International Travel

When even our kids can't ride a bike without a helmet, the wind-in-hair sensation is a feeling they'll never know. For grown-ups it's just a memory.

If you're going to try the most famous Chinese dish in the world, then what better place to go than the place that keeps on winning awards for the best Peking Duck in Peking?

Do you think of huge, bustling Beijing as a city with eco lodges at its doorstep?

It's easy to think of reasons why China might not be on your places-to-see list. It's so big and so foreign, huh? All those vast cities, language you don't understand, food you might not warm to?

When you're a tourist it's hard to get in amongst the lives of people in other countries. You see them hurrying about on their daily round but there are few glimpses of their quieter times.

Countries are often identified in strangers' minds by what's in tourist shops. In New Zealand it's the tiki, the fern the koru and the colour green. For China we think of panda bears, pagodas, ornate fans and everything decked in red and gold.

Today it is Friday. Muslims believe that Allah told them that Friday is the day to glorify. The Jews consider Saturday as their special holy day and the Christians celebrate Sunday.

This will be my last report from Dubai, before I flit off to have other adventures in different countries. Because the majority, or over 80 percent of the Dubai population of 4.5 million is a large international block of foreigners, I felt you could be in

They came, silently swinging their powerful bodies through the trees, their faces vigilant, velvet dark eyes wary. We froze. My breakfast companions had arrived!

I had the most scary experience I have ever had in my whole driving life! I decided to go and find a shopping centre here in Dubai, that has approx. 4.5 million people and 80% are ex-pats of well over 100 nationalities!