To avoid rushing out of Singapore after the race with everyone else we added a day to the hotel / GP package. After the appropriate amount of being lazy watching we set out to catch a bus to the train station. There were a couple of numbers we could catch and we jumped on the first to arrive. It immediately failed to turn left to the station and continued along the main street.
I studied Chinese in high school, all the way to year 12, though I barely remember any now. I’ve eaten with chopsticks since I was a kid. I just remember chopsticks being in the cutlery drawer with everything else, like the little cake forks you use to eat cake. They’ve always just been there.
Forbidden City, Beijing.
I’ve been to Hong Kong a few times, either as a 3 or 4 day stop over going to or from somewhere else, or for around a week with the school band, I played the bass clarinet. But I had never made it to mainland China.
Dad had been interested in going for years. Dad convinced mum to go by organising the trip through an agent with dedicated guides and drivers each day to take us around.
On our second day in Chiang Mai my sister organised for a Thai cooking lesson. We were picked up from the hotel in a songthaew (or สี่ล้อ / S̄ī̀ l̂x – four wheels). The car did a lap of Chiang Mai picking up other groups are other hotels.
One group got in the back with us. Michael started talking with them and we soon found out they were a family from France, and their father was Greek. They then got on like a house on fire for the rest of the afternoon.
The next day I had breakfast in the hotel and waited for Alex and his wife, Lyn, to meet me before we headed out for the day. I got a message saying they were going to be a bit late, so I should head out in the morning first and they’ll meet me a little later at the hotel, so I went for a wander.
