We had a busy weekend in Chongqing before setting off for England on Monday morning. We caught an Uber style taxi to the airport thanks to Della for ordering and paying, then the flight to Beijing, then changed to our flight to London. I didn’t get a photo, but we boarded from the tarmac at Beijing Aiport and I felt we should have have been dressed in 50s style clothing.

The plane had some empty seats and Stephen and I were able to have two double seats next to the window, which meant we travelled in almost business class luxury. We were booked through Singapore Airlines on Air China for the two flights. The aircrafts were very modern and comfortable, but the food was mediocre and they didn’t serve hot drinks at meal times. I ordered a tea with milk and got a coffee with sachet whitener because they didn’t actually have milk. After all the lovely Chinese food we had in China it was disappointing and not up to Singapore Airlines standard.

We caught a bus to East Croydon, a sort of airport shuttle, that was very slow. We then had to drag our luggage all the way to the apartment. Not much fun, but the thought that we have six weeks here made it worthwhile. We can now rest and make ourselves comfortable before going out exploring.

On Saturday night we went out with Della and Tony on a boat trip to see the lights of Chongqing. We met with Yaxuan and Tony’s parents for lunch during the day. On Sunday they took us in their car to a lovely park. We had a great lunch in a nearby restaurant and walked around the park in sunshine. It was hot, about 31 and humid, but still felt refreshing.

For our last meal in Chongqing we found a restaurant and enjoyed some more good food. We ordered only three dishes, that is the Australian way of having Chinese.