I Love Hong Kong!!

And so we arrived in Hong Kong after a very relaxing 25 hours on the overnight train. It was pure luxury compared to the train we got before, having a sleeper makes all the difference. We were both on the top of the 2 sets of 3 bunks per room, which was OK except we couldn't sit upright and we had to climb over Chinese people to get to bed! But the conditions of the train were excellent, toilets were still squats but they were clean, and we found a carriage with a bar where we spent most of the night drinking cheap beer!

We arrived in Kowloon at 1ish and got in a taxi straight to our hostel, which we had booked from Beijing on the recommendation of a woman we met there who had spent 15 years living in Hong Kong. And so we arrived at the gateway to hell, Chungking mansions (don't be fooled by 'mansions'). It's a tall building with 15 floors, each floor has a hostel that gets cheaper the higher up you go. Ours was on the 5th floor, and they had the cheek to call it a deluxe hotel. All i can say is that if ours was deluxe i dread to think what the others were like. We had a tiny room only just big enough for a bed and our backpacks. There were no windows, an air con unit that was so loud you felt like it would fall through the wall. There were ants in our bathroom and graffiti on the walls. Even worse was when you left the 'deluxe hotel', we had to share a lift down with Africans and Pakistanis, cramming as many of us in as they could. The whole of Kowloon is taken over by Africans and Pakistanis who live there, selling fake everything. You name it, if you want it, they'll get you one for half the price. Worst of all they hovered around the entrance to the building, which at night was like a cage door, and were quite intimidating.

And so, every morning we were up early and out the door, straight onto the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong island. The ferry was great, it runs back and forth every few minutes and only cost $2 HK which is next to nothing.

Our first day we spent wandering through the chaos of Hong Kong. We got lots of tips from the woman we met in Beijing, and so we stopped in the old red light district for a beer to decide what we wanted to do next. We jumped on a tram to go down to the Happy Valley racecourse, which is apparently on every Saturday and Wednesday night, and if you get there at 8pm the drinks are free! Unfortunately, when we go there it turned out races are only on a Wednesday so we missed out on that. Instead we popped over the road to a bar called the Stable and had a drink in there with an Ozzy rugby team who were playing in Hong Kong. I think i preferred that to being at the races!! We jumped on another tram to Lang Kwai Fong, another of Hong Kong's drinking spots. Absolutely loved it there but its not cheap so we only stayed for a few before getting back on the ferry to our disgusting accommodation!

Hong Kong is made up of loads of islands, which i didn't realise, and each one is completely different from the next. We popped over to Lamma island for the day, which is so beautiful and relaxing. We found ourselves a lovely little beach called Hung Shing Ye and spent the day tanning ourselves and chilling out, for the first time in about 10 days. Before the last boat back to HK island we had an amazing dinner, right out of our price range, in a little seafood restaurant overlooking the harbour. We arrived back in Kowloon in time to see the light show, which they do on HK island every night at 8pm. The whole skyline lights up and they sync it in time to cheesy music, it's quite impressive for the first few minutes, but then it's all the same so we left before the rush of people started moving in our direction.

The next day we decided to explore the 'southside' of the island. We got a bus to Repulse Bay, which has a lovely beach, a few little restaurants, and of course a Starbucks and McDonalds, which are on every corner of every street in Hong Kong! We then moved down to Stanley Bay where they have a market, which we missed because we spent too long at the beach! But we did stop for another drink in another bar overlooking another harbour (i'm loving this)! In a place called Aberdeen Harbour they have a restaurant that floats on the river, which apparently is a 'must' for all tourists. We got a 'junk' over to it, but the menu was sooooo overpriced that we couldn't afford to stay. It was so embarrasing because we couldn't just get up and leave, we had to wait for a boat to take us back to the mainland...so we stood there infront of everyone looking like the poor travellers that we are!! But it wasn't all bad because instead we went back to Lang Kwai Fong for a lovely meal in the busy nightspot. We got back to the hotel as late as we could so we spent as little time there as possible!

Up early the next day we went to another island, Lantau. Again, of course, we found oursevles another little beach called Cheung Sha where we plonked ourselves for a few hours. It was completely deserted apart from a nice little Cantonese/South African/ Mediterranean restuarant that served delicious food at a resonable price. Thinking we should do something a bit 'cultural' we got ourselves onto a bus to see the Big Buddha. This was about 30 minutes away and was sitting at the top of a mountain, and it stood 85 feet high. You could see it from most parts of the island. We got dropped off then walked up a million steps to get right up to it, had a look at the view, took some photos, then came straight back down. It was cool, but aside from look at it there was nothing else to do there and so we headed back to get our boat back to HK.

