Author Archives: Chuck & Stephanie

Today is November 13, 2024, and I have just completed the revisions to all of the posts for this trip.  It was much more time-consuming than I ever thought it would be.  It took quite a long time to go … Read Full Post

It is Friday morning October 18, and I just completed the preliminary writing for the last post for the trip, our Travel Home post.  We have never gotten this far behind on any trip in the past, and that made … Read Full Post

Today we leave to travel to China, and while we feel ready to go, there were still a few things to do today before we actually left.  Getting the last minute things done was not a problem because we had … Read Full Post

This post will continue with the completion of our flight to Beijing, starting with our arrival.  We will not technically have a post for September 20, 2024.  That day was spent traveling on the long flights to Beijing, which were … Read Full Post

We tried to sleep in some this morning, but with the time difference it was still early when I woke up, around 6:00 AM, which I thought was good for me, I had expected to wake up much earlier.the  There … Read Full Post

Today we are going on a private tour that we booked through Viator the day we left home.  We had put off choosing tours and finally made the decision on two tours, and one of them was canceled due to … Read Full Post

Today, we are on our own again for touring in Beijing.  We slept in after yesterday’s long adventure, we were tired.  We knew there was a couple of places we wanted to go today, one being a lake area where … Read Full Post

Today we will take our first excursion as part of the Viking Cruise Tour.  This will be the first time we are going with a group here in Beijing, and we are sure it will be different than being on … Read Full Post

Today, we make our second visit to the great Wall of China, but more on that later. We had set an alarm last night on both of our phones for 5:15 AM this morning, but I was up a little … Read Full Post

Today we leave Beijing and travel to the port city of Shanghai where we will board the Viking Yi Dun cruise ship. We set alarms for 5:45 AM on our phones last night before we went to bed.  We actually … Read Full Post

Today we are on a Viking Ship Excursion called the Longhua Neighborhood Exploration, which is scheduled for 5.5 hours, and was scheduled to depart at  9:30 AM. I woke up at about 5:45 AM, and decided to take the laptop … Read Full Post

Today was a much-needed Sea Day on the Yi Dun Ship.  We have been on the go for about a week, and have not had a chance to rest at all.  Of course, I was up at 6:00 AM anyway, … Read Full Post

Today was an added Sea Day as we continued south through the Taiwan Strait to try and get past Typhoon Krathon. We have added another Itinerary to the main menu bar at the top of this blog page.  It is … Read Full Post

Today was another added sea day as we try to avoid the Typhoon. The seas were not too bad today, but there was a large ground swell coming from the direction of the Typhoon.  I looked on our Weather Channel … Read Full Post

Today is another unplanned  Sea Day. We knew we were having a sea day today, and of course, it is due to the Typhoon, not the original Itinerary. It was really rough last night, I was constantly rolling in the … Read Full Post

When I woke up this morning, we were starting the long trip into the port city of Xiamen.  The Captain had told us yesterday that we would not be getting there before 8:00 AM, and that the harbor was still … Read Full Post

Today was a much-appreciated Sea Day after having had such a long day and night yesterday.   We both slept in a little, but I still got up earlier than Stephanie and headed down to the Library Bar for my morning … Read Full Post

We arrived in the port of Shenzhen this morning at about 7:00 AM.   It was a long ride in from the ocean to get to the port.  Today we have an included tour called Shenzhen From The Sea. When we … Read Full Post

Today we disembark the Yi Dun Cruise Ship and fly to the city of Chengdu, the home of the Chengdu Panda Research Base, where they breed Pandas. We woke up at around 5:00 AM to give us enough time to … Read Full Post

We woke up this morning to cloudy skies outside and a light drizzle, but the forecast was for the rain to stop about 7:00 AM, so we were hopeful we would not get any rain on our excursion today because … Read Full Post

We both slept pretty well last night even with the lower oxygen levels at this altitude.  Stephanie had not worn the cannula all night for getting supplemental oxygen from the concentrator, she had just worn it a couple of hours … Read Full Post

It was nice to sleep in this morning, our tour was not scheduled to start until 9:15 AM, and that gave us more time to rest.  We are sleeping well, but the altitude definitely affects our sleeping.  Stephanie has been … Read Full Post

The alarm was set to go off at 5:50 AM, but I was already up, trying to figure out where we had put our KN95 face masks when we repacked our luggage last night.  I had to reopen my suitcase … Read Full Post

Today we take an excursion with our Viking Group to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. We set an alarm for 5:15 AM, we needed to be dressed, eat breakfast, and return to the room to gather up all of our … Read Full Post

Today we travel from Xi’an to Beijing for our last night in China.  It has been a great trip, but also tiring with the long days and early morning starts. We had to be in the lobby today at 6:15 … Read Full Post

Today we have a long day of travel as we leave Beijing, China, and travel home to South Carolina. We had set an alarm for 7:30 AM, just in case we were sleeping so well we did not wake up, … Read Full Post