London - we made it!

Hi,

We arrived on Thursday and have been having a great time since. No photos to show you unfortunately as we are trying not to rush into all the tourist activities, we are saving those for when you come over!

Our "home" for the next 5 weeks is a 1 bed flat in St Christophers Place, which is a pedestrian lane way full of cafes and boutique shops. Just off Oxford St, near Bond St station and Hyde Park. Fantastic location!

We have already caught up with some friends and went to a Cat Empire concert on Day 2. Although we struggled a bit with jet-lag, we had a great time.

Shopping has definately been on the agenda, filling the gaps that our suitcases didn't bring with us and also just browsing the endless shops that are on offer.

We are off to Paris on Tuesday so more news from there...

Our last days in China...

Hi Everyone,

After three weeks of "ni how" and "she she" (is that right Rach?), our Chinese adventure came to an end with a couple of great days in Shanghai...

We visited "Century Park" in Pudong and rode around on these bike-car-thingies...

There was the usual racing, with Cooper proving to be the most competitive of us all - after a while, we dared not over take in fear of verbal abuse from the Richo-mobile!

On the other day, we went to a 'water town' a couple of hours out of Shanghai... we can't remember the name of the town, 'cause the ticket is burried deep in our luggage somewhere on its way to London! (sorry)... it was very authentic!

We went on a small boat through the canals that cris-crossed the village and walked through the narrow lanes, which were filled with markets selling everything from drums and silks to dried fish and other Chinese delicacies!

We had lunch at one of the local 'establishments'... Sarah was less than impressed with the Pork Knuckle we ordered but it did taste great!!

We had an amazing time in Shanghai, thanks mostly to the hospitality of the Richos - Thank you Rach, Pete, Layne and Coop for capping off our time in China with such an enjoyable week, we loved it!!!

Next stop - London..........

Shanghai

Here's a brief posting from Shanghai...

On Saturday night, we had dinner at the famous "M on the Bund". The Pete's both had fantastic "Suckling Pig" and the girls chose poorly...

We walked along The Bund...

Pete had a ride on Rachael's scooter...

Layne dressed up as a Rabbit for her Chinese New Year dress up day (she was born in the year of the Rabbit)...

...and Sarah had a Birthday cake!

Beijing

Hi again,

After finally arriving in Beijing on Friday night (delayed over 3hrs out of Hong Kong!), we arrived at our hotel and hit the sack straight away... we were so sick that we stayed in our room for the next 24hrs!!!

We finally ventured out into Beijing on Saturday night to see the Acrobatics Show - which was spectacular!

On Sunday we pushed through our continuing sickness to head out and about in Beijing with our guide (his name was Aaron and he was very good). We went to The Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, the Lama Temple and the Hutong area. We did get lots of photos, but nothing you won't see on Google... except for this one!

That night we bumped into Benny and George at the Kung Fu show - here's a photo of us with one of the young Shaolin Monks. Benny and George have just finished traversing the Trans-Siberian Railway...

The next day we walked 10km along the Great Wall (Cheng Tung), from Jinshaling (??) to Simatai (??) - sorry, I know I should check those but that's close enough... It was absolutely amazing! I took heaps of photos (which will never capture how good it was); here are a few...

Sarah's Birthday

Sarah spent her 28th Birthday in Hong Kong. We had grand plans to venture out and see the "Biggest Outdoor Seated Bronze Budda" in the world (on Lan Tau Island) but we were both not feeling very well and so talked ourselves into a 2hr spa treatment instead (that was a tough sell!!).

That night we went for drinks at the Felix Bar, on the 28th floor of the Peninsula Hotel (Kowloon). It had a great view to watch the 8pm lazer show. We didn't take any photo's because it would not have done it any justice.

For dinner we went to the Hutong Restaurant, which actually has an even better view than Felix!

The food was very exotic and we had the hottest dish we have ever tasted - apparently there is soft shell crab burried somewhere beneath all those chillis!!

Hong Kong

We arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday evening.

Here's a photo of Sarah at "The Peak" lookout.

We went to Disneyland and met a few new friends!

Pete spun out in the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups...

...and after a long day, we settled in for a quiet cup of tea at "The Peninsula"