We ditch China and head for home!

  Sydney, Australia
Sunday, July 24, 2005

Monday 18 July Dunhuang - Jiayuguan
Wake before the 7.15 alarm to get ourselves organised, as there is a blackout making packing difficult. Out by about 7.30, find our bus, which looks quite upmarket, and our HOSTESS shows us where to put the bags under. Have some time to kill, so up to the Friendship Cafe for a big purchase of two yoghurts and a bottle of water. Find we are up front and the two windows either side of our pillar are badly smashed, but still hanging together, but the near one, right beside our faces, is pretty squishy, just a mass of broken glass stuck together with the plastic lamination.
The hostess makes various attempts to fix the hole giving an icy blast to us and the people behind, but eventually we move back and across as we can't see out the front because of the sun screen and company name, and the bus is nowhere near full. DP discovers that seats can move sideways as well as back and forward.
The weather is quite cold, and has been raining lightly all night. Retrace our route all the way back to the junction at Liuyuan. The desert hasn't bloomed yet, but there is surface water on a lot of it, and we are running into heavier rain. The new landscape after the main road junction is a lot more rugged for the first half hour, then opens out into flat gibber plain. There is a lot more surface water here. MP looks to the left, sees some heavy trucks heading out into the desert, and wonders which remote mining camp they are heading for. Next thing we know, we are following them, wending our way across the landscape, looking for the smoothest path. We swing right, parallel to the main road, which is under serious reconstruction here, and cross some strongly running streams, with rapids and all. Various members of our basically middle-class Chinese passengers are taking photos of the water and the traffic passing in it. We pass through a seriously deep pool, right beside the new road, then stop to take stock as another bus, similar to ours, emerges from the next waterhole streaming water from its cargo hold. MP asks the driver if we can move our luggage, and he says OK, possibly he had been thinking the same himself. By the time we had all our baggage in the cabin, with some Chinese me-first which meant we couldn't get ours to the back first try, the situation had deteriorated, and there was a smaller bus coming the other way, and a station wagon going our way, stuck up to their headlights in the water, not going anywhere, and blocking the road.

We waited facing the big pool for an hour,

but it didn't get any shallower, and no equipment turned up to tow or make a new road. After a while we started seeing traffic on the new road above us, so we turned around, with some difficulty and went back half a km to a ramp up onto the main road, doing another scary back and fill to get around. Because a lot of the smaller vehicles were able to use another narrow earth bridge across to a service road, we ended up close to where the main road ended in a culvert under construction, so we were able to watch a couple of front-end loaders build a new ramp down to the detour beyond the deep pool. A couple of trucks tried the ramp early on, but made such a struggle of it, traffic was halted until they had built a proper ramp, and gouged out the detour to let water drain down to the "big pool".

Who knows what happened to the two stranded vehicles? The whole exercise took several hours, and there looked like hundreds of vehicles lined up on our side. There were only 50 on the other side, either because traffic in this direction was light, or they had found alternative escape routes.
The rain continued, but lighter, and the road continued to snake along either side of the new road, forcing the bus back to about 20 kmh along the muddy, bumpy road, with vehicles coming towards us coated in mud. We could plot our course on our all-China map, which must be 15 years out of date. Were surprised to be heading suddenly south out into the desert, toward a place called Yumen, having passed Yumen junction? on the main road. Oh, us of little faith, figured they were going all the way out to this god-forsaken power station town to drop off, or pick someone up. The town had a large garbage landfill right at the start, and this was the best feature of the town. Old belching smokestacks, streets filled with rubble, grim looking industrial buildings, spartan worker's quarters. This is definitely on the must-not-see list for Silt Road tourists (this is NOT a spelling mistake, just our new name for this route - the SILT ROUTE).
However, a good road ran all the way from here to Jiayuguan, and we passed the famous Fort just on dusk, for some quick photos on the way past. Our bus was going on further to Jiuquan, and it was only through persistent asking and waving of tickets that the hostess said, "yes this is the bus station, get off here". Jumped off the bus into light rain 12 hours almost exactly after we embarked on our "luxury" bus, in high hopes, for a 5 to 7 hour trip followed by an interview with the train booking agency, and a trip to look at the fort.
Decided not to buy bus ticket for tomorrow, as we were hopeful of catching a train. We were happy enough to take the nearby low-budget hotel for Y90 no documents, no questions asked. Found out the hot water would be on at 9, deposited our bags 3 floors up after navigating past the sheets spread on the stairs as footprint preventers in the rain, then headed out for our first real meal of the day in the recommended Sichuan restaurant which had an English language (sort-of) menu. Settled for sweet and sour pork with rice (which had been good in Kashgar). Not real flash even WITH an appetite, plus cold coke and warm beer. Not the hoped-for top up of our nutrition, which had been suffering. Back to the hotel for a surprisingly good night sleep, in spite of the one-sheet policy and slippery satin bed cover of dubious washing frequency. Never HAVE worked out how one-sheet policy is supposed to work.
Tuesday 19 July Jiayuguan Zhangye
No alarm set. Up in time to walk up a couple of blocks to the train booking office in cool conditions with thin, scattered clouds. Can see the snow-capped peak to the north - place definitely looks better today.

