Freelance Tour Manager for Rail Based vacations around the world
Sadly, my upcoming China Tour has been cancelled (No guesses why). I'll still be going, but a little later in the year. This leaves a rather large hole in my Tour Roster for the Summer, and an equally large hole in my finances. That's a rather selfish viewpoint, given the suffering of those who are …
So. The Long Winter break without work is drawing to a close. I'm off to Vietnam & Cambodia in 11 days and then a busy season lies ahead. I've used the two month break to reduce my sleep defecit, catch up on TV box sets and remind Mrs TimOnTheTrain that she has a husband who …
Continue reading "Live on Stage 1, Vietnam and The Corona Virus"
My last Tour was to China. As many of you may be aware, Great Rail Journeys have a commercial arrangement with the Australian Holiday Company, APT Travel Marvel. On many of my Tours half of my clients are from Australia or New Zealand, which makes for a fun mix of people. One of my clients …
So, we made it to Shanghai and after a good sleep we did a next day city tour. We started with a visit to a Buddhist Monastery, the site of the largest Jade Buddha in the world (no photos allowed!). It’s an interesting contrast, with the ultra modern city rubbing shoulders with such an old …
Continue reading "The Bund and the Fastest Train in the World"
I’m sorry for the slow updates to this blog. It’s quite difficult when you get into bed at 10 at night to sign up the energy to write a blog post. I’m currently in Shanghai, ready to face the last day of the tour tomorrow when we have a guided tour. I’m just going to …
Panda day today. This is always the day that as a Tour Manager I am the most nervous. I’m always worried that I will wake everybody up early, drag them to the Panda Park and then discover that the bloody things have decided that today is the day for a lie-in indoors! Fortunately, my furry …
I just went for a foot massage. It’s a uniquely Chinese experience. Foot massage is my secret guilty pleasure on tours to China. I genuinely believe that it helps you to sleep. It was a habit I picked up when I was flying to Hong Kong regularly with Air New Zealand. So what’s different about …
Today we had a day in Chengdu for a city tour. I wanted to give our clients a taste of how a typical day might look for Chinese people of their age i.e. for those who don’t have to spend all day slaving away at work. We started with a visit to a flower market. …
Another travel day today, but we got to do some fun stuff as well as the train journey. The day started with a visit to a jade carving factory and showroom. We learned about the importance of Jade in Chinese culture and also how to spot what is good Jade, and what is the cheap …
Today was our day for visiting the terracotta warriors in Xi'An. Constructed by the Emperor as his defence against pretty much everything after death, they were long forgotten and buried. And then one day some random Chinese Farmer decided to dig a well on his property, and dug up rather more than he was expecting! …
TimOnTheTrain 