They have cancelled our Bali Tour

We received urgent phonecalls about a week ago from the lovely (but scatty) Rosie at STA Travel. She informed us that Imaginative Traveller (the company we have booked all 3 of our tours with) have bought out a new brochure for 2007/2008 and our tour dates are not listed in next years copy.

But its not quite so traumatic now because we have found a better tour with Intrepid travel. A little bit more expensive than the Imaginative traveller tour but so worth it. Its called the Bali getaway and is advertised as sun, sea, spas and dolphins. We looked up some of the hotels we will be staying at and they are some of the best on the island. We do this tour on our own though. At first I thought it might be a bit quiet after going on all the coach trips in OZ and NZ, but then I thought that a break from having lots of people around for 2 weeks before we start the Singapore to Bangkok route, might not be such a bad idea.

The good news is that the other 2 tours haven't been changed (yet) because apparently they are very popular. Our itinary may change slightly but that should be the only thing.

We had started to calm down a little and focus on all the jobs and organising (and for Alan studying) that needs to be done before we can go, but now we or at the very least I am back to bouncing off the walls.

Our Tours

We have decided to do 3 tours with Imaginative Traveller; Magic of Bali, Singapore to Bangkok and China Discovery. The itinararies listed below are just a taster of what we will be up to.

The Magic of Bali tour lasts for 7 nights/8days and starts on 22nd July (my birthday).
We arrive in Bali a few days before the tour starts and so will already be checked into the hotel so day 1 (which is my birthday) so we will probably just be lying on the beach and drinking some champagne.
Our hotel is at Seminyak Beach - sounds lovely but I haven't googled it yet.
Day 2 - Seminyak Beach to Ubud
Day 3 - Ubud to Lovina
Day 4 - Lovina - swimming with dolphins hopefully
Day 5 - Gunung Batar
Day 6 - Kintamani to Padang Bai
Day 7 - Padang to Seminyak Beach
Day 8 - Seminyak Beach

Our next tour starts in Singapore and ends in Bangbok and it lasts 16 nights/17 days.
We arrive in Singapore a couple of days before so we will probably go along to the Raffles hotel for a genuine singapore sling.
Day 1 - Check in to hotel (we will already be there)
Day 2 - Singapore to Melaka
Day 3 - Melaka
Day 4&5 - Kuala Lumpur - will be climbing the Petronas Towers
Day 6&7 - Cameron Highlands
Day 8&9 - Penang
Day 10 - Penang to Surat Thani
Day 11-14 - Koh Pha Ngan - gorgeous thai island
Day 15 - Surat Thani
Day 16 - Bangkok to Kanchanaburi
Day 17 - Bangkok

Our last tour is the China Discovery which starts in Hong Kong and ends in Beijing. It lasts 14 nights/15 days.
Day 1 - Check into hotel in Hong Kong
Day 2 - Hong Kong to Guangzhou (Canton)
Day 3 - Yangshuo
Day 4 - Yangshuo to Longsheng
Day 5 - Longsheng to Wuhan
Day 6 - Wuhan to Yichang
Day 7-9 -Yangtse boat cruise - opportunity to visit the three gorges dam
Day 10 - Chongqing to Xian
Day 11-12 -Xian
Day 13 - Beijing - visiting Tiananmen square and the Forbidden city
Day 14&15 - Great Wall of China

It sounds like the tours are really busy and intense for the entire time, but I've been assured from the information we have received that we do get some free time to rest and recharge our batteries x