Where in the world is Sue???

We left Shanghai for Hong Kong - happy to be leaving Shanghai after our delayed departure.

We had an interesting taxi ride to the train station and apart from the mad driving, we thought that the car was going to fall apart. We drove over a very interesting bridge and down a highway which spiralled down three levels. It was an impressive road. Anyway, once at the airport, we went though Chinese customs. I know two chinese words, Niehau (hello) and shea shea (thank you) which have come in very handy. Arriving at the counter, I had a very nice looking chinese customs officer, so I said Niehau, he laughed, took my passport, looked at me and said , "Excuse me Miss Hood, are you planning to come back to China?" My heart sank..... but then he said that I would need a visa to get back into China - we had already worked this one out so it was fine and I was allowed to leave China.

The waiting hall for the train was packed - so we were towards the end of the hall. After a mad rush to the compartment, we found that 4 of the 6 beds were already occupied which left Lauren and I with the two top bunks and no space under the beds to store luggage. After an enormous effort to lift our two packs three beds up, we lay down on the beds, because that is all we could do, we couldn't sit up at all and so began a 15 hour journey to Hong Kong. One chinese couple glared at us for most of the trip and even my blue eyes didn't seem to disarm them, the other older couple seemed to like us and were quite helpful when train conductors needed info from us but couldn't speak english.

We arrived in Hong Kong and it was hot and humid. Once through customs, we jumped on a train to Tsim Tsa Shui where we were staying. Our hostel was in Chunking Mansions. It was interesting to say the least. It was a huge block of floors, the bottom floor were mainly indian run stalls selling food, clothes, internet cafes and laundry while the floors above were living areas, though I use the term living areas loosely. After checking in and a racially charged argument, caused by the manager of the hostel telling the indian gentlemen in line for the elevator that they all walked slow, we arrived in our room.

The room was very small. The bathroom - well, lets just say that you could sit on the toilet and use the shower at the same time it was that small. It was a dump but there was aircon and we were quite prepared to stick it out because we would hardly be in the room anyway, but then we saw the cockroaches. Still, we decided that we would stick it out, we're from Africa, what are a few bugs. We decided to organise getting our laundry clean, have some lunch and arrange for new chinese visas.

We realised pretty quickly that Hong Kong is one big shopping mall. Finding lunch in a mall, conveniently at the same place that organised visas, we had a lovely italian meal, with no chopsticks. Shops close pretty late so we were still in time to get to the travel service to organise express visas..... but Lauren had left her photos in the room so we needed to go back the next day.

We decided to head down to the waterfront, walking through some more shopping malls and under hotels to get to the waterfront, we arrived at the Avenue of Stars. The skyline is very pretty and I can assure you that we took plenty of photos. We headed towards a bar and decided we needed a drink, how else were we going to face the room again. We were conveniently at the waterfront for the light show - it was pretty but we were left slightly disappointed. Different colour lights shine from all the tall buildings on the waterfront to music. It didn't last all that long either and we headed back to roach motel.

Once back, we found another cockroach and it landed up with the same fate as his friend before. There was now no way my pack was going anywhere near the floor - I was closer to the door where they seemed to be. So I spent the night with my pack at the head of my bed. Sleeping bags came out when Lauren discovered a plaster on her clean linen..... you can imagine how we were feeling by now.

Next day was dedicated to organising visas, shopping for denims at Marks and Spencer, haircuts and a meal with some meat. We decided to try another travel agency - I guess it should have been a hint when there was very little english being spoken, but we handed over our passports, paid the extortionate fees and went on our merry way under the happy guise that we would be able to fetch our passports the next day.

Off to M&S, it was great to find clothes sizes we understood, I found some denims and we headed off to a hairdresser. Finding possibly one of the more expensive hairdressers, we settled in for a cut and I had a manicure.... yes, on a backpacking holiday. We were told, no surprise that our hair was very dry..... and we needed a conditioning treatment.... just like London then. So we said yes, after all, how expensive could a conditioning treatment be? We went off to have our heads shampooed and Lauren had a complimentary ear massage thrown in. Yes, I said ear. Her man seemed to take a fancy to her ears..... she will tell you how weird it was but truthfully she really enjoyed it, both times.