Both feeling fragile, condition not improved when we get a no to every request we make for train tickets. This woman is not here to sell tickets if she can avoid it. We have now had enough of China, and are just trying to get to Lanzhou, a transport hub, where we will have a number of options available to us. We traveled in China for three months in 2001, and we now realize that we'd seen just about everything good then. We seem to be seeing all the bad things about China, repeated again and again. The fact that we're sick, and it's at the end of our trip, rather the beginning when we'd be fresher, doesn't help.
Head back toward the bus station, buying a selection of survival foods, including tinned mystery fish, lollies, 100% apricot juice which turns out to be some weird soy milk (apricots must have been on the packet purely because they looked good - had nothing to do with the contents, which was another setback for Dianne, who'd set her heart on a nice drink),

sardines in ketchup, and some good looking bread rolls, which will probably be over-sweet.
We are too late for the 10.30, so book the 11.10 for 61 Yuan total. Do a quick pack, long talk about deposit , decide there wasn't one, and get to the bus station in time to board. It is a smaller style of bus, with a mid door, and seat around the engine cover forward of it. As we had seats 1 and 2, we shifted some twitty girls off the most likely candidate for these numbers, after throwing our bags into a particularly uninspiring boot. We packed our daypacks between our feet and the guard rail for the stairway, and proceeded to have the classic third world bus experience. Before we left, the number of people was carefully checked at the gate, then an official came with us. Right outside the depot, we began curb crawling, spruiking for passengers and freight, picking up a bit, but stalling the bus at the low speed. To get it going again, they had to throw all the engine-cover sitters off, tickle the fuel pump for five minutes, try again, eventually get running, proceed to the traffic lights, where they lose it again. Takes about 4 traffic-light changes to get it going, we wonder if we should jump ship now, as this is a 4-5 hour trip,.
However, we do get going, pick up a bit of speed, and nearly out of town when we swing off the main road, up a ramp onto another road and stop at a market. Do some spruiking, loaded passengers and freight, then back the way we came, past familiar spruiking places, and the load we looked at first and said it was too big. Next, we head away from town, and drop the official counter woman, who was paid, possibly a passenger tax.
Next thing we know, we are back up the ramp, stop at the market, would-be drink-seller waves the same weatherbeaten bottle of Christ-knows-what at us, and we really are off.
Do some circular routes through Juiquan, stop outside the bus station, and get several looks at the statue in the roundabout before continuing. At least the motor is warmed up now, and we are confident it is going to make it.
The topography is dominated by a straight range of high mountains to the south, and the valley is quite green and lush where it is irrigated, with the area varying from almost the full valley to a narrow strip along the river, depending on what size valley and gorges are in the mountains, and how much water they produce. Corn seems to be the main crop,

although there is wheat being harvested. We see dozens of combine harvesters making their way down the road, self propelled, with most of the belts, pulleys and mechanisms still connected as they trundle along.
We continue to pick up until the bus is choc-a-bloc, then strike a barren section of the valley with no town, but a brand-new expressway, which we get to use on the wrong side, for 5 to 10 km. We then came to a check point manned by police. In spite of everyone being told to shift into the aisle and get off the engine cover, and keep their heads down, we were pinged, and forced to pull over. No-one came to look at the heavily-overloaded bus, but the driver was away for at least half an hour. The conductress tried to keep the doors closed to prevent the rats leaving the sinking ship, but bladder pressure told, and mainly the men got out for relief. During this we lost a few to other buses, but were still too full for the next police check. This time, either the crouching ruse worked, or the police weren't interested, because we got through. The driver had had enough excitement for the day, and traded a few passengers with another bus at a service station, and we proceeded to Zhangye (population 489,000) slowly, but got there.
At the bus station, bought Y71 tickets on the 10 am bus to Lanzhou tomorrow, avoiding a spruiker who wanted to put us straight onto a sleeper bus, then caught a taxi to the Liang Mao Binguan for Y3. Booked in with no English at all, and few formalities. Lady kept pointing at the board, for us to show us which room we wanted. As we couldn't read the Mandarin, we just pointed at the most expensive room, and ended up paying Y200 (with deposit) for a Y120 suite, which turned out to be quite flash, with its own sitting room, A/C, but no hot water. Walk out to look at the drum tower

