A final farewell.

A

fter my hutong cooking class, I headed back to the hotel to rest a bit and shower. 7pm, I met Bernd and Mairead in the lobby. Both of them had decided to stay an extra day so we all agreed to meet up for dinner for one last time. Bernd had mentioned going for Indian food and that was just up my alley....a much welcomed change after 3 weeks of Chinese food.

In the hotel lobby, we checked out the restaurant call cards that were on display at the reception desk and lo and behold, there was one for an Indian restaurant.

Cookin' up a storm.

T

he past three days I’ve been on my own to explore Beijing. While there are times that I miss being with my tour mates, I must say it is nice to just be able to do what I want and when I want.

Months ago, when I was planning this trip, I decided that I would probably be tired of sightseeing once the tour was over so I deliberately some non-sightseeing activities for myself. To start with, I signed up for hutong cooking class, a trip to see a Chinese doctor and of course, there was ample time for shopping :-)

Today was my cooking class and despite all my years of cooking and eating Chinese food, I must say that I walked away with some new cooking techniques and an deeper appreciation of Chinese cuisine. I had a really fun time!

Buh bye!

T

onight I had to say goodbye to everyone at dinner. It was our last night on tour and it's always a bittersweet moment for me. Over the course of three weeks of galavanting around China with this merry band of travellers, I had really grown fond of each them. Of all the tour groups I've travelled with in recent years, I will miss this one the most - lots of fun times and lots of laughter. Fortunately, I know I will still keep in touch with a few of them thanks to Facebook and email and thanks to this blogs, I have preserved many fond moments that I can look back on in the years to come.

Temple of Heaven.

A

fter spending quite a bit of time *people watching* in the park that surrounds the complex of Temple of Heaven, we strolled over to visit the buildings that comprise the complex.