Hotel Kapok Shenzhen

... so I wished them all the best and retired back to the ship.

The next day was another great workshop day and I was really able to come back with a lot of useful information. It was a beautiful day, and being a Saturday, there were a lot of locals fishing on the bay next to the school. It was cool to see them and try and chat with them. After the workshop I again walked back, just trying to take everything in one last time. I packed up my stuff, left my bags at the front ...

... back down ov** the city giving you a good p**spective ov** the city. We had to do the now regular hanging around looking for someone who is good at photography so that we could get a good picture of us togeth**, eventually finding a G**man guy with a v**y flashy cam**a.
That aft**noon we went to try Dim Sum for the first time. We sat down in a nice looking restaurant ov**looking the harbor front. Being complete novices to this we w**e handed our menu card and blindly started ...

... and rice, nothing special but at least I was eating vegetables, we even got offered a free dessert.

On the Tuesday I had planned to go to Macau. My visa hadn’t arrived in time to send it to me in Australia and it needs to be in your passport when you enter the country. This meant leaving the country and then coming back again. Thea was excited about this, as she was to get another stamp in her passport. We didn’t set off until about 9am and it took four ...

... of an ancient walled city. While there we also stumbled upon a house that had been completely covered by a banyan tree, kind of eerie, and prime spot for birdwatching in Hong Kong. It was humorous to see how each of these older gentlemen had a camera lens bigger than the last;leave it to the men to engage in this sort of competition.

- Taking rides on junk boats. These vessels hold anywhere from 20-60 people and cruise around Hong ...

... facing the stunning views of Three Fathoms Cove. The dinning room is designed in an elegant, French country style, with wood parquet, perfect table settings and beamed ceiling. The adorable, panoramic view of the mountains-surrounded bay can be seen through the large French windows, and the food is simply superb. 131 Tseng Tau ...

... posh 4 star joint it is too. I managed to get an upgrade to a harbour view room, plus a free day tour the next day. Great fun it was too. I'll be highly recommending it. The tour started with us the last ones on the mini bus and up to the cable car we headed then straight up Victoria peak to see the famous skyline - unfortunately it was too foggy for decent photos. We wandered and to Clare's delight found some cute birds with beards singing to each other in their ...

... mind blowing...so ask us where we ate last night? Pizza Hut; Ernie's idea. To be fair, it was a very very fancy Pizza Hut. Imagine PF Chang decor (dark furniture, wood, dim lighting, etc). It took us a full 10 minutes to order as there was so much to choose from. Blue mussels, Norwegian smoked salmon, Parma ham, were just a few of our many choices. We ended up ordering a sampler appetizer (samosa, baked crab sesame toast, fish nuggets, potato wedges), I had ...

... pasta lunch. We then parted and returned back to the hotel by MTR. Friday 10th October. An acclimatisation day. We decided not to have breakfast in the hotel and set out into the busy streets to look for somewhere to eat. Most of the window menus were in Chinese and appeared to be stews, rice and fish - no change there then. On the way I made a dentist appointment for a filling problem and we called into a hairdresser for haircuts / trims. Mine experienced one of those 'lost in ...

... written in English and Chinese. All of a sudden the police no longer spoke English. In fact, everything suddenly felt hard. We found the local underground rail network. This consists of 2 train lines that intersect half way. And caught a train to the other end of the line. It's funny, often on the MTR in Hong Kong we are the only 2 westerners on the train, today we totally were. In fact there were people who looked at us as if they'd never seen a westerner in person ...

... is growing, communication is clear and whilst I haven't made a definite decision I can see myself working with these people. Of course, there are doubts, some of them long running with regard to the management but the feeling of building something is a rewarding one. Today, I was building in the morning, then bang... the bridges have been blown, two bricks to the balls, and the English boss has reminded me of all the ...