8 OCTOBER 2006

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Eddie at Dubai, boarding plane to Beijing

As we landed at Dubai the following morning at 8.00hrs local time, we were informed that the temperature was already 26 degrees celcius. It was just as well that we weren't venturing outside the terminal. We all met up after our respective flights at the gate following a couple of hours waiting. Ged, Tony and Harvey had been passing the time in the Irish pub, which on reflection would have been the obvious place to look for them. We boarded our onward flight to Beijing which afforded us magnificent, clear views of mountain ranges and glaciers in Pakistan and the Himalayas.


Mountains and glaciers of Pakistan


Everest from the aircraft

The plane emerged from the smoggy atmosphere to land at Beijing and we collected all the baggage without much delay. At the airport, we were greeted by Professor Aide Dai, Dia Nan and Jia Yue from the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. The professor is a close friend of Professor Zhu Xuewen from the Institute of Karst Geology and had kindly offered to look after us during our 2 night stop over in Beijing.

A mini bus took us the Hornki Great Hotel whose name seemed slightly amusing. After a quick shower, we went out to a bar for some beers before retiring to bed at 1.15am local time.