Round the world in 7 months How will you know, if you never go?

On Tuesday we took the train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, about a 12 hour journey and pretty uneventful except for the aircon breaking down several times. On Wednesday it was straight to the airport to catch a flight to Hong Kong. We booked some “cheap” accommodation in a backpackers hostel (cheap for Hong Kong but expensive by backpacker standards) - - on arrival we found that cheap really does mean cheap!!! We had THE SMALLEST room in the world, situated in a really busy building where you have to queue for THE SMALLEST elevators in the world (they pretty much overload with more than 6 people). Interestingly the whole building smells of curry as there are many Indian food stalls on the ground floor. And to complete the picture, you couldn’t go anywhere without a constant barrage of touts selling fake goods: “Mam, copy handbags, sunglasses…” and “Sir, would you like a suit…” and even whispers of “hashish, hashish”. Oh well, thank god it was only for two nights! During our one day in Hong Kong we explored Kowloon Park, took the subway to Hong Kong Island and then caught the tram up to The Peak (very similar to the Wellington cable car only longer!), took photos of the awesome views from The Peak Tower Sky Terrace, did the Peak Circle Walk (more beautiful views!), and rode the world’s longest (800m) covered escalator. In the evening we went down to the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront to watch A Symphony of Lights, which is a really cool light and sound show (apparently the world’s largest, according to the Guinness World Records) involving more than 40 buildings on both sides of the harbour. Now we are waiting at the airport again for a flight to Kathmandu, where we are about to spend 3 weeks trekking in the Himalayas!