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Leaving Hong Kong

Well since we last wrote, we have succeeded in getting our Chinese Visa. We think that it's a 90 day one which will let us stay in there for the 6-8 weeks we want/need, but it doesn't actually say '90 days' on it anywhere, so until tomorrow morning it's fingers crossed for us.

We have not really done a whole lot here to be fair - we've been hanging with Mark and Chantal and their friends Ian and Aileen, but we'll be coming back here after China before we fly to Australia anyway, so there's time for more sightseeing then too. On Monday we all went off for a really nice but expensive (for us backpackers!) breakfast, and then wombled around the citya bit and dropped the Passports in for processing the visa. We finished up in Ian and Aileens for a swim and pizza. It was Buddhas birthday here, so the guys were off work which was cool.

Tuesday we had great intentions of heading off for a whole day of sightseeing, but first we had to plan the beginning of our journey through China. So, choices, choices, choices.... - it's a big place. We decided to settle on crossing the border to Shenzhen by foot (it's 3 stops away from here on the KCR train, so that makes perfect sense) and then flying to Shanghai, as the flights are cheaper than the train! And only take 2 hours, vs 26 hours. Also, there's not a lot in between which we wanted to see. So we started looking for guesthouses in Shanghai, tried to skype a few that are recomended in guide books and the web, but they're all full. Finally find one which is recomended on the web but we're not really sure where it is. Ok so we'll chance it. Now for the tickets. We'd heard about elong.com which is a travel agency type thing, so we get to the booking stage, select 'eticket' and it asks us where we'd like to have them delivered - erm 'eticket'??WTF? So I skype the helpline and she starts to do the booking for me to deliver the "eticket" to the airport in Shenzhen. Grand stuff. Then she asks for a mobile phone number in China - what? Why? So they can inform us if the plane will leave at a different time! DOH! Whats the point in having a schedule if it's going to go earlier?? So that avenue closes off when she hangs up.

I decide to try again on the web, delivering to the airport, and give Chantals mobile number (which she has kindly lent us the phone so we can contact herself and Mark) and it all goes well. Then the mobile rings and an agent for elong is confirming each and every detail about the booking with Anne-Marie. Finally we get to give over the credit card details, she charges us 2.2% because it's a foreign visa card (or something like that!) and the tickets will be delivered to the airport! We're off to Shanghai and we have accomodation. Superb.

We head into town later and go up The Peak, which is covered in cloud, but we go up anyway. We take the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong island, it's a hell of a view, and then we jump on The Peak tram, which brings us up at almost 45 degrees - it's wierd seeing all the skyscrapers at an angle like that! The view from the Peak was also excellent, the lights were just coming on way down below us and we could see all the traffic on the river - it's pretty hectic. We decided to head back down to catch the light show at 8pm, but just as we're getting back on the ferry it starts to rain. The light show was excellent, all set to music and synchronized, 18 minutes long. We run back to the train to get back to Mark and Chantals, and coming from the bus to their place we get SATURATED! And of course all the washing we'd left on the balcony is dripping too. DOH!

Today it was still raining, so we watched some DVDs till it eased off a bit. Then it was down to pick up the passports from the visa place, have a look at the Space Museum (free on a wednesday!!) and then head back to Tai Wo where Ian and Aileen had invited us all over for a slap up dinner which was YUMM! (thanks guys!) And now it's time to pack up again (well all except the wet clothes which we hope will dry overnight!) and off we go tomorrow on a whole new adventure!

Hong Kong is pretty great, but the natives are quite impatient and pushy when walking around - there's no 'after you' mentality when someone holds a door open for you, or lets you in or out of a train in front of them - in fact I kind of liken it to a class of schoolchildren on a day trip, all fighting each other to get a good seat on the coach near the window or whatever. At times it's very tempting for me to use my weight and bulk advantage over them to just steam roller through trains and subways and so on. I think if I lived here I would definitely be a bowling ball in the worlds biggest bowling alley!

Hopefully our next entry will be from Shanghai!

Take Care

Ken

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