21 days to say goodbye to the places I love (and hate) in China.... Can't say I would've really chosen this group of pax to do it with, but we had a good time overall. Bill and Sally and Charlotte, all British, were sweet people~ we made a perfect picture travelling together, everywhere we went people asked if Bill and Sally were the mama and papa, and Charlotte and I the kids :-) Bill's accent was great because on just a couple words, like "here" he sounded exactly like a British butler!
I hope this doesnt sound too pessimistic, but I really didnt have high expectations for this trip, so I guess by comparison it turned out pretty good. In each place we visited I made my farewell's, some happy and some sad. It was strange leaving Yangshuo because my brain didnt comprehend it; I mean, I always come back to Yangshuo. It was lovely there, the last bike ride, last cooking school, last light show ~ I was almost fine with it until I had to say goodbye to my friend Stuart, then I got sad. But the great thing about Tour Leaders and the lives we lead is that you can meet people, or catch up with old friends, anywhere and any time in the world.
From Yangshuo we went to Chengdu, a city I love in China, just because it's green and blue and ethnic and the pandas are there :-) We also watched the Sichuan Opera variety show that's one of my favorites in the country.
Unfortunately after Chengdu came the Yangtze river boat cruise.... anyone who remembers my stories from last year might recall I was not thrilled with this part of the trip. Last year though I didnt make friends with a bunch of Aussie cattle ranchers!! :-D hehehe Charlotte and I made friends with these four Aussie cattle ranchers, one of whom is an auctioneer too! The last night on the boat there was a little Talent Show (oh my), and Grant, the auctioneer, did a mock auction for..... ME! Now if you were auctioned off what do you think you'd go for? Personally I sold for 10.3 million yuan! LOL (about $1.5 million US) :-D not half bad I'd say!
You may notice in this batch of photos, a particularly glowing one, a great big smile I gave as I made my Final Visit to the Terra Cotta Warriors!! :-D hehehehe, I really shouldn't look so happy. I've got nothing against the Warriors, but the museum is a bit boring and I won't miss paying any additional visits to the 8th Wonder of the World. This was my highlight of Xian this trip, except the night we stumbled into a club... my faux "mama and papa" and Charlotte, leaned toward this club entrance as we were walking down the road but wouldn't have gone in if it weren't for Yours Truly :-) I fearlessly led the way down into the club, which was fun enough, but then two show girls came out on the stage and started to sing to Shakira. I thought they did pretty well, but after the song they spoke.... they were Thai lady-boys! How did I manage to find Thai lady-boys in China! hahahahaha
I had a little moment in Xian... its always the little things that set us off, right? I went to buy a phone card to put more credit on my phone, and the guy only had 100 yuan cards. I bought it, and then I took it back because I realized I wouldn't be in China long enough to use it! Then I got really sad... Of course in the time since then I've managed to use well over 100 yuan on my phone, and had to buy more cards, but who's counting! LOL :)
Besides visiting all the usual cities, I got to see one new place on this trip, Hangzhou. Now on the English TV station here in China they are constantly advertising "Come to Hangzhou" and it looks so beautiful! It is famous for the West Lake scenery and every poet and painter in Chinese history has immortalized the lake. The tourist map was quite funny how it listed the scenic spots; there are the Top Ten Scenes of West Lake, followed by the New Top Ten Scenes of West Lake, and finally The Third Appraisal of the Top Ten Scenes of West Lake! LOL! And the names of those Scenes, good gracious: 'Autumn Moon over the Calm Lake', 'Lingering Snow on the Broken Bridge', 'Clouds Scurrying over Jade Emperor Hill', 'Precious Stone Hill Floating in the Rosy Cloud', and my favorite 'Yellow Dragon Cave Dressed in Green'. I was looking forward to viewing these most lovely spots, so armed with said map I set out to be dazzled..... and I will say, the first evening there I was drawn into the poetry and romance of the lake. I found a park that was straight out of a fairy tale, with bamboo groves rustling and twinkle lights everywhere. Sadly the spell was broken the next afternoon when we took a boat trip around the lake. It was a GRAY day, we couldn't see to the middle of the lake, let alone the other shore. There is a place called 'Three Pools Mirroring the Moon' that is pictured on the back of the one yuan note, I was determined to find it and get a photo, but not only was it terribly gray that day it also took my twice as long to walk around the lake as I expected. Oops. Guess I'll have to be content with the one yuan note :-)
Shanghai.... oh how happy I am to bid farewell to Shanghai. Its bad enough that it's a massive and overwhelming city, but this trip was made worse by one and only CHARLOTTE. Charlotte had been sick the two days we were in Hangzhou, so when we got to Shanghai she had to make up for two days without human contact by chattering to ME! Bless her heart she didnt have anyone else to 'play' with, but she was driving me up the wall!! "whatsthat?whatsthat?whatsthat?whatsthat?" OH MY GOD. Enough said, I didnt kill her and she wasn’t the death of me either. I did have a good time in Shanghai going out with another tour leader friend for Halloween :-D I was very demure in a Chinese Opera mask.
And finally Beijing.... I've grown quite fond of Beijing during the time I spent here over the Olympics. This trip includes guided visits to the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven AND the Summer Palace, so I got to benefit from listening to a guide in each of these places I've been before but heard new stories. I made my 13th and final visit to the Great Wall, and unlike the Terra Cotta Warriors the Wall never disappoints. It is still awe inspiring. My only disappointment was in realizing it was my 13th visit and not my 14th like I had thought, haha.
So that's it, my last trip as a Tour Leader in China!... WOW. My true feelings on all that will follow in a seperate blog ~
