Ni Jao

To be honest, 2011 didn’t really involve a whole lot of travelling. Which is why, on the 31st of December, I decided that 2012 would become my ‘new’ year of travel (see what I did there?) I wasn’t really too sure how successful I would be. Little did I know how wrong I would be to doubt myself.

As with all big plans, this one too was supposed to involve a lot of people and a lot of sightseeing. In the end it came down to four people, quite a bit of sightseeing (visits to a charming Buddhist monastery, a lovely palace, a church with a morning school assembly complete with pious students and the atheist variety throw in for good measure and the nicest home stay with 8 daschunds including one that rather thoughtfully decided to wake me up), even more eating (that’s another long story in itself), hundreds of photos and a whole lot of fun that included sinful ice cream gorging, a bonfire to remember with the starry sky providing the perfect board to play Cosmic Scrabble, unfortunately unforgettable home made Coffee, a beautiful long winding road to nowhere that threw the schedule out the window but ensured the drive was memorable. Sigh! The list is endless.

By far the best road trip in a very very long time. I think I lost sensation in my right hand with all the photos I clicked during that short while. Which explains why I’m present in all of 4 photos. Oh wait, I just realised, that was the intention of the others all along! Grrrr ….

As thoroughly memorable as that trip was, the ever cruel Lady Fate decided to step in and even the playing field of sorts. Before I could even upload all the pictures onto my laptop, work flooded me to the extent that I needed to use a straw to breathe. People say that my line of work is comfortable but trust me, after sitting on chairs for 10 days straight for over 14 hours every day, back breaking work gets an all new definition. And so when it came to travelling I threw in the towel and resigned myself to a repeat of another 2011.

But here I am, on the 26th of February, writing this entry from my hotel room in a very cold Shanghai unable to post this because well blogging as the rest of the world knows it, is blocked in China. More on the fascinating neighbour of ours in the days to come.