Shen Zhen Golden Plaza Hotel Shenzhen

... So at each stop or almost stop they gave you a long commercial in Chinese and English of why you should visit this place or that. There was nothing interesting at this stop so we went back to the train. As we sat there lots of people began to arrive I guess the tour buses drop you off near by. We were lucky the attendant gave us a paper with the numbers 1 and 2 on it. When the train arrived it was packed and there were only two seats available for the ...

... roads of the island, with a route that goes to the famous Happy Valley Racecourse as well. It actually took us a while to get on one of the rickety, very crowded trams since the number of passengers headed towards Central seemed to be much higher than in the opposite direction towards the island's eastern corridor, but I can't be sure whether this is an anomaly (read on). A word of advice: Most Hong Kongers are okay people, but do not get in their way when you're ...

... sun, completed the 4km Dragon's Back hike to Shek-O (in our flip-flops no less), and even ventured into the New Territories to visit the impressive temple of 10,000 buddhas. The evenings were what we were really here for however and we caught up with Colin, Andrew and the Merrill team, Ali and Jimmy (at the Captains Bar), and various other friends we both have in Hong Kong.


We boarded the ferry back across ...

... passports, which were waiting for us in Thailand, didn't.
So we headed back to the 14th floor and went to the Thai embassy first thing the next morning. Our visas would be ready for collection the following day. With our extra time we went to the night market, the 56th floor of the IFC 2 tower, the big Buddha on a nearby island and the cinema.
So after the mandatory 4 day visit, we escaped from Hong Kong.

... you an idea about the size of Hong Kong's reclamation projects (just try to imagine that this is where the island's coastline once passed...). Moving eastwards along the road, Man Mo Temple , on 126 Hollywood Rd. (near the corner of Ladder Street ) is full of spiritual ambience... This old temple was built in 1847 to worship two gods, namely Man, the god of literature and Mo, the god of war. The coils ...

... along the way. There was one moment where we looked down to the water and saw a beautiful small beach.  We decided to make our own trail and go down to the secluded beach.  Well, there was already a small trail but it was off the beaten path.  We got some of our first rays of the spring and Willie enjoyed the cold water... which I did not touch!  Instead I wrote messages and sculpted a man's face ...

... life size displays of traditional houses/boats etc. Really interesting. After a slap up Chinese dinner- we had plenty of choice of restaurants, we went to Kowloon seafront and the "avenue of stars", which is a bit like the stars in hollywood. From here you can see across to Hong Kong Island, and it is clear that this is a city which really comes alive at night. We watched the "Symphony of Lights" show, where there are lasers and the ...

... bar i went on a food hunt and found a street seller with dumplings...soft dough with meat that tastes of Cornish pasty inside, yummy! On the night we watched the biggest water fountain show in Asia .... it was set to music, we got a good position, and the music danced with lights in the dark and it was bloody........alright. Nothing too spectacular, but fun to watch. I had a real cool time the next day and enjoyed a ride around the city walls ...

... my Vietnam and Chinese visas sorted I decided to enter the big country of china. I'm not planning to spend much time here, I just want to get a glimps of it and then move on to Vietnam where I want to spend more time. I think I will have to return and do China properly which will take longer than just a few weeks. I caught a train from Hong Kong to the border and entered the city of Shenzhen which is the closest city to the border. Border crossing was no problem. I ...

... possible. We chose not to pay rent on our flat so we could keep the housing allowance to fund our travels (because the flat was a total joke, we had damp and mould growing daily through the bedroom wall, and eternal building work on our supposed "new" flat, and the swimming pool was only open when the sun wasn't shining on it...defeats the object of lazing by the pool) One glorious day, a wednesday in fact, we ...