More About Me

Just returned from 2 weeks in Hong Kong and Beijing. HK was great fun; really, really humid though. That was probably the only downside to the city - as soon as you walked out of air-conditioning you were sweating! It's a great city for shopping in, if that's your thing and, although I'm not a huge shopper I did manage to pick up a couple of bags and wallets! Loved Lantau Island and seeing the big Buddha. Victoria Peak was pretty good too. Markets are good for gifts and traditional items, just barter hard (ie: no more than 1/5th of what they originally ask you for)! Disneyland was cute but, if you've done the ones in America, you could get through this one in about 3 hours, it's tiny! Beijing was less exciting than I thought it would be. The Great Wall was fantastic and an experience I will never forget but other sites, like Tianamen and the Forbidden City, didn't quite grab me as much as I thought they would. Cabs are hard to get in Beijing, they rarely stop for foreigners and there is no order in the city what-so-ever when it comes to driving, lines, buying tickets etc. I couldn't believe the disorder actually, considering they just had the Olympics there. Overall it was a nice break and it's always nice to see a new culture and new things but they're both places I don't think I will hurry back to, for various reasons. Now that that trip is done and dusted it's time to save for another big trip, which we hope will happen late 2009 or early 2010. My boyfriend has never been to America so another trip there might be on the cards. We both also want to go back to Europe, namely Rome, Sicily, Nice, Paris, London and Ireland! Past trips: Melbourne 1992, 2003 Italy 1994/5 (all up and down, from Milan to Calabria), 1997, 2001, 2004 Brisbane 1997 Sydney 2002, 2003x2, 2007 European Panorama (Western Europe) 2001 London 2004 to 2005 (such a fantastic city to live in)! Ireland & Belgium 2004 Grand Southern (America) 2005/6 Toronto 2006 Highlights of New Europe (Eastern Europe) 2007 Highlights of Scandinavia 2007 Hong Kong 2008 Beijing 2008 Destinations for one day include a safari in Africa; Japan; New Zealand; San Francisco, Chicago and Vancouver...to name a few!

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