MADE IN CHINA

WEATHER: Tops 20C - Lows 1C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY : The GREAT WALL of China 

BUMMER OF THE DAY: May have Shingles back – medication needed

BUYS OF THE DAY:  Gloves 70 RMB – Bear Hat 20 RMB – Panda Hat for Bill 15 RMB

WORD OF THE DAY:

Day 2 dawns and the day looks like it is going to be a beautiful day.  Cold but beautiful.

I have been to China before.  I did a 2 week Travel Indochina tour 10 years ago but was looking forward to seeing the Great Wall again.  There are just some monuments in the world you can do once and be happy not to go back to again, but I think the Great Wall is like Ayers Rock – it can look different each time you go.  It can be the time of day or the weather conditions that make it look a little different from the last time you saw it.

I missed the first day of the tour, as I was still on my booze cruise with my gal pals from Sydney to Brisbane.  But the first day compromised of the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven and they are some of the sights that I just mentioned – happy to do once and glad I went – but wouldn’t do twice, so I was okay on missing out on that part of the day.

The GREAT WALL – truly is just that.  What an amazing experience that I think everyone should see once.  It is one of those amazing feats like the pyramids of Egypt – how the hell did they do it?  

We departed our hotel at 6am in the morning for the 90 minute drive to the Mutyanyu section of the wall.  There are other sections,  but this is supposed to be the best part of the wall.  When we arrived we were the only people there, the stalls and food vendors were not even set up yet! 

There are 3 ways to get up to the wall.  You can catch a cable car, a chair lift or the good old fashioned way and walk.  We chose the later and decided it would be a great claim to fame to say we climbed the great wall of China.  So off we set for the 30 minute stair master work out of walking the 989 steps ( yes I counted them ) to get us to the top of tower number 5 of The Great Wall of China!!!! 

I cannot tell you how amazing it was to be walking on this structure.  Because we had set out so early we were the only people on the whole wall for pretty much the 2 hours we spent walking on it.  We walked to tower 20 and then caught the cable car back to the bottom.  Needless to say I have a lot of photos and these can all be found on Facebook, please look at them as they are just amazing.  But what a great way to spend my first full day in China.

The Great Wall is a single, continuous wall built all at once is a myth. In reality, the wall is a discontinuous network of wall segments built by various dynasties to protect China’s northern boundary.

During its construction, the Great Wall was called “the longest cemetery on earth” because so many people died building it. Reportedly, it cost the lives of more than one million people.

The Great Wall is truly a remarkable feat.

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED – IN CHINA

WEATHER: Tops 15C - Low 1C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY : Kung-fu Show

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Knackerd at 7pm at night – early start the next day

BUYS OF THE DAY:  Dumplings bought at the food market 6RMB – toothbrush 4 RMB – Dinner 25 RMB

WORD OF THE DAY: - always written phonetically - Che Che ( Thank-you ) Nee How ( Hello )

Welcome to China.  The land of where everything is made and it is cheap cheap cheap, as you would expect when it is made in the same country right!

After arriving into Beijing, 15 hours later after leaving home, my little transfer guy Marvin was there in the throng of little Asian faces waiting for me after customs.  My private transfer took me from the airport to the hotel ( 30 minute drive ) which was located right near Beijing Railway Station.  I did have a moment after my drop off if tipping is required in China.  Apparently it is not expected, but if you get good service you should leave a few dollars.  Sorry Marvin – you missed out – but it is always an awkward moment when the bags are unloaded and everyone seems to pause for what seems like an eternity on whether money will be exchanged or not.  I just delivered the biggest smile I could muster and loaded all my bags onto my shoulders and headed into the hotel – sorry buddy.