and the town. Email on the way home, meal the same as breakfast- sweet bun and luncheon pork. To bed about 10
Wednesday 20July Zhangye - Lanzhou
MP ha a bad bout of diahorrea in the early AM, just when we were thinking we had the situation under control. Gives it a while to settle, then back on the Loperamide stoppers. Get a taxi as far as the Great Buddha temple, which originally dates to 1098 (Western Xia dynasty) and contains a 35-metre long sleeping Buddha. Complex looks quite pleasant from the outside ,with genuine elaborate timber and tile roof, willow lined streets,and classic Chinese murals on the walls.

Get another taxi to the South Terminal, described in our guide as the one for Lanzhou buses. Looks like the one we arrived at, but not entirely sure. Present our tickets at the gate, don't get a lot of reaction, but get some indication that this is the spot. At 9.30 we are starting to fidget, and ask again at the gate and they get a supervisor woman over. She is immediately aware that we are in the wrong terminal, should be Eastern. Takes us outside to put us into a 3-wheel moto-taxi, but we opt for a van. A genuine English speaking young man emerges from the crowd, and tells us we should be at the Eastern Terminal (there are THREE bus stations in the town). The van man is told where, and we proceed at a leisurely pace to the terminal, which is definitely not the one we came in. MP holds the fort in the van, DP goes in to see, has the corner torn off her ticket, so assume we are a goer, so we get the bag out, and proceed to the gate.
We can't be passed through for some reason, even though there is a Lanzhou bus waiting. An animated discussion breask out involving a group of up to a dozen locals, but a facilitator type seems to take charge, gets on the phone, then tells us to sit and wait. Time is ticking away, and by 10.10, we are getting agitated again, as we have definitely missed our bus, and could miss getting tickets on the 10.20 listed on the wall. Our man telsl us to wait 5, and at about 10.15, a bus comes in from somewhere else, and we have a relieved start. Even have time for precautionary loo visits. MP tries to tip our benefactor, but he refuses it. Just as we are leaving, he hops aboard - turns out he is one of the two spruikers for the bus, and there was no real problem all along.
For a while we think we are on a flash bus, certainly further up-market than yesterday, but we are soon disabused as we crawl the streets, trawling for pasengers, who have to be convinced, almost manhandled. Trying to poach customers from other busses, particularly one Iveco we see a lot of today. All freight is considered, but at least some of the bulkier items are rejected.
There is a new expressway down the valley, but we avoid it for the first half of the journey, bumping along the minor roads where the pickings in terms of freight and passenger are better. The bus presents pretty well, but the soft air suspension and crook shock absorbers mean it cannot accommodate the longer dip in the old road, and we bottom out a few times, and sway around a fair bit in cross winds.We amuse ourselves with some of English signs that have been put up on the expressway. One says "do not drive tireply" which is easier to understand when you see it, as it has a picture man sleeping, In some places someone has realized the mistake, and the sign reads "Do not drive tiredly" which is a bit easier to understand. Others we liked were "forbid to chuck jetsam", "exigency space", "only use the passing long while overtaking", and one from when we first arrived in China "trun left" instead of turn left on every sign for hundreds of kms.
The landscape varies from stony plain to irrigated wheat and corn fields where harvesting is taking place. Further on, we pass a long stretch of the Great Wall, only a rammed earth construction here, with occasional bastions, no stonework at all.

