Up at 5am this morning for the Great Wall of China and the last day of this tour from hell. Yay to last day, boo to spending another sixteen hours with this bunch of prats. I manage to get everyone out on time and then it is up to the guide to do the rest for the day. It takes us the usual two and a half hours to get out to the Great Wall and I hang back with two of the older clients, who are about the only two decent people on the trip.

When I have escorted them up to the wall I let the guide take over, I have no desire to spend the next four hours hiking, especially hiking with these people! I have nothing to prove anyway, I hike about six kilometres last year with Paul and Andy….people I actually liked and was actually sorry to lose.

I managed to find a restaurant, one I didn't remember from last year and had the most amazing sweet and sour pork I'd ever tasted. By the time I had finished my lunch the two older clients had enough and were already waiting at the meeting point. I sat there in the sun waiting for everyone to trickle down. When it was time to go, old cantankerous insisted on having another beer and we ended up leaving half an hour late. Due to this fact, we go stuck in Beijing rush hour and it took us four hours to get back.

This still left us an hour before dinner, Old cantankerous actually had the cheek to suggest I postpone the dinner, because he had things to do and didn't want to be rushed. I put my foot down and said, no I had already booked the dinner and that it is a busy restaurant which can't be changed and short notice.

I went upstairs to prepare for the last group meal of the tour, wishing I could fast forward through this evening, a point at which I would never have to see any of these people again. I went down to meet them at 7pm and then made the ten minute walk to the Peking duck restaurant. Dinner, while uncomfortable went off without a hitch and everyone enjoyed their meals. Although there was no, Thanks Kris, I really enjoyed my dinner, from anyone.

Unfortunately, for me they all wanted to go out for a drink afterwards, and of course there are no bars in the stupid location the hotel is in, so I took them to a street bar. On the way I managed to find some candy floss, which one of the old guys (a friend of old cantankerous) helped me eat. OCD b**** made me take some of them to the night markets. Mercifully, the street bar closed at 10:30pm and I walked everyone back to the hotel. Walking into my room, and hearing the locking mechanism click in the door was the best sound I had heard in three weeks.