My roomie was already off for the day on the included tour of the day, so I rang my guide Julia to let her know I had arrived and we met in the lobby an hour later to go over our trip notes that I missed out on the day before.  Julia is Russian, a non- vodka drinking Russian at that ( she had her vodka days when she was younger so I guess that conter acts the non-ness now right? ) , but she is just awesome all the same.   We are going to visit the Vodka Museum in St Petersburg together and she has promised she will have a shot with me there.  Julia has done this tour for 6 months last year and in total was 9 times, crossing back and forth across the continent – what a life!  New career move for me maybe ???

As we still had the afternoon free, Julia and I walked to Waifunging Food Market , located off the famous Waifunging shopping street, about 30 minutes from the hotel.  I tell you I think if it can be deep fried or BBQ’ed the Chinese will eat it!  Just to name a few things on show they had: Sea horses, snake, cat, scorpions ( that were still alive till they went into the vat ), centipedes, monkey meat, sparrows, pigeons, crabs still in shells, silk worms, cockroach looking bugs, taranchulas, crickets – and they were staked like satay sticks just waiting for the customer to come along and get purchased.  I was not as adventurous as Julia who had a snake kebab and a also a scorpion kebab – for me I had a BBQ’ed corn and also some dim sum and dumplings that were just delicious.  It was an interesting introduction into the local foods and there weren’t too many tourists, a lot more locals.  It was a great way to blow off the jetlag cob webs.

That evening I met the rest of the group.  We have a great couple from LA – Chrissy and Eric, a computer expert from Holland - Jesse, a grand young man of 72 from Canada – Bill, a ticketing agent from Melbourne – Melissa, plus myself and our guide Julia from Russia.  We headed to a Kung Fu show at the Red Theater for the evening and it was an amazing show.  A lot of visual effects on the history of Kungfu viewed from the eyes of a young boy as he masters and moves through his lifes journey.  

No photos or status updates via Facebook from China.  It is currently prohibited in China to use Facebook, due to some riots that happned in Xinjing, with the Government citing that there was alot of Western input beforehand and the consensus was the riots were instigated by outside agitators.  I tried to trick the system by going in several different ways, google, email links etc…. but it was just to damn smart.  Get me to Mongolia – I hate to say I maybe having just a slight Facebook withdrawal……

Welcome to China – this place is amazing!!! 

A Poem For Bernie - Love Ya ShellBell

There once was a girl, her name is Ber-nie,

Who’s about to embark on a lifetime journey

Across our seven continents she will explore,

And the number of countries she’ll visit will be 54!

With six months of planning, the time has now come,

For you to be a “flashpacker” and officially a BUM

With the house almost sold and everything in place,

Your journey will be better than the Amazing Race!

So flashpacking around the world Bernie will go,

Adding friends to Facebook and loads of pictures to show

Tagging and loading and blogging her way,

Watch out for the “Bernstar” jump each and everyday

Can’t believe she’s leaving Discover Travel and Cruise

For Contiki tours, drinking lots of booze.

It’s been a great ten years with Cheify and the crew,

Conferences, famils and lots of laughs too…

You’ll party hard with both Gen X and Gen Y,

Just be sure to bring home a wealthy foreign guy!

You’ll teach those Contiki kids a thing or two

Just remember to tell them you were born in 1982.

Our memories of Bernie, we all have lots,

Fancy hats, crazy glasses and loads of camera shots.

Days at the races and nights at the Caxton Hotel,

The next day, we had so many stories to tell.

So, who’ll take our photos when we now go out,

And buy us jam donuts, when it’s their shout.

Who’ll ask the DJ for our favourite song,

Please Bern, don’t stay away for too long.

Zoe and Tess will miss their Godmun Ber-nie,

Her love, her gadgets and playing memory

Who will now feed Tessie at night?

And turn on Zoe’s bedroom light?

Just remember, no matter where in the world you roam

You’ll be missed by all of us here at home.

We love you Bern, you’re the best of friends,

It’s “goodbye” for now, until your journey ends.