We had prearranged to meet up with some of the guys we met in Beijing which was cool. We went back to Wan Chai, the old red light district, and met them for dinner. We went to a brilliant Thai/ Malaysian/ Indonesian/ Filipino restaurant that had a live band that were so good we were convinced they were miming. We had a great night and it was a great end to a stay in a brilliant city. The hustle and bustle is mesmorising, and unlike Beijing and Shanghai it's actually safe to cross the road! There were no beggars hassling us in the streets. Transport in Hong Kong was excellent and cheap, and their metro system was clean and efficient unlike ours! No one stared at us as though we were aliens like they did everywhere in China. Aside from our hellhole hotel the only downside was it was quite expensive in comparison to where we'd been. It was also so hot that at times it was unbearable (which is why we always found a beach)!

We only spent 4 or 5 days there, but I could easily go back as there is so much more i'd like to do. We never got up to the peak, which gives you great views of the whole of Hong Kong island. And i never got to see the Pandas :o(

I would recommend Hong Kong to everyone, just stay away from Chungking Mansions!

China continued...

So... after the hellish journey that was the train from Shanghai we arrived in Beijing feeling tired and irritable. We jumped in a cab to the Saga Hostel, which we luckily asked an English speaking Chinese guy to book for us from the train! Our first day in Beijing was a bit of a wasted day. Determined not to give in and get in bed we had a little wander around the surroundings which turned out to be the Forbidden city. After hearing that this place takes a good few hours and not feeling in any way up to it, we headed straight for one of the drinking areas, Sanlitun. We had a few beers and watched the world go by until we decided it was time to go back and recover from the train journey. The little Chinese women of our hostel let us take over the lobby as we brought down our quilts, ordered loads of coffee and watched DVDs till bedtime, ignoring all the other travellers as they came and went!!
Feeling refreshed the next day and having spoken to some other travellers we headed over to the Birds Nest Olympic Stadium which was pretty impressive. And as an added touch they even play the sound of birds tweeting over the speakers!

Next stop was the Summer Palace which so far (aside from the Great Wall) was one of the places i enjoyed most. Even without taking in the history behind the Emperors etc there was still so much to enjoy. (Basically what i'm saying is that we didn't really take any notice of that)! It's a beautiful place that you wouldn't expect to exist in Beijing. There are temples galore set amongst a massive lake with mountains in the distance. We took a dragon boat along the lake in time to get some brilliant photos of the sun setting. All my pics from the Summer Palace are on Facebook, there are just so many. After walking forever around the lake we felt like we deserved a drink, so we headed to another of Beijing's drinking spots, Hou Hai. This place was impossible to find but when we did it was completely worth it. There are hundreds of little bars set along a river booming out reggae music with never ending happy hours. We stayed there for a cocktail or two and wandered around the bars til we could go no further, and so after a few headed back to our cosy little hostel ready for our 7 am start the next day.

After getting up early feeling nice and moody, we joined the rest of the guys from our hostel, 2 Ozzies, 2 Yanks and a Swede for the bus trip to the Great Wall of China. About an hour and a half away, it was worth the journey! When we arrived, the first step was to take a ski lift up the side of a mountain. With Keeley being so petrified of heights it was just hilarious, she couldn't look the whole way up and we were on it a while. Once we were at the top the Wall went on as far as they eye can see. We had 4 hours at the Wall which is apparently long enough to get to the furthest point allowed then back again. Well, with our little crew which by now was the 2 of us, the Swede and the 2 guys from LA, we walked as far as we could, stopping every few minutes to take yet another photo which looked just like the one we'd taken before. I pushed myself as far as possible, it was so hot up there and it's so steep that we must have only got half way when we decided to turn back. And it's no easier walking back either! Once we were back to the starting point there are two options, back on the ski lift, or a toboggan right to the bottom. And so in we got, in the tiniest toboggan, screeching the whole way down! It was such an experience, and its so cool to be able to say i tobogganed down from the Great Wall of China! Once we were at the bottom we sat and waited for the others, comparing stories about parts of the world and drinking beers the size of wine bottles!
The rest of the day was a bit wasted, until later in the evening we went out with a different crowd from the hostel for Peking duck, the delicacy of Beijing. I ate it til i could eat no more, and now i don't want to see another crispy duck pancake for the rest of my travels!
After an exhausting day we decided to spend the next day doing the final touristy things....the Forbidden City and Tian'an Men Square. The Forbidden City i think we managed to get through in about 45mins (rather than the 3 hours people had told us they spent there). We took a couple of photos so we can say we've been, but overall it wasn't our cup of tea. And aside from that there were so many Chinese tour groups with their matching caps that it was difficult to get to read about anything anyway (that's my excuse)! There's not a lot to see at Tian'an Men Square, in fact i don't think i took a single photo, but there is a lot of history behind it and it's a place that everyone who visits Beijing must go to. For once the history didn't involve the Ming or Qing dynasties or any Emperors and so i was actually interested!
And finally, to finish off our time in Beijing, we visited a night market, expecting to see some bargains. Instead when we got there it was a food market, and the only things on the menu was whatever they could put on a stick.... seahorses, scorpians, starfish, beetles and so on. As you can imagine, we suddenly realised we weren't hungry! But it was interested to see, and moreso, to see the Chinese people eating it all so casually! And so this was a nice little peep into the Chinese culture before moving on to our 25 hour train journey to Hong Kong...

