Laos & Cambodia travel update – homeward bound

The Laos and Cambodia groups have arrived safely back at Melbourne Airport. The bus departed the airport at about 11:30am so they are expected to be a bit late back to the College. Depending on traffic, the estimated arrival time is 12:20pm.

China Warriors – Day 15: Hangzhou

Today we really enjoyed the West Lake and the Lingyin Temple. We have spent too long in the bus and we are getting confused between yesterday and today. All in all we had a tally of four buses in two days that easily would not meet the roadworthy standards in Australia.

We started our day with a great boat cruise around the West Lake, which coincidently was called the West Lake, because it is “in the West,” our tour guide Tony was quick to tell us.

We then ventured to the Lingyin Temple. It was very interesting and had a great beauty to it which gained our respect for Buddhist art. It was a shame that we were not allowed to take pictures in the temple because some of the Buddha statues were quite extraordinary.

We had a brief present buying session in Hangzhou before our dilemma with the buses began again. The first one had four dodgy tyres, the next one had bad suspension and no heating in -1 temperatures. The next one had bald tyres again. The last one finally fitted our safety and comfort standards, so Mr Scott was satisfied. We then left to take an endurance bus ride back to Shanghai. It was expected to be three hours, but edged a bit closer to the five hour mark, because of constant roadworks and traffic jams.

When we finally got back, we didn’t have time to check into the hotel or even have dinner before our cruise down Shanghai harbour, but it was worth the wait for the good view. On board, we were treated like celebrities by Chinese people. Many of them wanted their photos taken with us.

If we sound tired, yes we are. We checked into our hotel at 10:30pm.

by Meg and Matt B

Teachers’ note: the students have been tolerant and good-humoured about all the delays. They have indeed had a very long day, with some great highlights they will remember for years! They sang on the bus and had a good time in each others’ company.

China Dragons – Day 15 Beijing

Today we awoke to our fantastic Beijing hotel, fully equipped with a western buffet, which we all took full advantage of. We have all been adapting to the new environment of Beijing. There are very few tall buildings but many high rise apartment buildings; so far it has been quite diverse compared to other large cities such as Shanghai.

During the bus ride to the Great Wall of China we were exposed to the agriculture and country side of Beijing, which was not what we expected to see only 10 kilometres from the huge city of Beijing. As we got closer to our destination we stopped at a local village near the Great Wall. We then split into two groups and toured either the village doctor’s house or a local farmer’s house. We went to the doctor’s house where she explained to us that she is the only doctor in the village and has been for 35 years. The origin of her family was very interesting it has over 300 years of history, stretching back as far as the Ming dynasty.

We then embarked on one of the highlights of Beijing, the Great Wall of China! The chairlift from ground level to the wall was breath-taking, because we had a chance to see the amazing scenery that surrounds this ancient structure.

Being on top of the wall was a surreal feeling for all of us; it stretched on beyond eyesight in either direction. Mrs Ware granted us 2 free hours to explore the wall. The design and architecture of the wall itself was immaculate, it was amazing to think that such a long structure was built with just bricks and clay.

Although exploring the wall was fantastic it was a challenge to walk along, as some sections were extremely steep and uneven. Some of us couldn’t believe the amazing sights of snow covered mountain peaks with the wall following the mountain ridges. After we finished with the wall is was time to decide how to get back down to ground level. Most of us chose to take the 1.6km toboggan track as opposed to the chairlift.

After a long reflective bus ride back to central Beijing we were extremely hungry and dined at a very nice restaurant. Although the food in Beijing is considerably spicy compared to other parts of China, it was still very tasty and flavoursome.

Our night activity was the Legend of Kungfu show, at the very impressive Beijing Red Theatre. The show told a story of a young boy in search of enlightenment. The show was brilliantly choreographed and had a lot of fast paced kungfu elements.  It also showed each stage that the boy went through to reach enlightenment including how the boy used ‘chi’ from nature. The show was magnificent.

Today was jam packed and a great learning experience on a number of levels.

By Timmy.H and Bec Christidis