Love and will miss you heaps

Shelly Belly xoxoxoxoxo

Medical Emergency 14 days from Departure

My last full week in the lead up to my trip has not been the most well planned.  It was totally out of my control in my defence but if your interested in the medical week from hell read on as it will give you a good laugh if nothing else.  I can now see the funny side as I am hopefully out of the woods but this is the my last week in review.

I had my going away party last week and a great night was had by all.  Lynda and I stumbled home at 5.23am – not much memory of the taxi ride home or getting to bed – but that has been the usual Saturday / Sunday morning routine for the last 3 months.  We woke at around 10am and I had 3 spots on my cheek and they were itchy as hell.  So I assumed that I had been bitten by a mozzie in my sleep.

Monday the itch turned into a rash.  No big deal – I don’t get sick and I normally don’t get allergic reactions – so was happy to run the course of my ‘mozzie’ bites.  People were asking me what I had been bitten by and was a topic that people in shops were happy to ask me about.  In the meantime I had also been to the dentist twice for a barnacle clean and 3 fillings. I also had to drop my passport to the Chinese Consulate and the finalizing my trip continued.

Tuesday the rash started to swell.  Still no pain at this stage, but it was starting to look a little ‘unusual’.  Back to the dentist for another 2 fillings ( yes it has been a while between visits ).  Even the dentist mentioned it looked like a spiders bite and I should get it seen too.  I still had people offering advice and asking me what had attacked my face.  A visit to work and seeing their faces drop when I walked in the door told me that I was staring to look a little ‘kooky’.  There were 2 theories we had for the bite.  One was that getting home on Sunday morning I had walked into a spiders web and was attacked.  The other which is totally not to my liking is that a spider sat on my face and had a nibble while I was in my drunk induced sleep.  Need less to say I was sticking to part one of the theory.

Wednesday was the first official day I looked like elephant woman.  My face felt like it was the size of a balloon and it was quite obvious that I needed to see a doctor.  I got an appointment in the afternoon and at this point we were still dealing with a bite, which we had deduced was a spider.  The doctor was quite nice and gave me some drugs that I was expecting miracles from and thought that I would be back to normal as soon as I started to take them. Oh how I wish that was true.

Thursday morning when I opened my eyes I just knew that things were no better.  I had to head into the city to pick up my passport and do a few other things and not one person asked me about the ‘bite’ on my face, as It had gone past the point of people asking what had happened as you could see in their faces that they did not know if it was heriditaty, a disease or an abusive husband.  Back to work for lunch and the 4 hours I was there it just degenerated so much I headed upstairs to another doctor.  It was getting to sheer desperation.  I needed this thing to start clearing up as the first portion of my trip was starting to look shakey.  This doctor was really nice and this was the first time that shingles was mentioned.  Shingles is a viral disease produced by the chicken pox virus. It is characterised by pain and a blistering rash that occurs along the nerves that have housed the dormant chicken pox virus since its last effects on an individual ( I was 10 when I had chicken pox ) When an individual's immune system can no longer fight the chicken pox virus, they develop shingles.  As we didn’t know which one I actually had, we decided to continue treating me for a spider bite and now also shingles.

Friday for me was the most confronting.  I woke and my face looked like something from a horror movie. This is no exageration.  Today was quite upsetting with the realisation that I would probably have to cancel my Trans Mongolian portion of my trip, as my face had not only NOT improved was getting worse as the days wore on.  I had Zoe’s school cross country that I promised I would go to, but my face would have just scared all the kiddies the way it was.  Luckily when I was at the chemist I bought an eye patch, so I decided to don this and head down to the oval to watch my oldest god-daughter run her little heart out – and it was definetly worth looking like Blackbeard for the morning.  I made my third appointment at the doctors for the third day in a row.  I just wanted to make sure there was nothing else I could be doing over the week-end to help in my recovery.  This male doctor was not only hot but also really nice and also said he thinks it is shingles.  With all the medication I was on there was really not much more they could do for me.  If shingles is not diagnosed within the first 72 hours then you have to run the whole course of the infection – which is where I found myself.