The cut began and so fell away far more hair than either of us had asked for. Something got lost in translation. The conditioning treatment landed up costing as much as the cut and blow dry. We were both happy with the cut... well, once I had made one or two adjustments to mine with my swiss army knife.

After a quick walk through Kowloon Park - we headed back towards the waterfront for a nice dinner and drinks. We went to Temple Street Night Market - I was looking for T-shirts. The plan was to travel light and buy what we needed in Hong Kong.... bad move. Hong Kong is preparing for autumn, it was impossible to find any T-shirts. I still need to research how cold it possibly gets because the heavily padded and fur lined jackets I would have said were better suited for London.

Another night in roach motel, another roach down, we decided we had had enough and that it was time to find alternative accommodation. Which we did, four star, comfy beds..... it was great and no roaches. We were happier already, that is until we went back to the travel agency.

Lauren's visa was denied because of her two passports, so they didn't bother processing mine - this all meant that there was no way we were leaving Hong Kong on Monday. Our very fancy hotel had a travel desk, so handing over even more money than before and booking Lauren a random flight to Bangkok from China, we hoped that we were now sorted and would get our visas back at 7pm on Monday evening and would be able to leave on Tuesday.

Deciding it was time to hit Hong Kong Island, we dressed up and went off for find dinner and a club.

We wandered around until we found a local restaurant spot and landed up having possibly one of the best meals of the trip so far. There were about 6 restaurants together, all with outdoor seating so you couldn't actually tell what seating belonged to which restaurant. We were ushered to a seat. I had a Thai meal and Lauren had an Indian meal, steamed rice was spooned onto our plates from a bucket. While we were there, we heard some good music and lots of westerners heading up steps. We decided that we would go and investigate. We had found an expat bar.... finally. The locals all seemed to know each other and we caused a certain stir by being there. We had a good time.

Next day, we decided that we actually had to do something touristy so we headed towards a ferry for a harbour boat cruise and the tram ride to Victoria Peak. For a tourist attraction, I was surprised by how slow the movement of people up to the top of the peak was. We must have waited about an hour before we were on the tram... mainly pushed on by the masses, all for a 7 minute ride to the top. The views are worth it but I am sure that you can guess what was at the top...... two more shopping malls. We were surprised, but probably shouldn't have been by now.

We decided that there was no way we were waiting in the queue to head back down and that we would walk it.... in the dark. It was pleasant but it was also a very long way down and very steep, so thinking that it would save us time, we tried to find the pedestrian escalator. But lo and behold, the escalators are for uphill, not downhill. Many, many steps later, a quick drink break in Soho, we were down from the peak.

Next day we decided to head to Lantua Island to see the worlds largest outdoor seated Buddha at Lin Po Monastery. The road to Buddha is slow, winding, long and wouldn't be complete without 260 steps to the top. Though somehow we managed to get water and an ice-cream at the top.... again, something lost in translation when buying a ticket. We did meet an Australian man who said Disneyworld wasn't that great so my attempts to convince Lauren that we had to go fell flat.

We left Hong Kong the next day. After a 45 minute train ride to Shenzhen, we left Hong Kong and were happy to be finally back in China. We couldn't have gone back to Hong Kong anyway.... the signs clearly said NO REFLUENCE. The signage has left us bemused many times on this trip so far.

All we can say about Shenzhen is that for some strange reason, there seemed to be an array of dentists at the station. And you could actually watch them at work if you like. We decided to pass the opportunity and carried on with our mission to find train tickets to Guilin. We are further south now so it is all the more difficult to find people speaking english. Fortunately, I had asked the China Travel Services to write Guilin (pronounced Gweelin - otherwise you stand no chance of getting there) in chinese letters for us, so we managed to get our tickets for the next leg.