Last Day

Managed to get reception to sort out last lot of internet so last lot of photos uploading as we speak. Weren't sure we were going to do this but it seemed wrong somehow to need to make our last photo / blog posting from home so what the heck!

Had arranged to meet the rest of our group at 10.30 but quelle surprise they did not arrive. Checked their room at 10.45 and they were sort of pale but up for a shopping trip. We bundled them into a taxi and then didn't see them again all day - oops, due to meet them for dinner, hope they are okay. We are taking bets on what happened to them. We think they may well have been so hungover they just got in taxi, drove around the corner, stopped, got out and walked back to hotel and bed. They did not seem very sure about their stomachs or that going shopping would be a good idea when we last saw them! They were however still laughing about Rubber Duckie!!!

Still, not to be put off by hangovers in others we popped in our own taxi and ended up in an entire mall (5 floors) of complete and utter tourist tat. What an absolutely phenomenal place. Truly awful. But hilarious in a very tacky kind of way. Felt obliged to carefully review all 5 floors of tack and then it was all a bit much so went in search of lunch.

After lunch took subway back to Tiananmen Square and walked from there back to hotel down some very nice streets. Enjoyed just menadering along, taking it all in and saying farewell to Big Trip!

All we have left is farewell supper and trip to airport.

Chinas been great. Crossed off loads of the things on the 'must see before you.....' list.  I will not miss the hacking and flem at all but Martyn says he finds that preferable to the rural Vietnamese habit of sweeping all leftover food onto the floor in restaurants. Whilst we both very much enjoyed our little walks I don't think either of us are looking forward to walking up the stairs when we get home - they really are seriously into steps here!

Stunning scenery and some more great people. Its interesting that in the conversations we have had despite the completely different political management systems, the economic problems are exactly the same as those of democracies. The colours are not so intense as the parts of SE Asia we visited and in a lot of ways it 'feels' a bit like Russia in terms of colours. It feels like there are secrets here that we didn't quite manage to crack in to but then we travelled in a different way here.

And thats it - all done, apart from one or two things - they say life goes in circles. We started with a good few 'How Much' posts. I think there may be another when we do our first supermarket shop! There were also a few comments about 'bagstooheavy'. We're off to pack. I think bagsstilltooheavy may well be the final situation!

Its been an amazing few months. I seem to remember I ran out of adjectives sometime in New Zealand, hopefully I haven't repeated too many. Should have thought to find a web based Thesaurus really!

We both wonder who had the most fun, you reading this, or us writing it. If you've become used to an (almost) daily helping of hapless adventures, mishaps, comedy and the odd picture, we have too. And we'll miss it............

So this blog is dedicated to anyone who helped make this possible for us. Whether you looked after a key, checked the house, started the car, kept our paperwork safe, stored our post, covered at work, gave us giggles on fb or via comments, stayed in our house, put us up in your house or met us somewhere on our travels, enjoyed reading this or will simply enjoy reliving the memories with us when we get back. Thanks for everything.