We arrived in Hong Kong at 7.30 am 27th September and were greeted by a gorgeous sunny day. Jet lag was on our tail but we managed to stay awake till 1.30pm (only because we weren't allowed to check in!). We had to wait in the local park (Kowloon park) for several hours in the baking heat with very heavy rucsacs! When we finally got in our room it really hit home that we really were roughing it!! The Chung King Mansion was everything we expected from a 7 pound per night hostel!! We slept in the same room not unlike sardines and shared the smallest wash room between all four of us! It was snug to say the least!

Our first full day was spent on Hong Kong Island, after riding the infamous Star Ferry across the water. We then spent several hours and lots and lots of miles searching for the Chinese Embassy. We were trying to request a visa for entry into China on our way to Vietnam. We found what the map described as the consulate only to find a very heavily guarded building wiith one small entrance and 2 armed guards! After being warned to stay away we decided to give it up as a bad job!! We spent the rest of the day on Victoria Peak (a mountain on Hong Kong Island) accessible only via the Peak Tram which travels up the mountain at almost a 90 degree angle! When the tram reached the top we walked around the summit of the Peak for about an hour and saw some of the biggest butterflies imagineable!

The next day we travelled by metro (underground) to Lantau Island to a small village called Ngong Pging and rode an extremely high cable car to the Tian Tan Buddha statue. This statue is oficially the worlds tallest- sitting- outdoor- bronze Buddha! We walked along the 'wisdom path' at the monestry, not sure we are any wiser but it was a nice walk on a very hot day. This was definatly our favourite part of Hong Kong away fom the thick smog of pollution and expensive city life! That evening we ventured to the Temple Street night market where real chinese food was very tasty and very cheap! The beers were flowing and we met our first fellow travellers who gave us lots of advice for the next few months!

Day 3 was spent sorting out our visas for Vietnam and China which proved much more dificult than anticipated!They won't be ready untill friday so we had to book an extra night in the Chung King Hostel.

Every night in Hong Kong there is a light display on the harbour to celebrate independance form the British Empire and last night (2nd October) we realised that it was a national holiday to celebrate this independance day. They celebrated in style with the most magnificent firework display I have ever seen!! The main roads were closed and the streets were jam packed with people from all around the world!!

We are due to leave Hong Kong tommorrow (3 October) where we cross the border at Schenzen into china and take an 11hr bus to Nanning. We plan to travel to Pixiang and cross the border into Vietnam where we aim to spend a few nights in Hanoi then head to the reportedly idylic coastline and see where the wind takes us..........