We call into some pretty desperate looking towns and villages. There is foundry and lime production here, and there are large, coal fired cement plants further off the road. Eventually we get onto the expressway, and start making some time, pulling off at times to pick up or let off passengers. Thee stop include stopping at manufactured breaks in the expressway security fence. Locals are selling some sort of produce in bright orange bags all along where the road passes over a saddle with grassland, but we never do find out what it was (looked like rocks?).
There is a major change in topography after Gulang (?), when the road winds up a valley, with a dam in the bottom, and colourful fields of striped rape and wheat.

We climb over a high, but not steep pass, and drop down, in similar country, to where the famous "loess" soil starts.

There are medium hills around, almost entirely composed of fine soil, no sign of rock at all. An attempt has been made to control run-off by putting contour trenches around them 20 metres apart, but there are strong signs of sustained soil loss. In the valleys, which were quite pretty, with half-harvested wheat, and stooks arranged in artistic weatherproof knots, the fields were 10 metres below the surrounding land.

We got off the expressway, and crossed this area on a minor road, which, while tarred, was exactly the road our bus didn't like. Took the best part of an hour to do the 24 km by the road markers. This was a very ethnic area, really loess agriculture, with small villages against the hills, and a lot of caves, obviously man-made for living or storage.
There was signs of some rehabilitation work on the loess fields.

Having found the Airport Expressway, proceeded at pace (70 kph) towards town, dropping down through steep sided valleys in the loess to a particularly unattractive collection of transport related workshops, past a very large cemetery, and into peak hour traffic in the town. The driver handled it pretty well after hours in the wide open spaces. We cross the famous Huang He (Yelllow River), definitely yellow with silt, and surprisingly wide and fast, a real mature river, more like the Indus, but not so savage.

It must start a long way up above Lanzhou to get like this. We circle around the town, find some landmarks which indicate we are going to the bus station near our hotel choice, but, at the last moment we keep going to the other bus station in the same street, further, but still walkable to those who have been cooped up for 9 hours. We thank our facilitator and head off down the quite interesting street, with lots of hawkers, food stands, and fruit.
In the interests of exploration, we cut across to our street, and find the night market area, which is very picturesque indeed, full of ethnic, particularly Uighur, food stalls including fish and crabs from a bloody long way away. For tender stomachs, it presented no temptation at all, as we had seen a KFC from the bus, and were planning on eating healthily. At the hotel, the refurbished centre section looked pretty grand, but we settled for a Y230 standard room in the old wing, no discounts. The outskirts of town looked pretty grim, but the main area of town looks quite pleasant, which is a pleasant surprise after our guidebook said Lanzhou (population 2.8million) is famous for being the most polluted city in the world. We think we could add the names of a few serious Chinese contenders!
The room is not in an ideal position, near the foyer, and next to the "Hairdressers" (read prostitutes) but we are too tired or silly to object and cop it sweet, as the room looks pretty good, even though it smells like an ashtray.
Get out straight away to walk down to the KFC in the rain. Pass the China Eastern Airlines office, which is still open, will be till 9. At this stage we have definitely had enough of China, and are going to bring our trip home forward by just over a week if we can. Even if we don't succeed in doing this, we at least want to get to Beijing as soon as possible. We've gone as far as we wanted on the Silk Road (Xian is just over 400 kms away, and we've already been there on our previous trip). We had intended to go up into Inner Mongolia and the Naadam Festival, but our guidebook says sanitation is not a strong point, so watch what you eat and drink! Not what we want at present. Also says that only 15% of the population are Mongolian now, so decide that we'll give it a miss, and go to Mongolia next time for a more-authentic experience.
After a lot of problems with English, including ringing an interpreter who spouts Chinese in the phone and hangs up, we get a price of 2 x 1200 yuan for flights to Beijing at 14.20 tomorrow, but haven't got enough cash, and they don't take Visa, American Express, or travellers cheques - only cash! (and this is the country that is going to run the Olympics in three years time). Offer to leave a deposit, which results in another phone call, this time to a fair English speaker, and we are told to leave our details on a form, and pick up our tickets at 9 am in the morning, with the cash.
Thus encouraged, we walk up to KFC and get our first real meal of the day (although after 8pm) a Zinger meal and a chicken burger meal which comes with two chicken legs, and an ice-cream Sunday for DP. Have to leave with a doggy bag, but DP manages to get most of her ice-cream down.
Back at the hotel, there has been no hot water, so chat up the desk on the way back, and get to our room, and there is someone having a shower in our bathroom. Turns out to be the maid, alerted by the desk to try the water. After 15 minutes of running the shower and almost flooding the room, the water comes good, but stays as an icy puddle in the side with the door, away from the drain. Otherwise the bathroom is nice.

