Changing in Hong Kong, we start picking out who will be our travel companions on our two-for-one Trip A Deal package tour. It wasn’t hard. Most were over 70, couples and Australian. What fun we have before us.
In Beijing, we were assembled into our Chinese Zodiac groups. It seemed to go more smoothly then I imagined it would. I guess we were all tired and willing to move quickly and quietly. I also think that some had flown in earlier and some were still to arrive.
Our tour guide, Robin, took us out to the Purple Monkey coach and we eyed our fellow monkeys with some trepidation. Here were the forty other people we would be spending the next 16 days with. Both the nurse and the patient as well as their travel companions, turned out to be in our group. Some were happy that they could find out the story of how the shoulder as popped back in. Robin told us that we were his family now and allocated numbers to each family. He would use these numbers later in the trip when accounting for everyone.
“Robin’s family”, he would yell, “ok, family one, are you here?” Family one, would yell out “yes” and he would proceed through the numbers. There was no family four – unlucky number in Chinese nor family 13, unlucky to westerners. Each family would reply. If there was no reply, we would wait … and wait … and wait …
By the time we arrived at our hotel an hour or so later it was very late. We were tired. Our hotel was miles out of Beijing. After almost a full day of travelling we sunk into our comfortable beds and fell asleep. The next morning was an early start. In fact, all mornings in China on the tour were early starts. The days were long and there was lots of waiting around for our coach and slow fellow passengers who couldn’t make the meeting times. We trudged behind the Robin, carrying the tattered Trip A Deal flag. We walked through the Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden Palace, the streets of Beijing and the parking lot at the Great Wall.
There were included tours and “optional” tours that we could do if we wanted … at an extra cost … however, no one truely had an option. The included tours were to the jade factory, a silk factory, a Chinese Medicine centre and a tea house. All involved a hard sell. I got sucked in at the silk factory. So did Ellen. They got Marg and Louise at the traditional Chinese Medical Centre. One by one, our group of fellow tourists fell into the traps and scams of jade, silk, green tea and fatty liver cures.
A highlight was a tour through old Beijing. A pedicab driver whisked us through the narrow streets near the west lake, where locals swam in the water, took photos of each other – and us – on the pretty bridges and drank in tea houses and bars. This was followed by dinner in a family home nearby. Forty of us from the bus were split into three different rooms of the house that spread out from the central courtyard. At our table, we were all from Sydney, except for my sisters. We got to know some of our fellow travellers. Louise asked the other three couples, how they had met. It was nice to hear their stories and see photos of their children. it was over too soon and again we were following the flag back to wait for our bus. An hour or so later, we were back at our hotel in the outer Beijing area, tired from a full day of following the flag, spending money, and eating way too much.
Our time in Beijing, went quickly despite the long days. Before we knew it, Robin was saying goodbye as soon as he settled us into the bullet train. For the first time, the ten buses – of forty people each – were travelling together. We recognised some people from our flight on the way over, others who were mere passes by at breakfast or when two-to-three buses would encounter each other at the various tourists sites.
The bullet train sped through the late afternoon and into the night from Beijing to Suzhou, taking us to our new flag-carrying guide, Hu (aka John). The Great Wall had been climbed, Tiananmen Square traversed and a new destination was waiting on the other side of endless cities of sky- apartment blocks that lacked both beauty and imagination.
At Suzhou station, 400 tourists had three minutes to alight the bullet train with huge bags and travel pillows around their necks. It was 10:45pm, most were tired, some had been drinking heavy strength rice wine and all were racing each other. It was a shit fight. I only wish I had my travel pillow around my neck, as unfortunately it continued on the train after I raced off. It is never to be seen again.
Hu, our guide for the next three days, ushered us to the safety of bus number eight. Gone was the monkey name and the purple colour. We were now eights. A good sign as eight is the luckiest of the numbers according to the Chinese. The days were now becoming a blur. Three days, three cities, endless flat land filled with the same endless high-rise apartments. A boat trip on a canal here, a boat trip on a lake there. A night time boat ride to see the bright lights of Shang-hai. Less waiting, less hard sell, continued early mornings and late nights. Dumpling soup for breakfast each day another constant. By this stage, we are all looking forward to some down time on the cruise between Shanghai and Tokyo.
Last minute instructions are issued on our way to the cruise terminal. After, the must have information regarding customs, bag drops and security Hu tells us that apart from our group of 400, the other 5,100 people on the cruise will be Chinese tourists. He says, they will be loud. He tells us they will yell to each other. He tells us they will dance and have a good time – and that we too should have a good time. I think about this. Will I have a good time on a cruise? Something. I said I would never do.
At this stage, I am certainly doubting that I will ever do another package tour … will some well earned R&R on a megaship with no flag to follow – and where everything is actually optional – leave me feeling the same way? There is only one way to find out and that is to cruise right in.
The seat of my pants 
Ah, be it ever so humble….. it was great reading your blog Genevieve. 😊
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