Hello from Hong Kong!

Hong Kong is the most amazingly vibrant, colourful and modern city we've been to so far in Asia. We absolutely love it. However, to get here we had to endure the most horrific flight of our lives.

All seemed normal at the airport, we checked in, had the normal panic that we might have some potentionally objectionable liquid in our hand luggage, and before long had borded and were ready for take off. It was a very short flight, and we expected to be in Hong Kong within two hours. Oh how wrong we were. About half way into our flight the captain came on to the tannoy:

"Good morning everyone, I don't wish to alarm you, but there is a minor technical fault with the aeroplane and we will have to return to Hanoi airport."

WHAT?! What does that mean?! A minor technical fault?! Alex finished his lunch. If he was going to die he may as well die full. Fern quickly downed her glass of wine. If she was going to die she may as well die drunk. The next 30 minutes were terrifying. We were sitting right next to the engine, which we thought had been particularly loud since take off, and had convinced ourselves that said engine had failed. Our faith in the plane was not helped by the looks of despair etched onto the faces of the cabin crew. After the fastest descent either of us have experieced, we somehow landed safely onto solid ground. Everyone breathed a large sigh of relief.

We all remained quite good natured about it all though, despite the fact that large numbers of the people on our flight were catching connecting flights and had to have them rearranged. Once this had been done, Vietnam Airlines found us a second plane, assuring us that this one was completely different from the first and was completely safe (several of us were, understandably, reluctant to board another plane). We filed on and sat patiently, waiting for take off. And we waited. And waited. Our first clue that something was amiss came when the male members of the cabin crew started shoulder-barging the cabin door. Soon enough, our suspicions were confirmed:

"Eh, good afternoon everyone, I'm sorry to inform you that the plane has a technical fault. The captain has become locked inside the cockpit. The door is niether opened or closed (?!) and we are not able to fly. We will be returning to the terminal"

WHAT?! Niether opened or closed? What does that even mean? Did it accedently slip into a paralell universe while no one was watching? Off we got again, and again everyone stayed very polite about it all, even taking time to wave at the captain from the shuttle bus as he banged his head against the windscreen and smiled. They had to take the glass off to get him out.

So, another two hours, and another plane...or so we thought. Number three turned out to be number one again. We were sure of this because a French guy Alex got chatting to had dropped M&N's on his seat in a state of panic on plane one, and had been reunited with them on plane three. We like to call this the M&N proof. It's indisputable. So, sure enough, after an hour of sitting on the tarmac, we were unable to take off as the plane still had the same fault.

By now everone was very angry, especially as the airline continued to lie to us about plane one/three being the same plane. "You don't know they're the same plane" "Yes we do. We found the M&N's!" In an attempt to difuse the situation we were given a free meal and drink, however Fern gotinto an argument with an airline employee when they refused to give her water. Don't worry, Fern won. Eventually, we arrived in Hong Kong on plane number four, tired, eight hours late, and swearing blind that we'd never get on another Vietnam Airlines flight EVER again.

Our Hostel in Hong Kong was brand new (it had only been open a month) and therefore had very little reviews online, but we decided to take a punt on it. We had heard bad things about some HK accomodation and knew that the qualitly of accomodation we got would possibly make the difference between loving the city or hating it. It was a gamble that paid off, and we were rewarded with a beautiful, modern room which had been designed by a local artist. It's somthing we've noticed alot on this trip, It doesn't matter how hectic a city is as long as you have a haven to go back too. And Hong Kong was hectic, but in a great way. Neon signs dangle from every building, delicious food smells float alongside those from more dubious looking meat products, and every shop you could possibly want waits with open doors until late into the night. No rain here either.

We filled our days exploring the city, visting some of its excellent museams and gazing in wonder at the skyscraper skyline. We were particularly impressed by the escalators and skywalks here. On Hong Kong island we managed to walk for miles without actually setting foot on the floor. There is an amazing sollution to the problem posed by hills here. Instead of walking, you can get an outdoor escalator, on the street, where a pavement should be. Genius! We felt like little kids again, playing in a massive Hong Kong sized playground, and followed this theme to the science museam where we had to compete with the local children to play with all of the cool things...I mean educational displays...On our last night in we caught the tram (which travels at a 45 degree angle) up to what is called The Peak. A hill top higher than the towers of the city provides you with incredible views. We watched the sunset, and found the city even more beautiful after dark, when it comes alive with technicoloured light displays. Other evenings had been spent exploring markets and eating street food. Fern was so impressed by the city that she purchased an 'I Love Hong Kong' T-shirt, which she wears with pride.

Sad to be leaving we headed back to the airport, and hoped for a better flight on to Japan!