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  Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Thursday, May 22, 2008

THIS CITY IS COOL. We both think it reminds us of London and New York, just a bit cheaper (with Chinese characters obviously). The minute we landed and got on a bus to take us to Kowloon (the area of the city we are staying in) we both were intrigued by the city. The geography helps because Hong Kong is situated around part of the South China Sea. Each area of the city is an island or peninsula which is pretty cool. So the water mixed with the over-whelming amount of sky scrapers with massive lights at night make for a very interesting skyline at night and in the daytime.

We took a scenic tour to the Victoria Peak where you take a tram to the top of a 500 m lookout. The tram has been there since 1888. The view is just great and we were REALLY fortunate to have some great weather too. We took a walk to some other side view points too and of course, had a little lunch break.

Yes, we did go see India Jones movie

hong kong money made by hsbc

! Couldn't resist after all the hype. We had the great pleasure of meeting Will, a recent grad from Washington University in St. Louis. (He was wearing a Cowboys jersey so we had to ask!) We liked the movie but did not LOVE it.

We also took a ferry ride on Star Ferry (which as much of a tourist attraction as it is a mode of transportation) to see a multi-media light show that Hong Kong puts on each night at 8 pm. It was pretty cool, but we were glad we only paid $100 Hong Kong dollars (about $12.50 USD) and not $310! It was not THAT cool.

It of course is a good thing too when there is a beer festival in town the same time you're there... woohoo!!

Sunday night, we met our group or at least almost all of our group. At the meeting, we had 6 from the UK, 3 from Australia and our Chinese leader, Terry Lee (no, it is not his real name). We learned that we would not be going on the itinerary as originally planned for because of the Earthquake a few weeks ago. Terry also handed out our Intrepid shopping bag which were to be used when shopping instead of plastic bags. He also gave each of us a pair of chopsticks. Many places use chopsticks only once and then throw them out (who knows if it's true, but we read they go through 45 BILLION chopsticks a year!!), not very eco-friendly!? We thought that was pretty cool. After our meeting, we went to a local place to have dinner. Chinese people eat in what they call a banquet style which means a free for all. Nothing really gets passed or shared, you just reach over and pluck off the bite from the plate! So strange, but we will get more used to it through the rest of the trip we are sure

different 20s from different banks

.

On day 2, we took the metro to Shenzhen where we walked across the boarder into mainland China. We made it with no issues! We spent a few hours in Shenzhen waiting for our over night train. We found out that Shenzhen used to be a small fishing village but has quickly become a business mecca. We read something that said it had gone from a poor fishing village to China's riches city in 20 years!

We walked around a shopping mall (at least 5 stories) near the train station that had EVERY brand imaginable. We were grabbed by a "salesman" named "MIKE" who handed us his business card and followed us around for about 45 minutes. It was a very strange situation and he wanted to sell us something very badly. What he did not know was that Layton and Jana don't buy much just because it is "cheap, cheap". Don't worry. Once we got rid of Mike, we found another friend that followed us around saying "dvd, dvd". Every store was so similar we figured out that they needed these guys to "guide" us to their store in order to have a business advantage.

We then caught the train to Yangshuo on a "hard sleeper" train. Basically, this means that the car is broken into areas that are shared by 6 people on "hard" beds

jana and bubba gump at victoria peak

. We traveled with the locals and found out that they too like to eat instant noodles. Everyone had a bowl of what we call ramen noodles to eat on the journey. Yes, the little kids just stare at us with mystified looks, but it was a pleasant experience overall.


More to come.

Oh yeah... sorry for the pictures of money, was crazy in Hong Kong, because the money is issued by banks!! HSBC and another bank actually have their logos on the bills and make the money in Hong Kong, so strange...

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

corley, this is for you	here comes the tram to get us	view from the top of victoria peak	view in the other direction
monkey arms from the top	buildings are everywhere	layton taking it all in	monkey arms number 2
beautiful harbour down below	primary school kids taking a survey	they were practicing their English	another awesome shot of the harbour
jana is loving it	heading down the mountain	wow it pretty steep	whoa it steep here
jumping on our star ferry	our night cruise for the light show	hong kong island skyline	cool sign
another cool sign	cool lights and buildings	another great shot	SHARP sign
bank of china building and other cool lights	the harbour tour was great	yes, there is a starbucks	olympic rings for equestrian center
another ferry and cool buildings	IFC building	another cool shot	IFC building again
Nathan street	Nathan street again	ok, walk NOW	Sai Yeung Choi St (electronic st)
again	gold fish market	cool fish in bags	they were everywhere
tiny little turtles	so awesome	shot from the bottom	neat lights and bags of fish
hello kitty noodles	flower market road	loads of flowers	yuen po street bird garden
cool macaus	feeding the little guys	cool birds	little babies
so many colors	pretty blue chest	these little guys could talk and wistle	awww, a baby
Let's party in Lan Kwai Fong	Lan Kwai Fong beerfest 2008	hong kong beer	local micro brew beer
pretty good crowd there	streets are packed	cool san miguel visor	drinking contest
who's going to win	girls turn this time	who will win	lan kwia fong beer
hong kong subway

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