Land of the Dim Sum

Wow...so here we are in Hong Kong - I have to say straightaway that it is truely a great city, there is so much to do and see, we have loved it here. However, we did n't get off to a particularly good start here - when we arrived at hostel that we had booked and paid a deposit for, we were told by a very rude security guard that we were too late (it was 1.15am but we had emailed to tell them we were coming at this time) and to find somewhere else to sleep!! What bastards! Lucky Hostel is the name.....Anyway so we found some other hostel in Chungking Mansions,let me explain about this place, it is a massive old decrepit tower block in the centre of Kowloon (major central area of Hong Kong) which is full of budget hostels (though we still paying the equivalent of 18 pounds), Hong Kong is so expensive as a city, this was the cheapest we could find, it is like staying in a shoebox, very small but clean enough. The block houses people from every part of the world, Africa, India, Pakistan, Europeans - it is extremly multiethnic.

Channel girls

One of the major things we have had to do in Hong Kong was get our visas for China. We were hoping to go for 3 months, but have found out that due to the Olympics they are tightening their rules, so we can only stay for 2months, so we have decided to go to Japan for a month as well!!! Anyway the first travel agent said we needed endless documents to get our China visa (onward ticket, hotel voucher, etc), but we found another much better one , who did n't require any of that, just 1200 hong kong Dollars (about 75 quid) each and bobs your uncle, Visa obtained!

Daniella;s first sushi!

Hong Kong is full of skyscrapers like now place I have ever seen before , though Daniella reckons it is like New York but more spread out, it is pretty amazing to look at especially at night, when you catch the famous Star ferry across Hong Kong harbour to Hong Kong Island, all the buildings are lit up. You can also take a tram up to the Peak, which is the mountain overlooking Hong Kong, but it was over way too quick on the tram ride down! On the way up though we saw some pretty good views. Also, on the second day our visit coincided with the procession of the olympic torch through Hong Kong, actually right outside our hotel. The street was completly thronged with people, the vast majority of them Chinese supporters waving flags and banners in support of the games, they said on the news that were some Tibetan demonstrators, but we did n't see in - we did however get the quickest glimpse of the torch, and then in a split second it was gone again.

Hot pot chinese style

You cannot talk about Hong Kong without mentioning the food, oh my god, it is truely some of the best Chinese food I have ever eaten - wonton soups, dumplings, roast duck, today we visited a famous Yum Cha (Dim Sum ) restaurant where you sit in a massive large room and all the waitresses come around with trolleys filled to the bring with tasty delights - barbecue pork puffs, prawn dumplings, prawn and pork dumplings, fried rice, more steamed dumplings with veggies, beef etc.We came away totally stuffed, and that was only lunch - tonight we are meeting Daniella's old friend from university for dinner to taste some Chinese hotpot! Yum!We met up with Kai Wah on Saturday at her office in town, she has her own business and we visited her swanky offices in a big tower block before heading out into Causeway Bay (another central area of Hong Kong, this is on Hong Kong island) for dinner and drinks, where we were taught some really good (and simple) but addictive drinking games by her. Drinking in Hong Kong, (like everything in Hong Kong) is not cheap - I paid 18pounds to drink as much as I could all night, and Daniella and Kai Wah (actaully she is now called Wing-Hei  -she changed her name to due to a Chinese superstition after consulting a fortune teller about her future) paid about a tenner each ...it was not too bad as we had quite a lot to drink ..suffice to say the next day was a quiet one, Daniella has a bit of a bad throat so we just rested at home before dinner in the evening. So tommorrow we are leaving Hong Kong for China proper, we take the 13.19 train to Guangzhou (pronounced Guangjhou), we are both really excited about this , and we now have our flights to Japan booked so everything will be in place, all we have to do is get our Qantas flights  changes sorted and we are all set!!!  Oh, and also we have got our camera fixed - it only took 1 day and cost about 50 quid but we were just happy to have it back in time for us to take some photos of Hong Kong ( to be uploaded soon).

Looks weird but tastes delicious

The biggest spread ever

Wing hey and I

Wing hey and Jon