After the first few hours coma, the night is interrupted by women's voices, high heels, and an amazing amount of door slamming, through till about 3 am. (suspect it is coming from the "hairdressers" next door, the Chinese front for brothels, which are everywhere). At 5 am, DP loses her tea in revere order to eating it, from both ends. MP is feeling pretty bloated in the stomach, but manages to hold onto all of his.
Thursday 21July Lanzhou - Beijing - Hong Kong
Both up and about pretty early, MP does diary then heads for Bank of China. Waits 10 minutes to get in, then up to the China Eastern Office by 9. Jut getting into the bad news that they have no record of last night when DP arrives from talking to the travel service, who made some phone calls, but said our flights could only be changed in Beijing. The man we try first has no English, woman who take over has a smattering. Find out that the 14.10 is no longer available, only a 6pm flight, and the price has gone up from 2400 to 2760 yuan for two. Unable to get any satisfaction on either front, so shell out, get tickets written, and off down to the Internet.
Sifting through Qantas and Cathay info, we are able to find out there are 2 planes a day from Beijing to Hong Kong, and 3 a day from Hong Kong to Sydney. MP back to pack and check out, while DP continues to plot our exit. Decide to request help in changing the booking from our travel agent in Australia. No reply for a while, so email Lisa, who is online, and get her (we think) to liaise with the travel agent to get us out of here. Through internet and SMS, are able to get on a 7.50 flight out of Beijing tomorrow morning, spend two nights in Hong Kong, then a flight back to Sydney on Sunday morning. Lisa says have to pay $150 for change of airline, which is a bit strange as we've just changed the dates, which is free, but we're quite happy to pay to get out.
We are just congratulating ourselves when an email comes through from the travel agent so say that we have 3 days in Hong Kong, and a flight out on Monday. SMS'd Lisa to sort it out with him, remain in Limbo.
Have time to walk to KFC past another interesting market street to get one Zinger meal between two,

