your breathe away. The Tibetan Buddhist religion still exists as it has for more than 1300 years, the age of this most holy temple where incense burns continually and where thousands prostrate themselves in front of the temple - some after journeys lasting a year! We also visited a Buddhist Nunnery where the nuns pray continually to Buddha - chanting and chatting at the same time. They are happy for us to be there snapping away. We also visited the printing room where some of the nuns copy thousands of pages of holy scripture. We then had lunch at a local restaurant and visited the braille without Borders school which caters for 32 children with blindness and aged 6-15 years. Celina and Danielle our Tour Director are back at the market for an hour or so while I sneak some time to reply to emails and blog. Tomorrow hopefully we will have acclimated further and take on the Potala Palace. This immense Palace of over 1000 rooms consists of the religious Red palace and the more secular White Palace and is restricted to 1600 visors per day. More on this later.

A few pictures to catch up.

At the Great Wall

Sichuan Opera

Pandamonium at Chengdu

Pandamonium at Chengdu

Wow! We finished with Xian and as with everything on this tour loved every moment of our time in this ancient capital of China. We then moved on to the Imperial Northern City of Beijing for our 3 night stay. Beijing is a vast city of high rise buildings surrounding what is left of the ancient City centre. The first evening in beijing evening on 22nd September we were treated to the Kung Fu Spectacular show - one of the top 3 shows in China. This was the story told in wonderful colour and action of the rise of a young boy to become the abbot of the Shaolin Monastery. The music and action defy description - a not to be missed show if it tours again.

On 23rd September we spent hours walking through Tianmen Square and the Forbidden City along with 10's of thousands of local and foreign tourists. The Winter palace as it is also known is vast and impressive even with the teeming throngs. In the afternoon after a local lunch we were taken to the older part of the city and treated to a tea making demonstration and learned how to make the dumplings we had been served on our last night in Xian.

Next day we were taken to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall after first visiting a cloisonee factory where we saw the process of this ancient art form from start to finish. The wall in this section had a setep slope up through crowded market stalls to a cable car which took us to the Wall itself. What a magnificent acheivement! Even though this part of the wall was extensively restored with the help of a German Engineering company it is beautiful and we had perfect weather as we have been blessed throughout this entire trip. We spent over 2 hours waking up the Wall climbing into guard towers and listening to a group of Swiss yodellers performing on this most iconic of Chinese structures. We returned to the hotel - Sofitel Wanda rested and then enjoyed our Peking Duck banquet.

The accommodation has been excellent on this tour with most hotels really being the best available. The food has varied and although it could be warmer has mostly been delicious.

Yesterday we left Beijing and flew to Chengdu in the West of China. Chengdu has been the capital city of Sichuan province for over 2000 years and last night we were treated to a performance of the Sichuan Opera. The cast were all very experienced and described by the pretty MC as masters of Opera, Traditional Music and Face Changing. A good time was had by all of those who were still part of our original group. We are now down from 26 to 17 and tomorrow we will be only 7 going up to Lhasa. Today we visited the Panda Research and Breeding Centre where Celina and I sat next to a year old Panda and had pictures and video taken while were able to stroke and touch one of the World's most endangered creatures. We spent several hours watching and wondering at these magnificent creatures who have survived as a species for 8 million years until the advent of man. We have returned to our hotel for a few hours rest then it its repacking and preparing for a very early start to our last 3 days in Lhasa. We have been told we will need to take it very slowly on our first day and then we have a very busy programme for the last 2 days.

World's Largest Jigsaw Puzzle

Len and Celina plus friends

Kung Fu Spectacular, Beijing

We are currently on the second day of cruising on the Yangtse and loving it. Am finally using wifi which I did not realise we had access to until today. Our room which is a suite comes with access to decent dining room and these perks. We thoroughly enjoyed Shanghai and Suzhou and when I get the time i will update the Blog. Taking lots of video and photos will attach some in this entry. Celina has added to the local economy by buying a pure silk winter jacket which cost less at the Silk factory than polyester ones at home and we also purchased a silk runner for the hall and silk doona cover and pillows for the master? bedroom. Suzhou was great and we have had wonderful accommodation and food so far. The Yangtse is spectacular as is the 3 Gorges Project and the 3 Gorges themselves and the lesser 3 gorges as well. Today we were treated to a Sampan ride into the 3 lesser gorges and Mum is now enjoying a spa bath in our cabin. Last night we had a Dynasties spectacular featuring Chinese Dynastic costumes sing and modelling of ancient and modern Chinese costumes. Tonight we have a crew Cabaret show and tomorrow we go to the Ghost City of Fengde. Hopefully my chest cold will have settled by then. We have been also informed we will get a chance to cuddle a young Panda in Chengdu.

The Humble Administrators Garden

The Humble Administrators Garden

Old Suzhou

Victoria Jenna Entering Lock

Always the centre of attention

Victoria Jenna Entering Lock

We are meeting our Tour leader in about an hour and we will also meet our companions for the next 20 days. We arrived in Shanghai at 12.30 am Local time or 2:30 am at home. Since we left Melbourne at 10:30 am it was a very long day. Our A380 was probably the most comfortable plane we have ever flown but no sheepskins on offer. Celina slept for over 6 hours on the way to Singapore and then slept for a another 2-3 hours on the flight to Shanghai. What a pleasure it was to arrive at our very comfortable hotel and be upgraded to a lovely room with views of the Bund area and Skyscrapers on 2 sides of our room. Amenities are wonderful and today we got up at a leisurely time and went down to a specialty Sunday Brunch accompanied an orchestra Opera Singers Hula Girls and Balloon blowing clowns. After stuffing ourselves we spent 3 hours walking down the famed Nanjing Street among crowds of millions. Honking horns mixed with Bicycle bells and street touts selling copy watches and bags with Tourist police playfully dealing with them. What a change in 27 years since we were last here.

Shanghai Skyline

Nanjing Road Shanghai

Arrived at Tulla with no fuss after our smooth Limo ride frofm home. Home was very quiet with Tippy being gone to GAP at Seymour. Packing went without a hitch. We board in about one hour and are currently sitting in the Singapore business lounge. More later.