First stop...China

Hi all,

Well so far so good and i am actually entering my first post onto my blog.

So...here goes... We landed in Shanghai to immense heat and humidity which was unbearable but expected. After checking into our hotel we went for a stroll and ended up in the Old City at a place called Yu Gardens & Bazaar.

This is how you imagine China to look, stone dragons and red lanterns everywhere and oriental style buildings down narrow passageways. They even had a Starbucks that fitted right in! We came across this place completely by accident and ended up going again because we loved it so much, aside from the Chinese who will push and shove you all over the place. Apparently this is standard in China and so we've started doing it back!

The following day we walked through a place called Nanjing Lu which looks like Shanghai's equivalent of Oxford Circus. The hustle and bustle is crazy and there are people coming up to you from all angles trying to sell you a Cucci or Prado handbag.... or buy a hat and get a rolex free! It's probably a good thing we don't have the space in our backpacks for anything else because it was shopping galore. We even took a tram ride through the centre and never even saw it all, the shops and department stores just went on forever.

Later we met a very nice Chinese couple in People's Park who wanted to practice their English and so we went to a Tea Party for traditional Chinese tea. You learn all about the history and different types (over 1600 in China) and so on, much more interesting than i thought.

We attempted the Shanghai museum but i am sorry to say i'm just not interested! I love China but there is only so much i need to know about vases and paintings from different dynasties and so on. I think we lasted about 30 mins before we had to get out of there.

We walked to a place called the French Concession, there is a whole history behind the place that i won't bore you with, but it was like being in a part of London with the quirky bistros and boutiques, which i really didn't think i'd be seeing in China.

Later on we went to the Bund which overlooks the river Huangpu with Pudong on the other side. The buildings on Pudong are like something out of the future, and the Bund looks very much like Westminster! We went on a boat trip to get amazing views of both skylines lit up at night time. The river divides the Bund and Pudong, so you get some pretty cool views.

We saw the Shanghai of the future at the Urban Planning Centre where they think in a few years time the city will have massively expanded. The city really isn't how i imagined it as it's all so modern and advanced. If it wasn't for the billions Chinese people and noodle bars on every corner you could be at home!

After we had done and seen everything we wanted to we decided it was time to move on to Beijing which is a 13 hour train ride away. What we didn't know was that in order to guarantee a 'sleeper' ticket on the train you have to book days in advance. On top of that it was also a Chinese public holiday and so there were loads of tourists from Beijing going back home. So... unless we wanted to stay in Shanghai longer we had to get a stand up ticket. That was the worst decision of my life! We were in a standard train carriage filled with as many people as they could cram in. Those fortunate to have the right ticket had a seat, the rest had no where to go other than the aisles/ toilets and under people's seats. We were so lucky that 2 Chinese men gave us their seats for the entire journey otherwise i don't know how we'd have done it! To get up to the toilet you had to step over people trying to sleep on the floor and it wasn't easy, and also the loos were just a hole in the ground, so neither of us drank a drop until we arrived in Beijing! Aside from feeling like I was in hell for the longest 13 hours of my life, i can laugh now that we got here safe and sound, but never again!

I'm not sure i've done Shanghai justice but i know i have a tendancy to go on and if i don't stop now i'll be typing forever. I absolutely loved it, except the men are gross and spit everywhere and there are beggars on every corner, but it is a great place for all interests and we ticked every sight off the list in the Lonely Planet guide and more.