Was basically a two course meal, had it with an immersion brew coffee with very lightly roasted beans, was definitely a moment.
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We have two days here left. We fly home at 1am on Saturday. Internet access has been largely non existant for me, which has been nice.
It’s a fantastic place with fantastic people. They are so kind. It is one of the safest places we’ve ever been to. On a par with Japan.
My wife came here 20 years ago and doesn’t recognise it. The pace of change has been stratospheric. If you’d dumped me here blindfolded, I could easily have initially thought it was Japan.
After landing as Shanghai we got the train straight to Suzhou for a few nights,
Q
then Universal Studios Beijing for a couple of days before Beijing proper for a few nights.
A sleeper train to Xian.
The Chinese man with Harben is the farmer who discovered the terracotta army. He’s like a film star out there. Minted. The artisan coffee shops pissed over anythimg we have and were £4 a go.
Then Chengdu.
We had 4 trays of these delicious home made bao for the princely total of £4.
We flew back to Shanghai on Monday night. I’m hopefully off to a hifi mall shortly.
This is the Tron ride at Disney. Superb. But, it needed Daft Punk played at 11.
British hifi was the major force out there really, which was great to see - Sugden, Harbeth, Rogers, Tannoy, Fyne, Exposure, etc etc.
Xian and Chengdu were the highlights for me. We will definitely be coming back, hopefully next year, before our visa runs out.
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I always thought that I would never go on a cruise. I have never liked the idea of being imprisoned with other human detritus and being subjected to their mostly vacuous diatribes. However, we did want to go to upper Egypt as we thoroughly explored lower Egypt in 2004 and the best way to take in all the temples we wanted to visit was by a fucking cruise. Well! I was pleasantly surprised, vacuous cunts aside, the service, staff and food were exemplary. The cabin and facilities were more than acceptable. The tour guide was incredibly knowledgeable being an older chap, I did pick his brains quite a bit as it was usually me and him left at the bar late on.
Anyway, few rubbish phone pics:
Hatshepsut
Hatshepsut Internal pic.
Valley of the Kings
Colossus of Memnon.
Edfu.
Unfinished obelisk.
Kom Ubu.
Karnak and part of the avenue of the Sphinxes.
We also did the temple of Philae and Abu Simbel but those pics are on Mrs Xs phone.
X.
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I’ve been laid up for the last couple of weeks after Egypt. On the last day after visiting Luxor temple and Karnak I seemed to take a reaction to the bites that I was never aware that I had. That night it was like popping bubble wrap and equally pleasant. Straight from the airport to the chemist who took a sharp intake of breath and prescribed antibiotics, antihistamine, steroid cream and aqueous calamine. A couple of days later the doctor prescribed a double dose of antibiotics and some anti-inflamitories. The issue isn’t the bites themselves, It’s the reaction I took. Severe swelling of the ankles and feet making it painful to walk. Anyway, I’m on the mend but still signed off for a couple of weeks. Apologies to those of a weak disposition:
I guess my immune system ain’t what it used to be, a severely annoying aspect of getting old.
X.
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Would love to do a trip like that, insect bites notwithstanding
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Thankfully when we did it there were no allergies to concern us. We were much younger mind.
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I’ll take your allergies and raise it against a curse and old age!
X.
Beware The Curse of Tutankhamen!
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Photos now added above.
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Love the pictures, brought some lovely memories of our early 2000’s trips. Amazing how the Shanghai skyline has changed, our hotel(Grand Hyatt) was then one of the tallest building in the world, and the highest hotel int the world. Now surrounded by even taller building.
Can’t believe how packed the Great Wall was, this is from November 2002.
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We got to Beijing to be told there was a red weather warning for the next day…high winds…all the cultural sites closed for 36 hours…the wall reopened on the day we were leaving…cue coach party gallore. It was just about ok, once you got passed the third tower the crowds melted away, and it was quiet. Phew.
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Morrisons car park in Goole?
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Never mind all that, it’s soil pipe advice I need.
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Never let a sailor interfere with your soil pipe
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Sailor? I was assuming he’d got a summer gig with Jayne McDonald working the cruises.
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