then walk back to recover our bag and deposit. See quite a few Westerners around the town. These are the first Westerners we've seen since leaving Dunhuang. Obviously we're back on the well-trodden route.
Wait 15 minute for the airport bus, which gives us a more refined ride across the presentation area of the town and Huang He before retracing our steps to the airport.
Decide to wait 30 minutes standing up in line, rather than suffer a Chinese Queue, but everything is very orderly, and we get through efficiently. Through into the waiting area, surprisingly new and flash, but the ladies loo doesn't flush.
We see a European talking English to a couple of Chinese. We had seen him before at check-in with a bicycle. After a bit of a scrum, including DP having a small victory outmanoeuvering a Chinese Mafia group of assertive women determined to get on early and cause the maximum amount of disruption possible. A group of about 8 of them take the undivided attention of a hostess to try and control them while they stow a whole stack of oversized luggage, blocking the whole plane, and refusing to move, all the time making an incredible racket yelling to each other etc etc.
One of them made it all the way down the airbridge with 3 suitcases on a trolley.
We get the two window side seats, the European man ( the only other Westerner on the plane) gets the aisle seat. He turns out to be an Irishman from the south west, a professional Triathlon athlete, spending time doing world-rated races in difficult places like China where the opposition is not as good, and you can rack up world standing points. If you get within the top 100, you have a shot at the Olympics. Pretty long shot, at 29, but that is what professional sport is about. He has been living and training in Jiayuguan, where we were, 2 bone-shaking bus rides away. He has had no health problems, in spite of having to eat a lot to keep up his strength, including a lot of the best grade beef he can find. Has done all his eating in the better hotels.
He spends a lot of his time in Stellenbosch, South Africa, and likes it. Considers it safe. Has a girlfriend also involved in triathlon, who is currently suffering a broken foot, damaged in the transition stage of a race.
The flight is pretty bumpy as we pass over the horizon-wide sandhills of the Gobi desert proper, which we cut across in a straight line to Beijing. The main meal is not too bad, and we have as much of it as we are game, but the trimmings that go with it are very Chinese.
Get to Beijing just after dark, a bit before 9pm. Have a few anxious moments at the baggage carrousel while we talk to Bobby, the Irishman, about the trials in shipping an expensive racing bike around the world without getting hammered savagely for excess baggage. This trip, the Chinese we saw him talking English to put in a word at the right time, so the freight from the first leg of his trip was stretched to cover the second.
Outside, MP dickers with Official and unofficial Hotel touts for the airport hotels, getting down to Y380 including shuttles, while DP goes upstairs to find ticketing, with the documentation with her. Under some sort of intuition, MP tells the touts he will get back to them, and heads upstairs. The touts have checked out DP previously, and help find her. She is standing outside the restricted check-in area, about to come looking. We have a start on the 21.10 flight, as it has been delayed 45 minutes, and has put her bag through, and organised the ticketing. MP is quickly processed, and we are told to hurry to gate 18. Unfortunately, when we get to Immigration, there is a line of about 50 people, and only 2 officials. Can't see a fast track possibility, so, having missed a flight at Heathrow under similar conditions, MP hurrie back to check-in, gets the staff woman to come with him to fast track us. She asks a man looking after group bookings to process us, and it goes well. Through security, hurry to the gate to find we have at least 20 minutes spare.
There are not a ot of people, but we have seats 63 A and C, which are a long way back, and indicate a big plane. It is an Airbus 330, the new, big twin, 8 seats across, about a 400 seater, and there are probably 100 on board. Start to see why they were prepared to fit us in.
Food is first class, although the white is a little tart. Probably eat more than we should, but the confidence level is high.
The flight had been delayed due to a fierce electrical storm over Hong Kong, and we don't get into Hong Kong till after one am, plus had a very long taxi to a spot among the cargo planes, then another long drive in the airport transfer bus back to the terminal. By the time we got our baggage, the terminal is almost deserted, with anyone who might offer information or accommodation gone home. DP gets what information she can, we walk around looking for more, plus money. Find an ATM, but end up with 4 x 500 HK$ note, not much good for the bus, and no obvious way of getting smaller.
With our prospects of getting a bus into town not looking good, we try the next step and look at the Airport Regal, but at the discounted rate of US$300, was a bit regal for us, especially as most of the night has gone. Back in the main lounge, we regroup, MP goes to the ATM again to read the smaller print, use the Visa, notice does mention $100 notes, so try 300 to force it into this mode, and get it.
Armed with change, we go back to the customs exit, where DP has spotted an Internet terminal with tourist information, so talk our way back in, but can't get much info on accommodation, but spot a courtesy phone and are able to ring the Holiday Inn, which is full. We then rang the Kimberly, which had a room for 1200 HK plus tax, but tells us there is no night bus. Confident of at least getting a room, carefully noted that it is for tonight, not tomorrow, we head for the taxi rank.
There is a Cathay Pacific employee whom we have passed several times in our travels. Have a closer look at the notice she is holding, which turns out to be advice of a free shuttle for Cathay customers. Directs us outside, where we find a crew bus, the night busses, and a fleet of charter busses for CP customers. Put our bags in the bus, wait for it to fill and sort out who is going to Tsim Sha Tsui and who is not, and off in quiet air-conditioned comfort to town. It is now after 3 am, and raining, and it is a long way. Surprised how far up Nathan Road we enter it. Resist getting out, and are helped by locals to get out at the right stop.
DP wants to check out the Kowloon Hotel, further down, but can't find it, so walk back up past Chungking Mansions,

