Part 4: China and Hong Kong (part 1) - days 18-23
Once in Guilin we boarded an overnight train to Hong Kong.
DAY 19: we arrived in HK in the late morning and had a bit of drama upon arrival. The Australian "anti-propaganda" woman and our guide got into some sort of confrontation. None of us witnessed it (because she spent most if the 14 hour trip away from the rest of the group in the dining car), but the gist is that she told our guide to "fuck off." He did not handle it well. Although she was wrong, as our tour leader he should have been the more mature person and dropped it. Instead, there was a big kafuffle, and it was really awkward (but kind of funny) for the rest of us.
We spent the afternoon doing touristy stuff. We went down to the walk of fame/Board walk and looked at the view of the city. I Took a bunch of pics of the guys in front of a bruce lee statue trying to do jumping karate kicks. Kellie, Joe, Jasmin, Chris and myself then took the star ferry across the harbour and went to Victoria peak. To get to the top you have to take a sort of sketchy tram. It goes very vertical at points and being told it was built in 1888 did not improve my confidence.
The peak was great. Such fantastic sweeping views of the city and the harbour. There was a clear blue sky (something we didn't see much of in mainland China) and a nice breeze.
It's bloody HOT here....actually, let me rephrase that... It's bloody humid. The forecast since we arrived was literally "31 degrees, feels like 42." I've never been in humidity like this... The heat in Egypt was almost more bearable because at least my clothes didn't cling to my body like Saran wrap. Thankfully I'm not a sweaty person.
We had a group farewell dinner at a Cantonese restaurant as this was the last day of the tour. Overall, i would recommend the tour I did to anyone traveling in china. Without a tour it would have been absolute hell trying to get around as no one speaks English and the locations we went were great. The tour I did was a "basic" level which meant that our hotels and transport were all organized and we had a leader, but most activities were not planned. That worked out really well because the group was pretty split between young and old and so we didnt need to hang around the older group. Kellie, Joe, Chris, Jasmin and myself would do our own thing and we had a really good time. The 5 of us got on really well and I'm super happy that we had such a good little group.
The rest of the tour members were interesting. The Swedish couple I mentioned in my first blog were interesting. She was quite grumpy and he was unintentionally hilarious. He understood English but he didn't speak it, so he would end up pantomiming all the time. Joe could do an awesome impression.
There was the aussie woman, who caused trouble (as discussed above), and an Aussie guy who was really nice, but very quiet and kept to himself. Finally there was another older couple (from Calgary). She was lovely; such a nice woman. He had good intentions, but he was a real know it all. We called him "Fantastic Mr. Phil" because everything he did was "great". One day jasmin was trying to get a picture of a butterfly and he says to her, "it's moving very fast....you need to be super quick to get a decent photo.....I got about 10." Later that day he says to Kel, "look at all your mosquito bites....where did you get them?" She responded that she got them at the park, and he comes back with, "I was at the park this morning too and I didn't get any bites." LOL. Good for you.
Anyway, after the dinner we went to a night market briefly before the 5 of us went out for drinks for the last time :(
DAY 20: we intended to spend the day with Kel and Joe before they had to fly out in the evening, but Jasmin, Chris and I ended up going to Disneyland instead because Jas really wanted to go and she was leaving the next day. It was sad saying bye to the Irish, and hopefully I cross paths with them again.
Disneyland was good. Compared to the US disneys, it was super lame (there was no splash mountain, Indiana jones, pirates, haunted mansion, star tours, etc) but we still had fun. Also what was missing compared to the US was the crowds. It's was dead. Which made it good. No lines, no fat Americans in matching outfits eating deep fried foods, etc. It was also cheap to get in. Space mountain was my fav.
In the evening the three of us went to an area called Soho for dinner and had a really nice Thai meal. Soho is a trendy area where it seems a lot of westerners and expats hang out; think little restaurants, wine bars and English pubs. I really liked it. For the first time in 20 days I had white wine; and it was good!
After we went to the "ladies night market" which was a bunch of cheap knock offs. I bought a fair number of things.... Mostly little stocking stuffers. Chris got a few awesome shirts, with English that makes no sense.
This day we transferred to our hotel that I booked (since the tour is over). It's a good location, and it's clean and safe, but it's literally a shoe box. Good wifi too. DAY 21: Chris and I found an Internet cafe and managed to stream part of the Nucks game. We ended up losing the game, but I really like our team this year. And i thought the Sedins looked deadly, so that's encouraging.
Jas and I then dragged Chris around shopping. I bought a jacket and a purse. There is a lot of good shopping; it took great restraint not to buy more.
Jas left for the airport mid afternoon. So sad. Such a good group. Chris and I went back to soho for dinner and had really really good "American Hamburgs" (which was the English translation of hamburger at one of our previous hostels). It was a lazy night.... I can't believe how busy we have been. Chris went for a massage; apparently it was good, but he was offered some extra services after. He says he declined the offer....lol.
DAY 22: its just Chris and I now until Craig shows up. We went out to Stanley market in the AM, which is about a 30 minute bus ride from downtown. The market was pretty unimpressive....small and no different than the night markets we have been going to in the city. The area of Stanley is nice though, right on the ocean, and much more low key than the city. We sent the afternoon at a nearby beach called repulse bay. I had no idea that hong kong had some decent beaches. It was nice, and the water was a nice temperature. The only weird thing was the tour buses of people that would show up every 20 minutes. We would be lying on the beach, no one around, and then suddenly 50 Chinese or Indian tourists (who apparently didn't understand the concept of a beach and were wearing long pants and jackets) would turn up and roam around for 15 minutes taking pictures. Having 50 fully clothed Indian men standing around you as you are trying to sunbathe is a little off-putting.
In the evening we went back to Soho and had dinner and drinks. Most bars in soho have happy hours between 5 and 9 every night (2 for 1 wine or beer or discounted cocktails) so we took advantage of the price.
OTHER COMMENTS - It's funny how a person gets used to paying so little for things. HK is defo much more expensive than mainland china was. A good dinner and a drink here in hong kong Is usually around $15. In china, the same would have been under $10. $15 for a good meal and a cocktail would be a steal at home, but now it feels like a lot. Any time i see a menu with prices greater than $10 a plate im put off. Likewise with water. A water was usually about $0.50 on the mainland; here in Hong Kong it's more like $1.05....still chump change, but after you get used to paying one thing, it feels expensive when you start paying more. Sent from my iPad
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