We left Shengzen at around midday having just had the free buffet breakfast from the hotel (a pitiful collaboration of two slices of bread-one toasted, one not and a teaspoon full of something loosely connected with egg).
Got an taxi to the train station. You have to cross the boarder on foot and then get a train Hong Kong side. The air was filled with excitement at the prospect of fleeing China. Boarder control was a joke, as always, nobody watching the screens as bags were searched (we even caught some bloke who should have been watching out for dangerous objects with media player up on his screen watching a film!
We got on the train and headed for Kowloon (one of the three major parts of Hong Kong). As soon as we got off the train the atmosphere was so different. The stares and spits all now a thing of the past. We had a total shocker trying to sort out digs, lugging all our stuff from hotel to hotel trying to find somewhere cheap. It was just so expensive, the most basic guest house which would be about 50-100 in China were now 450! These were so grotty tho, we just couldn't face it and ended up after hours and hours of searching back at one of the 1st hotels we tried which was a stomach curdling 550 a night. It was really basic but the staff were well friendly and it was called 'the salvation army lodge', so we felt comfortable leaving our possessions in an establishment approved by our lord.
We were shattered, but managed to muster the strength to take in a meal after we'd unpacked. The restaurant was the nuts and the head waiter took to us and gave us free access to the buffet-which was really amazing. After that we headed down to the water which separates Kowloon from Hong Kong Island. For those who don't know, here is the very famous Hong Kong Skyline. It was totally and utterly gob-smacking. Best sight of the trip so far. We'd arrived in Hong Kong right at the start of the Chinese New Year (something we'd later regret), so there was Chinese dragon dancing displays and music all along the promenade which added to the atmos.
We'd planned to stay only two nights in Hong Kong, doing Disneyland the next day then flying out the day after as we knew it was expensive. Luck was very much not on our side. The new year had meant all flights were well expensive. To add insult to injury we couldn't get access to our money as it was a Sunday and we couldn't transfer money till Monday so we were kinda stranded and forced to stay an extra night. We went to Disney the day after (Monday) and we were just so excited. Vick was like a little kid-grinning uncontrollably I'd love to say i was the macho rock hard male telling her to calm down but i must confess to leaking out the odd tourette style 'yesss!'
We arrived at 9pm and left at 2. It was RUBBISH. A total insult to Mr. Walt Disney. There was only ONE RIDE!-and that was tamer than most of the rides at Peter Pans. The second best thing to go on were the Spinning Teacups, then there was a Dumbo ride for kids...
We left and went back to the hotel, and drowned our sorrows with a few bottles of Californian White, which seemed to briefly take the sting out of our disappointment.. At around midnight, suitably merry we went for a wander down to the coast. Found an Irish Pub and had a drink in there but left as it lacked any kind of real Irish authenticity and the drinks prices were ludicrous (HK$100 for 2 drinks!). We checked out the skyline again but it was really misty so we headed back to the room. We walked past an incredible looking hotel called The Peninsula. I'm not quite sure why but we decided for banter to turn up, fake posh accents and try and book into their most expensive room. We were really soaked as it had been raining and hardly in posh attire but we went to reception and asked for the most expensive room. This was called the Peninsula Suite and cost $42,000 per night. Thats about 3000 quid! Unfortunately we were informed this particular room could only be booked through an agent. She tried to offer us the next one down but at only $35,000, this simply wasn't good enough, so we left!
After we'd got back from Disney we tried to get a flight out but everywhere had shut (early due to the new year) so we had been forced to stay yet another day, except reception had now decided our room was gonna be $660-in China you could get a night in the Marriott for this price. The next day we tried to get a flight and were told that due to the New Year, for some reason agents weren't booking on the Internet and that our only hope would be just to rock up at the airport and see what they had. So this is what we did! Luckily, there was a flight with Emirates leaving that night which still had spaces, so we went for it despite it being more than we had hoped (but still less than the agents). Around about this time I started feeling pretty ill but luckily the airport was littered with toilet opportunities... The plane ride was awesome! Loads of space, a decent meal, Nintendo and tons of channels including one which shows live footage from a camera attached to the front and underside of the plane. We touched down in Thailand at 12 O'Clock local time having lost an hour in the time difference (we're now 7 hours ahead of the UK).
When we got there it was just so hot and we had to sort accommodation which turned out to be a mission. The initial hotel we were looking at was fully booked and so was choice number 2 so we had to just ask the barely English speaking taxi driver to keep going till we found one with vacancies. We arrived at the Vieng Tai Hotel at 3am and they blatantly ripped us off knowing how desperate we were, but we were too weak to put up a fight and so took it, and were asleep in bed within about 10 mins in a room which really wasn't great but thankfully did have air-con.
So there it is, we came though the first test of our travels with flying colors. OK, thanks to Hong Kong we have overspent but initial impressions of Thailand suggest that we will make up the money over the coming weeks/months.
A few points we want logged re.China that we haven't covered so far...
1. Baby Wee.
This drove us crazy. In China, if a mother is walking with her baby and the baby needs the loo, the mother will stop dead on the spot the baby made the request, and tip the baby upside down allowing the appropriate trajectory for the baby to wee all over the pavement. All baby trousers are equipped with holes in the crotch to make this procedure even more efficient.
2. Hello's!
This was one of the few niceties of the Chinese but only applies to the younger generation. You often get passers by waving and shouting 'Hello' with a beaming smile, and kids hassling their parents to ask if they could approach us with a big 'Hello', to show off their English.
3. Beautiful girlfriend.
The amounts of times I got stopped by people who had to tell me that i had a beautiful girlfriend was crazy. Where ever we went it was the same, and people from both sexes and all ages were going on about it. For some reason Vick never got stopped in the street by someone desperate to compliment the looks of her other half-tho I'm sure there is a perfectly rational explanation for this.
4. Over-helpful staff.
It seems every shop in China is ridiculously overstaffed. In a restaurant environment this has the effect of people basically standing at your table waiting for you to finish just so they can have something to do in taking your plate away. You have to be careful where you look because just catching their eye brings them over in a flash. One restaurant did bottomless cokes. I'd drank about 2 sips and the guy took my drink away to fill it to the top!
The other shocker is in shops where people desperately want to do the hard sell but can't speak a word of English and so just pick up or point to the most random of objects on their shelf and usher for you to make the purchase.
4. White Wine.
We've mentioned the difficulty in getting glasses but not how difficult its been getting the wine itself. Almost every shop has huge displays of red but only if your lucky do you find the odd dusty white. Grrr!
Hong Kong
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