My 2019 Trip to China

11 Days with Anna

My trip to China was, in so many ways, a bit of a disaster.

Despite learning to drive on the left and conquering various fears about visiting exotic places, I did not feel safe driving myself through China. I took the advice of a friend who lived in China for 4 years and hired a travel agency that helped me choose locations to visit and booked a driver/guide.

Even so, I was nervous that I might not find the arrangement suitable for me. If it turned out it wasn’t, I promised myself, I’d just make the best of it and not do that again.

Then, I got into a relationship with Anna and since she travelled constantly at the time, we met in many different locations. I offered to take her anywhere as a birthday present, and she asked to join me in China. On the surface, I thought this was a great idea.

I had niggling doubts, though. Would she enjoy the trip as I had set it up? She was confident that she would, so we gave it a try.

My fears, it turned out, were well founded. For countless reasons, this was not a good trip for her, and, for many of the reasons I had feared, it was not a good trip for me either. It put a lot of strain on our new relationship. She was ready to drop the trip from the first day and fly to Thailand or Bali.

I needed time to be convinced that this would make sense. After 10 days and only half of my planned trip, I was convinced. We dropped my itinerary and fly to Bali instead.