Back to Hong Kong

Trip Start Aug 25, 2003
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Trip End Jul 18, 2004


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Flag of Hong Kong  ,
Sunday, March 28, 2004

After our time at Leaping Tiger Gorge, we had to head back to Hong Kong to pick up Sarah's parents, who decided to stumble through China with us for a couple weeks. This meant another night or two in Kunming. Our first night back was spent in the same youth hostel as the first time. We had to switch to a different place because something in the hostel (I think the detergent in the sheets) violently disagreed with my skin. I was officially dubbed "hive boy" for our second day in Kunming.

We had one more day to waste before the long train ride from Kunming to Hong Kong so we decided to check out Shilin (pronounced something closer to sher-lin) which means "Stone Forest." This area of China near Kunming has some unique stone formations, some groomed for big Chinese tour groups and others "wild" and free to roam around. The landscape was definitely interesting, spires of sharp stone erupting out of flat ground, but I don't know if it deserves all the local hype we had heard about it.

On the train ride back to Hong Kong, we discovered a slightly unnerving fact, the only American beer sold in China is Budweiser (OK no real surprise there) and Pabst Blue Ribbon (what is that about?). We found this out because that is all the old Chinese who slept below me drank. His system was to start off at 8:00 A.M with a "Bud" and then switch later in the day to PBR. I think the switch had to do something with his GURD problem, he burped all day long. I though maybe he should switch to a stout but since I don't speak Chinese I had no way to tell him.

Back in Hong Kong, this time for a long haul (almost a week!) and I still don't think we saw much more of Hong Kong other than a spectacle at the visa office. A man who apparently couldn't afford his visa made a huge spectacle by first punching himself in the head and then later pounding his head against the walls. The fee isn't that much, anyone who can afford to live in Hong Kong should be able to afford a Chinese visa. Still, the man seemed to have been satisfied when he left so maybe there is something to that tactic... hmm...

We gave Sarah's parents, Peg and Dave, the nickel tour the night they arrived (a ferry ride over to Hong Kong Island, a walk around, and then another ferry ride back). The next morning it was off to Beijing (train direct from Hong Kong to Beijing). We had our own hard sleeper six person birth (no one bought tickets for the upper bunks) and I had a guitar to noodle on. It was a good train ride.
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