Hi ladies, I'm home!!
All I can say is wow, what a place! I've been home a week now and am still in awe of the experience. What an amazing holiday, you are in for a treat! I had to keep pinching myself as it was like a dream.
Be warned, as mentioned by others, the holiday is very tiring, it's not just the walking but there are a lot of early starts,(the tour manager arranges early morning calls) it was all worth every minute though. Hopefully you will have Lisa, she is absolutely briliant and what she doesn't know isn't worth knowing.
The hotels are great, you want for nothing, I was especially impressed with some of the toiletries etc, dressing gown and slippers were included in all the hotels we stayed in. They all have hairdryers too.
I just did the 10 day trip but would love to go back and do more. I feel I want to do it all again so that I can take more in. I took over 600 photographs with the intention of deleting any rubbish but have only deleted five.
There was a great age range with the youngest being approx 28ish and the oldest being 80, quite a few around the 70 mark too. I would say the average was around 50 - 65 on our trip. There was always the option of the easy route if walking is difficult. You don't need to worry about losing the rest of the group when visiting places either, as the guide and tour manager are constantly looking out for you and taking a head count.
I have to say I felt completely safe the whole time we were there, even when a couple of us found a little side street market late one night we felt safe. The Chinese people are so friendly, they do tend to stare though as some have never seen a Western person (or big nose as we're known). Expect people to ask you to have photo's taken with them as they are facinated with us, you feel like a celebrity at times.
Anyway ladies, better catch up on a few things now but feel free to ask anything and i will respond the best I can. I wish I was coming with you, who knows, I might get back to China again one day, I certainly hope so.
Best wishes
Therese x