China Blog # 67

China Blog # 67

I had an immensely enjoyable 30-kilometre days walk to Wuxi 

Massive thanks to my Facebook friend an American ex-pat called Don Kenny who came out to walk with me. The kilometres ticked away nicely as we chatted.

Some of you may remember Chrissy Herring the Kiwi woman who walked for ten days and about 300 km with me in the centre of China two years ago? Well, Don is her friend! I'm looking forward to a good time that Don has promised me in the city and a rest day tomorrow. Congrats to Don as he has just become a grandfather again for his daughter who lives in Korea. He is flying over on Friday, so I just made it here in time

Earlier I stopped for a chat with a mother who proudly posed for a few photos with her young child on the floor and by her feet on her scooter.

  I stayed in Wuxi for St Patricks Day and enjoyed a great party in the Red Lion bar which is an Aussie watering hole. Thanks to Stewart the generous owner for a delicious steak dinner and for copious amounts of Guinness  And thanks to Don Kenny for letting me stay 'home alone' in his apartment while he paid a short visit to be with James, his new grandson in Seoul.

Visa Run to Ireland..

As I'm travelling on a multi-entry Chinese visa I have decided that I want to see more of this amazing country. However, there is only a little more than three weeks left on my current entry. So, it was time to figure out my next visa run! Those of you who are not long-term backpackers, you may wonder what a visa run is. Simply it's leaving a country with the sole intention of only leaving so as to return again. In doing so the traveller has a fresh visa stamp in their passport and the day counter is reset. 

I remember back in 2013 when I was in Indonesia on my world run that I needed another month. So I did a visa run and flew on a budget airline to Singapore. I had a burger in the airport and a couple of hours later I returned to Indonesia with a fresh visa on arrival. 

This time I looked hard and couldn't find a cheap return flight back to any of the cities near my route.. It seemed to be a lot of money also. I even considered walking Cambodia as an extra and doing my Chinese visa run that way. At least that would be a bit more value than my other options. At this stage, I got the idea that it's only a little more expensive to return to Ireland. I could take care of some personal business and also pay a visit to my dentist as there is a possibility I may need some dental work done on my big gob soon. Better to have that done with the dentist I know rather than taking my chances over here. 

At this stage, I realised that perhaps a visa run to Hong Kong could have been a cheaper option to some others.. But to hell with it, once I got the idea of doing the visa run to Ireland it was hard to get it out of my mind

Then trying to book the flight with crashing website pages and slow VPNs it was a pain! In the end, I handed it over to my fabulous sister Ann to book me my flight and she even helped me find a cheaper one too! Thanks a zillion, sis I luv ya! I would be so lost without you even with a GPS Xx 

I can't wait to see everyone back in the Emerald Isle.

March 27th I fly Shanghai to Dublin. April 17 its Dublin to Shanghai and back to my route for my walk north.

Thanks to Don Kenny for minding Karma in his office. My plan was to walk for about a week with a backpack before I left for Shanghai. It would be so difficult for me to do this without Dons kind offer to mind my cart until I returned.