Many ways to travel

One final post on the last trip before the next one begins.

There were times on my travel when I did wonder why I made my life so complicated. It would have been simpler just to combine planes with taxis, but that would have meant I missed out on so much.

Planes

Pretty simple - jets and one propeller plane

Road transport

Yup a couple of taxis, but also a hire car (below), a friend's car and a couple of buses in Australia. Alas I never got to go on the trams of Melbourne which was a shame. One of the fun things to do there is to get the tram down to the seaside suburb of St. Kilda but alas too much work.

Trains

A couple of good train journeys including the uber fast MagLev in Shanghai capable of 501 kmph. It's highest operational speed is 430 kmph but in the evening when I took it it slows to "just" 301 kmph:

The journey between Shanghai and Beijing was by by the high speed train that covers 1,318 km in 4 hours and 48 minutes, again topping out at 301 kmph:

To be honest the view wasn't that spectacular. It was spookily similar to going across France on the TGV with for most of the way an endless plain of fields in either direction.

In Beijing the traffic was absolutely awful so I tried out the subway and jolly good it was too. Signs and ticket machines were in Chinese and English and trains were frequent and no more packed than London.

Finally there were some trains on the trip down the gold mine in Ballarat.

Boats

Not as many boats as would have liked. Not sure if can claim the Polly Woodside given it was firmly moored in Melbourne, so that just leaves the paddle steamers and the tourist boat in Shanghai

Foot

A lot of that, and it probably was just as well I lugged my hiking boots around the world

Missing

There were a couple of modes of transport not ticked off, but hopefully the next trip will do some of them. Except hot air balloon and space ship, alas.