Beijing

Ni Hao! (Hello!)

Two and half days in Beijing are certainly not enough to go round this huge 'Olympic 2008' city !! First impressions, not much, I mean it's a big city with high buildings, only difference are the Chinese characters all over the place.
But then the best of China just hits you when you get on the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. Pity didn't have time to get to other wonderful places but I think I got to experience the creme de la creme.

I got pretty excited yesterday walking up and down along the Great Wall. It took us about 1000 steps to get to the top, then about an hour and a half just to go walk from one tower to another, maybe 6 miles out of the about 3500miles or so of it. We visited the Mutainya part. Of course, there are several sections open to tourists but you only get to do a fraction of it. After that we went for a Kung Fu show - just like watching a musical at the West End - magnificent moves and breakings.

Today we visited the never-ending Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. The latter is about 880km long has lots of important big buildings and could hold the entire population of Malta within it. The City is a wonder. I wish the sun was out so the gold would just shine while the colours extenuate their hues from those typical Chinese style buildings.
Other intrinsic things that make China unique ....smoking & spitting (yes still going) in public, 4-star squat toilets with no paper...to mention a few!!!

ta for now, off to get a sleeper train for Xian....

Nicky
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UK & Malta gems!

Back from Africa I couldn't sit still!!! I started preparing and planning for my next big trip or trips?!?!?!! These last 2 months have been really hectic in-between, resigning from work, working my notice, booking trips and flights, applying for a multitude of Visas - big one being the working holiday visa for Australia, preparing to leave UK for good, packing then donating all my personal belongings to charity etc etc.. oh, and also surprising my family and friends in Malta with an unexpected visit. That was something! I'm so glad it was a success and well, I needed a good hug, a 'hello' and a sound 'goodbye' anyways! Thanks to Cindy, an 'old' colleague and friend from UK, I also managed to tour the Island too ...bringing back 'historic' memories ;)



Not only did I keep myself nice and busy over the past 2 months, but I also managed to fit in some training in preparation for the first part of the big trip, which is that, across China into Tibet and further onto Kathmandu. This trip will involve a bit of everything from plane to trains, from trekking to a bit of climbing etc etc.. so best (and hope I am) prepared. I'll be hitting a range of high altitude places again, especially from Lhasa in Tibet onto Everest Base Camp....so here I go again, second time in a year!!!!

What was the subject again?? Oh yes, was talking about training (.....imagining those Himalayan peaks right now....mmmmm....) anyways, ...oh so close now..sorry can't help it!!! Ok so, eh, apart from the usual (boring) gym, run circuit and long walk to Beacon Hill, my good friend Anthony Pizzuto (better known as 'Pizza' or 'Piz' for short) took me to the gorgeous Cheddar Gorge; a lovely 3 hour walk up and down the Gorge to end up in the quaint little cheesy village!!! Scrumptious! I mean both the cheese and the biscuits, ooops, meant walk!! Just admire the wonderful photos Piz took that day, they just say it all. Can you spot me in one of them!?!?!?!


Just about a fortnight ago I went to visit a good friend of mine, Robin in South or is it more mid-Wales? well, a place called Llandovery. Lovely, never thought Wales had such an amazing navel. It generally is all about the North and the South (which I've been to both, of course). But thanks to Robin and good other half Claire, I discovered another gem. (well, that's after getting lost a few times on the way, by the way, despite the satnav, which wasn't of much help anyway!!!) And to make me feel even more at home I got to sleep in a 100s years old (sorry Rob forgot the count you told me!!) converted barn. Oh so nicely done up!!!
[Eh, Robin would you mind sending me some photos of your lovely whereabouts to display here, pls?! ta]

Well, all for now from moi. Next update will hopefully be from China. So, if you feel you need to take a break from your mundane life, just take a quick trip with me.....add this blogsite to your bookmarks or favourites and hit it!!!

Ok, speech before I'm off....today on the eve of my next big trip which will hopefully see me settle in the Oz for about a year....I must say thanks to anyone who read the blogsite and kept up with me so far (congrats!), a BIG BIG thanks to all those who supported me all along my adventures in every way and BIG BIG BIG thanks to my family and friends in Malta - was great seeing you again :)
Love you all & miss you all

Nicky
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Cape Town

hello to all,

I must say after Tanzania Cape Town came quite as a surprise but then why so I was in a completely different country just same continent, a bit like North vs South America.
I stayed on the waterfront in Cape Town throughout my week and a half visit and immediately felt like a proper tourist as opposed to a traveller. Wonderful shopping malls, hotels, restaurants the lot really, which made me feel quite out of place. Took me a while to adjust to elite civilisation again!

