Well we crossed our first country border successfully! Although officially part of China the border crossing was a bit stricter than we expected they looked at your passport and could take your temeperature at rnadom! But we made it to our hostel.

By the time we got there we were tired after travelling all night and most of the day so we thought we could relax...except our room was so small you couldnt swing a worm in it! it consisted of a double bed (that was really small and Si had to sleep diagonally) and a teeeny weeny bathroom, plus a tv. No window so it was a bit like a match box cell but it was home for the next few days. When we arrived here we did suddenly realise that it was indeed much much more expensive than China. The exchange rate is pretty similar between the two currencies but everything costs 10 times more in Hong Kong (ie it's 8 yuan for a big bottle of beer that you can get three glasses out of in China or 50 Hong Kong dollars for a pint of beer!!) But we learnt to economise!

As everything was so expensive we spent a lot of time bumming around and just wasting time in Hong Kong so this may be a bit of a dull entry! The first evening we arrived we got in touch with Nick and Michaela (who we met on the cruise) and went to the bar section of Hong Kong and had a few drinks, but they were off to Bangkok the next day so we didnt have much time, besides we could onlty afford to drink during happy hour!

Our first excursion was oh joy to the football (sorry boys Si is'nt here to fill you in on all that excitement and being as I hated every moment of it you'll have to come back here later and read about it!) ****UPDATE**** we managed to catch the first night of the Hong Kong international 7 a side masters tournament. Was really strange because the stadium is in the middle of all the sky scrapers and thats all you can see beyond the flood lights. Sorry if you can't tell from the photo's but the past masters present were a very fat Matt Le Tissier, Paul Walsh, Rob Lee, Warren Barton, and Mark Walters. Matt Le Tissier managed to play for a full 3 mins before being substituted but to be fair it was 28 degrees at 7pm! Bec thoroughly enjoyed my running commentary as she studied the floor for 2 hours!

We also visited the market on the south of Hong Kong island in a town called Stanley. This is where we became proper travellers, it rained all day so with our waterproof Kags we headed off anf brought some walking sandals! All thats left to do now is to get the dreadlocks and some beads to complete the traveller look!

The following day we had a bit of a walk round and went to the harbour (which had amazing views!) and we walked along the avenue of stars. We also discovered that Mac Donalds was the cheapest place by far to eat (yes Manni I ate maccies every day for 6 days and it was horrible!) We also took in the local market on Temple street which is only open at night and had some noodles and pork (we think!) which were tasty and a bargain so we ate like kings. The shops were pretty dull selling tat that nobody wants at massively inflated prices but we did find a Majonng set that we liked and we posted it home so we can show you all how to play if we remember when we get home!

One of the days to save money we decided to go for a walk, it rained for a couple of days in the middle that put paid to msot of our cheap plans like Kung Fu in the park and Tai Chi lessons at the harbour. So thinking it would be cool we set off on our hike. It was described as moderate in the book and at the end was a beach then we could get the bus back. Nice cheap esay day...oh how wrong we were. Dave you would have been so proud this thing made Samaria gorge (a hike in Crete that dave frog marched us through years ago) like a walk in the park. The sun decided to show its face again, the rain dissapeared and the walk described as moderate was not so! On the way up it was a nice gentle hike through woodland, and we met a couple that were drenched in sweat that said it was hard but the views were good, this should have warned us. The path suddenly turns into steps and then you ahve to hike for aaaaaaaaaaaaages across the tops of huge hills, up and down up and down and it nearly killed us! By far the most difficult walk i've ever done, but the views were good. By the time we got ack down we were glad to see the beach although being China it was a bit grimey and had rubbish floating about that you had to avoid but it was cool and there was a nice breeze. By the time we got back to the hostel we were exshausted, but at least we saw a part of Hong Kong that not many do.

The next evening we did the Hong Kong science museum as it was raining and they had a dinosaur exhibition on. We spent most of the time doing the fitness tests and playing with all the little experiments that you could do, which was entertaining. The dinosaurs were cool too they had quite a few that had all been found in China.

One of the evenings was also taken up by the sound and light show, at the Harbour. Its the largets permanent sound and light show in the world. It was quite impressive although we waited for a night when the show was in English and all the did was introduce the buildings, but it was free and we liked that!

One day we went to see Pirates Of the Carribean 3 (my price for the football!) Which i thought was good although Si was less than impressed, but it was cool in there. Was strane to watch a film in English and have cantonese subtitles on the big screen though!

Our favourite restaurant soon became the joyfulpeach that has its own website and some good food and was only over the road from our front door which was handy and the food was yummy.

Our final two days after all this dossig were slightly more touristy and we actually did some stuff. One day we went to the Giant Buddha on Lantau island which was quite impressive although up a lots of stairs (they love stairs in Asia, everything is up a flight of the things!) Was a bit dissapointed when we found out it was only built in 1992 and wasnt some old monument. To get up to the top of the mountain it's on you have to take the skyrail, you can do it by bus but the sky rail was worth the expense, you can see for miles around, the airport and the fishermen in the river looking for shell fish then you go into the hills and mountains, was beautiful so much greenery, which after Hong Kong island and Kowloon was very nice!

Our final evening we went to the Peak, the highest place in Hong Kong where the British first settled as it is so high up its nice and cool. The tram ride up there is an experience its so steep all the building seem to lean 45 degrees and you feel like you going to slip backwards! At the top theres a big mall that you can climb to the top of and look out, we went up during the day then went for a walk (a nice gentle one this time!) until it was dark then got some more pictures. We also found a BubbaGump shrimp at the top, which had some brilliant merchadise and the food looked nice but waaay out of our price range!

The next day it was off to our first plane ride since we landed in Beijing a month ago and we were headed to Bangkok!