It was the first and last time that I did not travel with my laptop. I reasoned that I could manage with my tablet on my trip to China. As it turned out, I was unable to get the tablet to work with the VPN. I even tried a second one, but still no success. Google is difficult in China. Banned actually, and accessing Blogger, Google, Gmail, is almost impossible. One has to use a VPN, which I managed on my phone, but for reasons unknown to me, they did not work on the tablet.
I spent hours trying to make it work but gave up. So, I will have to recount my amazing adventure to China with stories and pictures now that I have returned home to Australia.
I was fortunate to be invited to two weddings in China. One in December which I have reported on, and the second in February, which I am about to report on. I regard myself as very honoured to attend, and in fact, I took part in the latest wedding.
This time, as it was Chinese New Year, I had some challenges. The airfare I was originally quoted was expensive, and I chose to fly with Scoot, a new airline based in Singapore and associated with Singapore Airlines. I normally fly with them or Cathay Pacific if I wish to go via Hong Kong. The price was too tempting, but as I have been told, you get what you pay for. I will explain my challenges with Scoot in a later post.
The flight left from Coolangatta Airport, so I stayed with my son the night before the flight, and drove down early in the morning. All was well, and I parked my car at Ezyparking, and they took me to the airport. All was well.
We were late arriving in Singapore and I had a mad dash from one side of the airport to the other, but managed it. Rather sad that I could not do some shopping as I had hoped!!!
I arrived in Hangzhou late at night - around 11 pm and had advised my hosts that I would stay in a hotel overnight, to save them the travel late at night. I stayed in a great hotel, New Century Zhejiang Xiaoshan Hotel but had challenges getting there. It was supposed to be "near the airport" but the taxi took me the long way round and we had a dispute about the fare. Luckily the hotel knew what was going on, and "rescued" me after I had paid what I considered to be an excess anyway. The hotel people agreed with me.
Check in was quick, and I was soon ensconced in my room, and very quickly showered and climbed into bed.
I slept well, and after a wonderful breakfast I set out to Shaoxing. I caught a taxi to the bus station, bought my ticket with 10 minutes to the next bus, and set off. It was not the usual bus that I was familiar with, but took me on a different and longer route. When I arrived in Shaoxing, Joanna and Nancy were there to meet me.
I spent hours trying to make it work but gave up. So, I will have to recount my amazing adventure to China with stories and pictures now that I have returned home to Australia.
I was fortunate to be invited to two weddings in China. One in December which I have reported on, and the second in February, which I am about to report on. I regard myself as very honoured to attend, and in fact, I took part in the latest wedding.
This time, as it was Chinese New Year, I had some challenges. The airfare I was originally quoted was expensive, and I chose to fly with Scoot, a new airline based in Singapore and associated with Singapore Airlines. I normally fly with them or Cathay Pacific if I wish to go via Hong Kong. The price was too tempting, but as I have been told, you get what you pay for. I will explain my challenges with Scoot in a later post.
The flight left from Coolangatta Airport, so I stayed with my son the night before the flight, and drove down early in the morning. All was well, and I parked my car at Ezyparking, and they took me to the airport. All was well.
We were late arriving in Singapore and I had a mad dash from one side of the airport to the other, but managed it. Rather sad that I could not do some shopping as I had hoped!!!
I arrived in Hangzhou late at night - around 11 pm and had advised my hosts that I would stay in a hotel overnight, to save them the travel late at night. I stayed in a great hotel, New Century Zhejiang Xiaoshan Hotel but had challenges getting there. It was supposed to be "near the airport" but the taxi took me the long way round and we had a dispute about the fare. Luckily the hotel knew what was going on, and "rescued" me after I had paid what I considered to be an excess anyway. The hotel people agreed with me.
Check in was quick, and I was soon ensconced in my room, and very quickly showered and climbed into bed.
I slept well, and after a wonderful breakfast I set out to Shaoxing. I caught a taxi to the bus station, bought my ticket with 10 minutes to the next bus, and set off. It was not the usual bus that I was familiar with, but took me on a different and longer route. When I arrived in Shaoxing, Joanna and Nancy were there to meet me.
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