resisting a room offer, past Mirador Mansions (where we stayed last time), and find the Kimberly, where we get a run, put the room on Visa, and hit the sack without showering at 4 am for 3 solid hours sleep, under the doona in icy A/C conditions.
Friday 22July Hong Kong
Can't sleep much past 9 am, so up and out to the MacDonalds up the road in heavy rain for breakfast. DP has a little bit, gets caught short on the way back, and heads back to Maccas for their second most famous product, good loos.
Walk down Nathan road, look for the free internet which is supposed to be in the TSS underground. Can't find, so back to the place recommended in the guide. DP stays for a couple of hours, doing research on various things. As we look like being in Hong Kong for a couple of days, sends an email to Chi, who lives in Hong Kong, and who we've kept in contact with since we met on our 2001 trip to China. Also sent an email to the Ziners, a travel group we belong to, as we know it has a member in Hong Kong. MP back to get drinks, read and watch TV. DP still looking for information on medication, as we have been unable to get Noroxin, and she started taking Doxycline, but they are obviously not working. Gets one shown in our guidebook as an approximation which she takes, then Lisa rings after talking to our doctor in Australia, who says Noroxin or nothing, but should be available in Hong Kong. Goes looking again, and this time finds a "dispensary", and gets an equivalent. Takes one - now has a real cocktail in her guts.
While DP is in the internet, MP gets a ring from Chi, and arrange to meet at one of the exits from Central. Also get a phone call from Judy, a travelziner who lives at
Sai Kung in the New Territories. Arrange to go their tomorrow if we're feeling OK. Have an afternoon sleep, and out by 6.45 for our first try at the MRT. Sort out the ticket buying, get there in quick time, walk forever through the station to find the right Exit, and wait in a sweaty alley for about 30 minutes.
When Chi arrives, we walk up through the Expat Friday night scene, and get a cab to the Ladies Recreation Club halfway up to the Peak, a colonial era club, with tennis courts and a swimming pool. The sporty types are playing tennis, other are relaxing with Friday night G&T's, or the modern equivalent, possibly a health drink. The food was Western, reasonably simple, and reasonably priced apart from DP's savage champagne. Chi's new husband (they were married on the 2nd July) can't make it as the Chinese have just announced that they are floating the currency, which has made for a very hectic day for him, as he's a banker with Morgan Stanley.
Have a fairly early night, back down by taxi, arrange to contact tomorrow, and meet for dinner tomorrow night. Fairly early night, still struggling with the compromise between thick doona and cold A/C. Dianne's tablets seem to be working, and she keeps her food for the first time in days.
Saturday 23July-Hong Kong
Late morning, DP has talked to Judy from Ziners, and get instructions to get public transport all the way to the waterfront town of Sai Kung. Cannot yet sort out the method of using SMS when not to Australia, but make contact with a public phone, meet briefly, then proceed to beat one of the old boat-tout women down to HK$120 for an hour around the bay.

The area is pleasant enough, more remarkable in that there is so much unpopulated mountain and foreshore so close to Hong Kong. Ending up going out past some beaches and islands to Hap Mun beach, which is on Kiu Tsui Chau island. For another hour, could go right around the island, but we head back.

Do the $2 tour around the town, interesting waterfront area with all sorts of live seafood in markets and restaurants,

and a fairly ordinary "old town", but with some intricate alleys.
Cool off in MacDonalds with a strawberry shake, phone again and about 2.30pm meet Judy and husband in a restaurant, now part of a chain owned by an Australian. Eat good, light Australian-style food, and talk retirement and hardship travel. They are Canadian, have been here 9 years, have a house which is in a national park, where they have monkeys and cobras. He is in Electrical Engineering at one of the Uni's, has been working on MagLev trains. She is in a tourism -related business, promoting the side of HK not involving shopping and hype.
Another exciting ride over the hills in the Green Minibus, then back in the MRT, and walk home. We have got this place sorted. Another PM sleep, then back in the MRT to the same spot. Meet Chi's "husband", Eddie, a banker, 30-ish, ex Boston, could pass for Tom Cruise's brother. We walk through the upper level walkways to a new building with a restaurant, Red, within a fitness club. Sit outside, as inside is full, and outside not considered a premium location. Eat lite again, plus MP drinks healthy, DP tries the Cornigli champagne. Entertained by fireworks during the meal, while we look out over the harbour. This is what travel is about!!

Later they walk us to the Star Ferry for a scenic crossing. Take night photos,

then walk back through the bright lights to pack and set the alarm for 445 am
Sunday 24July Hong Kong - Sydney
Pleased to check out without a crowd, and wait for 5.30am bus. Good views of Hong Kong harbour on the way to the airport. Check in after sorting out the reason for a Cathay sticker on our ticket (obviously an error when the ticket was re-issued in London, as the original booking was with Qantas) and thus avoid any additional payments. Off the runway only 10 minutes late. We have succeeded in escaping from the Middle Kingdom!

Another reason we're keen to get home is that our, son Adam, is leaving on the 28th July for a trip to America for six weeks, so we're keen to see him before he goes.
Pleased to find that we have interactive entertainment system, where we can choose any of at least ten movies. Only problem is our system is not working. They eventually get it going about 2 ½ hours into the flight, and we amuse ourselves watching movies, eating, with a glass of champagne for good measure. The eight-hour flight goes fairly quickly, and we are soon home. A bit of a jolt to the system when we realize that it is dark at 6pm - we'd been so eager to get home, it had slipped our mind that we are returning to winter!