China...
Another group tour … 18 days from Xi’an to Kashgar, largely following one of the old Silk Road routes and taking in beautiful landscapes (bare, stark mountains and sandy deserts), ancient Buddhist grottoes in caves, old walls and forts, encounters with bactrian camels (including a brief camel trek), a day wandering around a massive Buddhist monastery, visits to a few former mosques (including to understand the largely unspoken reason for this ‘former’ status), and dealing with various different aspects of Chinese culture. Not to mention the Great (fire)Wall, where internet access to the BBC, to Facebook, to my photo storage accounts, to my Yahoo email account, to Google maps, etc is blocked unless you planned ahead and installed a foreign e-Sim or a VPN. I’m drafting this whilst on my outward flight, and the early parts of the tour really feel as though they were months (if not years) ...