Early start this morning and off to the Great Wall of China again for me with my group. It took us about two hours to drive there, which was actually quicker than last time. On the way our guide Bobbie attempted to teach us all some Mandarin, she told me I should consider learning it properly as my pronounciation was perfect. I had already tried to learn it before I had left Australia, but I was also trying to learn Russian at the same time and I think in trying to learn both I was inventing my own language.

Once at the Great Wall I jumped out to get the tickets and the group had their photo taken in front of the big stone that says Jingshanling Great Wall in Chinese characters. I walked up to the wall with the passengers, I hung back with some of the slower ones for a while before charging off and trying to catch up with the ones nearer the front. Colin was just gone, like a bat out of hell….trying to get ahead and ditch the rest of the tourists. If I was on my own here, and not working, that's exactly what I would have done, I used to do that in Egypt all the time. I never managed to catch up with Colin but I did manage to catch Paul and Andy.

I was with Andy for a while until he and Bobbie ran on ahead, I stuck with Paul for the rest of the day. I think I managed to get further along the Great Wall than ever before. We managed to get to this section, where there actually was no wall, just a high rocky path, leading up to one of the towers, I decided to call it right there.

Paul and I had a nice leisurely walk back, on which we had to share the wall with virtually no one, all the other tourists must have gotten the cable car back, including Colin, which Paul and I agreed would leave him open to being mocked. Paul and I got back right on time and sure enough Colin and basically everyone else had beaten us back, either because they hadn't gotten as far as us or because they had taken the cable car back. Go us! We got back in the bus and headed back to Beijing, on the trip back basically everyone including me fell asleep.

Once back at the hotel I went to get a snack before dinner, I walked up to Wangfujing and had some McDonalds. At 7pm I went downstairs to take the group for Peking duck, well that's not quite right. I went downstairs so that Andy could take the group for Peking duck at a place that had been recommended to him as the places I had taken the previous group to had been rubbish. We walked up the same street on which the hotel was on and went into a nice looking restaurant.

We each ordered a dish as well as on duck for the table and then put everything on the lazy susan in the middle so it could all be shared. The Peking duck was amazing, certainly the best one I'd ever had. The rest of the food was really good too and I thanked Andy for his help.

After dinner the oldies went back to the hotel and me and the guys went out to bar street for a drink. We had a bit of trouble getting a cab, but we got there in the end, we met Bobbie outside the big Adidas store and then went for a drink at the Jack Daniels Pub. I had a couple of JD and cokes and Bobbie and I shared a sheesha, which the guys found amusing, especially when I wrapped the tiger striped pipe around my neck while I was smoking it and Colin called me Cleopatra. The bill for the few drinks we had came to 750 yuan, which Bobbie said was a rip off and I thought was a bit much, but which everyone happily paid.

We left the Jack Daniels bar and went for a walk around the shops, while we were walking along Paul bought me a balloon which looked just like teddy, and which I immediately tied to my wrist. Andy ran into some of his friends from the G Adventures group and well that was pretty much the end of the night. Colin had an early flight so he had to leave early, Paul decided to go back with him and rather than be the odd one out I decided to go back with them and leave Andy with his other friends.

I tied my balloon to the weave in my hair, which got a lot of laughs and skipped off ahead of the guys down the street, I think everyone in the area thought I was quite mad. Might have still been a little light headed from the sheesha. Bobbie helped us get a cab and we went back to the hotel, where I said goodbye to Colin and then to Paul. That right there is the sucky part of this job, having to say goodbye to people you really like, I know you get rid of people you can't stand just as quickly, but it never seems to balance out. I've really enjoyed this tour, and being stuck on a train with those three maniacs, playing killer bunnies and drinking games.