If anything there's lots to do in Cape Town so I quickly booked tours and trips. My first one was to Hermanus Bay for a bit of whate watching. It was still early in the season and we only managed to see two in the distance. However, the beaches all along the coast are a spectacle.


A different and interesting tour was the wine tasting one. We headed inland and visited beautiful manor houses in the middle of vineyards to taste some gorgeous wines. Oh how my head spun, yep especially sampling wines at 10 in the morning!! Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Praal aren't only renouned for their wines but their quaintness which no wonder attracts loads of retired British.

Third time lucky due to bad weather and choppy seas, I managed to pay a visit to Robben Island. Although there isn't much to see except for long corridors with dormitories (the main prison) I couldn't help wondering what life could be like for a convict. My imagination was even fueled by the recounts of our tour guide, an ex-convict himself for about 10 years. Pity the area where Nelson Mandela lived was closed for restoration. Outside the prison site the rest of the Island is a cute little village with a school, post office and a few residential buildings not to mention the residents; people, antelope and seals.




After the cultural tours I had had to go for a bit of adventure! So off I went out at sea for a shark cage diving experience! I never thought I'd find the guts to stay in that cage for a good 45 minutes while white sharks feasted on chunks of tuna just about a metre infront of my nose! Was an incredible experience, which I have recorded on dvd. The photos show the cage we 'sat' in being dragged to the boat we were on and the other is a photo of a photo; our shark tour leader kissing one of those big cuties!!!


Being in Cape Town I had to visit Cape of Good Hope, of course! It was a long drive but well worth the scenery, to say the least. We first went up to Cape Point by cable car, I would have loved walking the gigantic boulder to the lighthouse but the weather was so unstable; one minute you get blue skies and sun the next clouds and rainstorm. Well, what could you expect being at the Cape! The view from the Point was fantastic. You got to see the different shaded oceans; the Altantic being colder is turquoise in colour while the Indian Ocean is of a deep dark blue. A quick dash along the narrow Diaz trial before a nice shower (!) took us further down and a bit closer to the waters. We next stopped at Cape of Good Hope. I must say not as spetacular however, quite monumental, of course.

Oh, and we visited the colony of tiny penguins on our way back at Boulders Bay...oh so cute!!!

Cape Town is prob one of the few Towns in the world to have a mountain right in the middle of it. This is Table Mountain and not only just over 1000m high, the summit has a surface area of 2.5km. Due to bad weather and despite the unfortunate incidents occuring throughout the week and a half of my stay I got to speed climb it up in about 2.5hrs on my very last day. Our guide took us up a very short but route. We could barely see anything once on top with the thick fog. Hard to believe but the photo shows me on the summit! Our guide made us wait for a few minutes at the top as he felt a bit of wind about to expose the view of the bays below. And what a view we had for just 5 minutes. Well worth it, though. We descended by cable car as there was no time to walk it down...I had to get to the airport that afternoon.



On other days and afternoons I just spent my time walking around the waterfront and along the endless promenades ... wishing it were summer not winter there!
Cape Town was my final African destination before heading back to UK after 2 months :) I must say quite an Out of Africa experience!!!

ta for now
Nicky
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Latest News from Nicolette's school in Africa

Jambo,

there's nothing like good news!!! :) Since I'm back in the UK, that's about 2 months now, I've had very little news from my school back in Tanzania. However, the little I had was good actually great :) I received emails from Dr. Asteria & Saada as well as Moses and Corneille, not to mention Joanna's visit and update on her blogsite.

I was thrilled to hear that the kids are attending their new school and have been for more than a month now. Even though the school was still empty at the time, I just got to know that thanks to two new volunteers, Martin and Kerry, the little ones now have a small black board, exercise books, abc chart, toys, pencils, pens, balls etc.. as well as 2 two temporary teachers!! :) THANK U!! (Oh, I wish I had some photos!)

Renovation works have also progressed, apparently. The walls have been smoothed and painted too, while Asteria and Saada moved their tiny offices into the new school's rooms. In the meantime, I've transferred some money into the WEMA Centre account, which was left from the donations I received from my family and friends in Malta. I hope some desks will be made with that money.

I so would have loved to have stayed at least one more month to see that everything is in place and seeing if not teaching the children myself at my school, however, I have travel plans which extend towards the East this time and that's pretty soon so it will be a while until I pay a visit....which makes me sad thinking about it. In the meantime, thank God for email and blogs, of course!! :)

ta for now
watch out for a recount of my adventures in Cape Town in my next blog - coming soon...

Nicky
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