Quick trip to the UK

Work commitments have meant I need to go to the UK for a few days. It has added pressure to getting the Chinese visas given the Mid-Autumn holiday period for the embassy on return. The China trip continues to fall into place with bookings for acrobats made and a list of well reviewed restaurants in tow along with how to get to the various destinations. We expect language to be a bigger issue than normal heading out West.

Six girls will go to high school now!!

The fundraising for the Tibetan girls has gone even better now with 6 girls in total to be funded (2 by us). DD#1 had a lot of fun at camp and DD#2 loved her Peter and the Wolf excursion. Concerts are lining up for end of year activities and very happy to report we have at least 4 less activities next term. No point paying for activities when you will be away for 2-3 weekends. Our trip is now 1 day longer than originally planned which means an extra day in Beijing. Tallied the train fares and it certainly adds up to many hundreds of dollars unless we are prepared to go lower class (short trips OK, but not the long haul trips). And visa paperwork is set (other than photos) so hope to head down to the embassy this week to get in before the October holidays. They want a lot more detail these days and more money. For some reason a virus was detected on DD#2's paperwork and it dropped out without printing, but it may have been related to the fact they want the original name written in native language (OK I can write it but not type it!!).

Plans keep changing

The doc said a very straight NO to grandpa going to ANY altitude. So that rules out way out West for him. Instead he will now spend a day in Xian and take the overnight train to Shanghai - it is a long way so it won't get in until 2pm or so. We may see the Terracotta Warriors and then head West without him. Have been fund raising at work for the sponsored girls and it has gone exceptionally well. We will now have 5 girls in total, with 3 being sponsored for the longevity of their schooling from work colleagues. And the airline sent an email saying that the flight schedule had changed leaving Beijing and there is an offer of changing the dates we leave. We could leave 2 days later which would allow us time to visit Shenyang quickly for Charlotte. That seems like a great option to visit some favourites (Laobian dumplings, get nails done, underground fashion street) and to do some things we missed out on like Xiale ancient area. It is tempting to visit the orphanage again, but I know it would tug impossible to pull off strings to bring that older boy with ear issues home (unless we moved to China semi-permanantly) or to at least try to arrange a hearing aid for him perhaps through Cochlear in Beijing. It will be cold and only 6 or 7 weeks later we could see the snow and ice festival but maybe next time. DD#2 did her very first excursion with kinder using a bus today. She was up at 5.30am and so super excited and ready to leave at 6.00am despite the fact she was 3 hours early. DD#1 has her very first school camp beginning Monday so it is all happening here lately.

Now on the same flight

After all sorts of messages all around it was found out we could book the flight for myself, but just not with the travel agency that we originally used - they claimed I could get online help to do so, but the normal priced ticket was not an option at the same time for their system. That is a Chinese booking system in English I suppose. And we have also now booked another trip back to Bali - but this will be Grandpas first trip. He had aspirations of visiting Krakatoa etc but from a safety aspect not so sure. He keeps telling me the cost of a hotel would be the same as a train all the way to Jakarta - yes that is probably true but through Java I wouldn't sleep with fear of belongings being taken. East Java has some of the slimmest and poorest people I have ever seem. Would love to go see Lombok and Gili Island but it will be rainy season and seas will be higher then so not so sure about that either. We could try Sulawesi but not sure we need to troop all over the place but rather enjoy the lushness of Bali.

Planes, trains and buses... (what do you call a Chinese tuk tuk??)

Well the cheap flights from Xining are early in the morning.. but you must be over 55 to book!! No matter how you try their booking system, I could book only my father and kids, but not me!! We are trying to kindly ask permission that I can join (likely at a higher fee), or otherwise I will have to take another flight leaves sames time but stops over in Xian for 50 minutes. Which would mean a number of hours of my father with kids - so long as he is healthy that is OK.... don't like it but these are not cheap flights given the distance. Grandpa is thinking it would be cool to fund a yak but they cost around $400. We have asked for some photos of 2 girls to fundraise for, but it turns out they currently only have pics of girls from other areas. My girls are growing like weeds as they say. The younger one will go to kinder again next year. She goes to an amazing kindergarten based on the Reggio Emilia philosophy. She is starting to read letters and can pick up a word or two, and learnt to tell the time on the hour the other day. Another year at kinder would make her super confident for school. We are getting really excited about the forthcoming trip.. looking into the things we can do. In Xian we will simply transit so we can enjoy the view from the train window during more daylight out West. In Shanghai there is now a modern looking gondola (like chair lifts) on a rail line that seems to go through a tunnel, under the river at the Bund, with flashing lights etc. Apparently it is very short and tacky, but only in China: http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attraction_Review-g308272-d311578-Reviews-Bund_Sightseeing_Tunnel-Shanghai.html

Fundraising to sponsor 4 girls

Given the excitement of visiting our sponsored girls we will fundraise for 2 extra girls. We currently do not have any photos as the sponsor organisation is currently visiting the grassland areas trying to recruit new students. Our 2 students from last year have now graduated and we await the news if they got into university. We had advice to take some Diamondox for altitude sickness so will look into that. Just need to book our hutong in Beijing and might leave the accommodation choice for Tongren to when we get there.. there seems to be no English speaking options and a Tibetan homestay 1 km north of town possible and it sounds the best for a cultural experience, but it sound you bare your rear to a barking tied up dog when relieving yourself.

The doc said 'no' re altitude for Grandpa

So we have to forget the Xiahe option for now and going over the mountains. We contemplated splitting but then we have the issue that if for some reason grandpa got taken to hospital we would have a lack of communication. So for now we will just head to Xining and stay at a nice hotel and get a driver to minimise the physical exertion and to hopefully give us time to get used to the alitutude... apparently you can head back to Lanzhou if you can't cope with the altutude of Xining. It makes it difficult to book plane flights as we definitely need a direct flight to Shanghai. Certainly with more time we would explore this region much further probably Lanzhou - Sichuan track. We have all had colds which makes work/activities/school/daycare coverage that much more difficult.