What a fantastic place! It's been a busy week but we've absolutely loved it here. The first couple of days, we spent exploring with Rob's family. We've had beautiful weather so walked for ages. Saw the Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Botanical Gardens and then wandered around the market at the Rocks. The Gardens were gorgeous and there were loads of parrots and bats flying around! It was Anne and Richards' Ruby wedding anniversary so went to a fancy r...

It seems like just as we're finding our feet here, off we go again. It's been close to 30 degrees at times, so we've taken in the sites while dashing from air con to air-con to cool down. Also, we had our final supper with everyone on the tour. It was sad to say goodbye - we've been really lucky with the group. I think Jenny, our tour leader, had her hands full, so hopefully she'll enjoy the rest now! We took the Peak tram up to Victoria Peak and the view would ...

Guess what the weather was like when we arrived here?! It has probably only stopped raining for a few hours in total since we've been here but this has still been an amazing place. Yangshuo is a small town, which you can walk around in around an hour taking in most of the sites. There's a lot of cafes and restaurants as well as shops and places to stay. But it's around Yangshuo you really get to see some sites. Rob's been pretty busy here, doing a cycling tour o...

Happy Hallowe'en from the 5 star Dragon Boat! We've become accustomed to this new luxury now; with 3 meals a day included, en suite luxury cabin with riverside view and rubbing shoulders with the German elite (that's the people who paid good money to be here, not receiving a last minute free upgrade like us!) Views here have been a bit limited by the rain and fog (anyone see a pattern developing here?) but we've still had a great time. After out celebrity-style ...

Finally we were really out in the countryside. Emei Shan village is a small but still quite touristy area as many people use it as a base to climb Mount Emei. There are also lots of monasteries/nunneries. On nights 1 and 3 we stayed in Baguo Si monastery. Only 2 cockroaches in the room and a shower that would make most of you shudder/collapse with fear but a real experience. Very different from the luxury Japanese monastery we stayed in but we felt much more inte...