Saturday and Sunday I found the mornings were the worst times with the swelling, but the drugs started to kick in and by mid morning – lunch time I was starting to resemble the old Bernie once again.  This was a massive releif for me and to know I had turned the corner and was coming through the otherside was something I won’t forget.  I am glad I persisted with the doctors and paid the money for the drugs and the visits ( all $400 worth ) to make sure I was in the best condition possible for the start of my trip.

The upside – as there is always one is that I had an alcohol free week for the first time since before christmas.  So we are talking quite a few weeks in total and it made a nice change to wake up on a Sunday morning refreshed and not hung over and feeling like I had swallowed a hairball and drunk 50 litres of vodka.

So that was my medical emergency the leading up to my last week.  I am hoping that I have got all my ailments done and dusted BEFORE I go and will now have a medical free trip!

Shingles or Spider Bite?
We will never know!!!!! 

Days Are - Tick – Tick - Ticking

I really am not sure where the time has gone. 

The only way I know how many days I have left is from the countdown clock I have added to my blog.  I remember telling my best friend when I was nearly into double digit days that that’s when the real countdown would start.  The timing from 101 days to 22 has been, to say the least, a whirlwind.  My week-ends since Christmas have been manic ( my liver is silently agreeing of this point ) and the reality of the ‘no home’, ‘no job’ and ‘no familiar faces’ starts to set in.

Well with only 22 days till I leave ( according to my countdown clock ) it is still hard to believe that I am so close.  The ‘real’ countdown is now on. 

My second last Saturday that I will have to work

My last staff meeting on Monday

14 walking days

8 working days  

3 more weekends

3 more episodes of Farmer Wants a Wife and My Kitchen Rules

2 more visits to The Caxton

2 more pay days and the list goes on…………….

I know it may sound insignificant – but the familiarity will also disappear in 22 days.  Don’t get me wrong – I can’t wait to meet new and ‘different’ people, discover cultures, experience other countries and taste different food – but I will miss the familiarity.

So what goes into the last few weeks’ preparation of a long travel Odyssey?

Arranging money matters for 12 months – this is not as such a mammoth task as it sounds – Travelex is my friend.  With internet banking and BPay – it really is just a matter of being organized – and if you hadn’t guessed – I have no trouble in that department.

Power of Attorney – this is a pretty important one. As I now am husbandless, aside from the financial matters, who will look after my affairs ( touchwood ) should something go wrong.  It is a reality, and I have appointed the most important person in my world for this job.  It comes right down to if I’m in an accident and on life support – what to do, to know whether I would like to donate my organs, and down to being buried or cremated.  Trip or no trip, these things should be discussed with loved ones anyway.

Personal belongings – this has been partially taken care of when I moved out of the family home 5 months ago.  I am now down to the nitty gritty of where personal documents go, family jewelry to be stored and my basic day to day life will need to be boxed and stored until my return.

Working out what will actually come with me on my trip - I have dedicated a post to this already, so you know what is involved.  But doing a pre-pack 4 weeks ago, to actually deciding what will make the cut and what will be culled makes the decision more of a reality. I know that what ever I decide to take / leave something will be the wrong thing – good old Murphy’s Law!

Last and probably the most important is the preparation and the starting of ‘the final’ good-byes.  I hate them at the best of times and just this week I have started to say the ‘G’ word to people whom I won’t see again for at least 12-14 months.   

I hate to think what I will be like at the airport – I can see it now, I will be a blubbering mess – you know the people you see at the international airport – crying like babies – and waving all the way down the escalators and they are still waving as they pass the liquids bag inspection and boarding pass check before heading into customs.  I guess you never really think too much about those people as you generally are only gone for 2 weeks or so, so what is the big deal and tears for?  Well I apologize now – because that will be ME.  So next time you see some-one crying at the airport, have a bit of compassion in your eyes as it is a pretty BIG transition with all those happy and sad feelings running around all at the same time.

Days Are - Tick – Tick - Ticking