Holidays have started, and it was that time to pack up the bag, turn off everything in the house and lock up the front door to depart for our 7am train. Everything was ready, Me and Cat had done lots of preperations and had our itinerary down, emergency numbers and direction to places. The first hiccup to our trip didn't take long after the trains weren't running that day to go into the city so we had caught a bus (very comfy though) but meant we could of woken up later -.- We had a few hours to kill in Nanchang so decided to go and watch James Bond in the cinema, which i must say was good, although a little confusing for my poor brain. A quick trip to McDonalds then we were off onto our sleeper trains to catch the 10hour trip to Shenzhen (not that long in our brains). The train ended up being delayed an hour and half which was a pain but i did manage to get a good night sleep in and everything went very smoothly.

On arrival in Shenzhen we were expecting huge problems to get through customs and into Hong Kong. Truth is the queues were minimal and everything was a breeze, before we knew it we were changing up our money to HK dollars (which are beautiful) and getting our subways tickets to ride into the centre of the city.

I could already see a difference.. everyone was able to understand us in English, there were many westerners and the place was much cleaner than any part of China i had been to. We got a little lost and didn't know quite what to do with the 5hours we had spare before meeting the boys but did manage to find our way into the shopping central.. just one problem.. we had MASSIVE and HEAVY backpacks to lug about, something i know i was struggling with. Luckily a hostel allowed us to buy a room for a day for not much and let us dump our bags into it.. the safety of the hostel was up for questioning though. I think i was in the luxury on arrival.. you could buy any type of chocolate and sweets (yes dairy milk) and me and Cat managed to buy cheese from M&S.. they even sold percy pigs.. :O .. of course everything was at a price and being a backpackers makes you realise prices and what you need/don't need.. percy pigs was something i didnt need :( Me and Cat did some girly shopping in Western shops like forever 21 before rushing back to collect our bags, meet the boys and head over to meet the Hong Kong boys, Callum and Jeremy.

We arrived 10 minutes late to meet the boys so got a bit worried that they had gone home, forgotten about us or we were at the wrong place. None of our phones worked either but luckily on using the pay phone we realised the boys were just running a little late. They soon picked us up as i chomped down a subway and we headed to their apartments. Me and Cat shared with Jeremy and his two roomates Rhino and Bonnie, both very nice and friendly! We slept on the sofas and after a long day of travelling we settled down quite quickly, ready for an early start the next day as we were heading out to ocean park, theme park in HongKong. We started the day by heading down to the boys work as we wanted a quick tour and seeing some outward bounds volunteers being thrown in the water.. we were told it was a tradition when someone arrives, leaves or it's their birthday.. either way it looked like great fun and seeing someone face plant into the water was a good start to the day! Their work is very different to ours in that they are outward bounds teachers, teaching kids different outdoor skills and morals which can include week long trips up mountains or kiaking across water. They work a lot more than us and seem to never have time off, i felt awful moaning about our work compared to what they do. One advantage to their job is the weather. That day of the theme park it was around 22 and tshirt and shorts proved to be too hot to be in. For a pale Scottish boy even Callum had managed to get a tan for February, more than what any of us China volunteers had!

The theme park was a really good (slightly hot) but fun day. We went on every ride that Jeremy could squeeze into the day and also visiting the animals including some pandas and some penguins... love them guys. Even managed to persuade Cat to go onto the big rollercoasters and me getting soaked on one ride was actually a relief from the weather. The boys then decided they were going to enter a local competition at a restaurant to eat a 24" pizza in 20 minutes between two of them. Win and they get it for free, loose and they pay up +$100. I had quite a bit of faith that the China boys would pull through and finish it off, leaving the HK boys crying and being the weaker country ... yeah .. i think half way through i changed teams. Rob managed through most of his half but gagged throughout and i was slightly concerned that there would be pizza sick down me and Dan .. well i think he could of done a better job (sorry Dan). Jeremy did pretty good too but didn't quite finish it but the guy we thought would fail us all pulled through, Callum finished his and helped Jeremy, we were pretty shocked/impressed ... showed us lot for doubting for sure!! Maybe it wasn't then a good idea to go out within a few hours and get v.drunk! ... The city was 2 bus journies and 2 subways away (around 1hour1/2 journey) so we headed out to a bar they liked. After a beer or two and Jeremy already tipsy i got persuaded to get up onto the bar (this was allowed) and dance along it. The 2 HK boys and Me and Cat had a great laugh dancing along, pulling other people up as others attempted to order drinks between our legs.. haha. It was then off to the clubbing central where we located ourselves for most of the night in a small very cramped club. It was really good! Loads of westerners, any alcoholic drink (not stupid chinese ones) and decent music, although it was extremely expensive. The worse feeling was Callum buying me a drink and me tipping it down myself.. i would like to apologise for that again if you read this Callum! After the alcohol wore off i was ready to go home at 4am but we had to wait until 6 to get the first train back rather than pay for an expensive taxi. It was a painful wait and after me and Callum went for a walk we lost the others and headed back onto the train, me trying to keep awake so we didn't miss our stop after Callum just drifted off. We ended up rocking home around 8am to find Rhino and Bonnie giggling at our state and the time in which we came in. I think i got a full 4 hours sleep before i was pulled out of bed again to go sight seeing... I JUST WANTED MY BED AND A NICE SHOWER!

We did as much sightseeing as we could get in and what our guide books recommended. We went across cable cars to visit the world largest, sitting bronze buddah which was very impressive. The weather had started to calm down and being on the island made the wind hit hard. We went on a boat along the the harbour too and saw the Hong Kong light show.. good but not as impressive as i was expecting. I had a fun day walking about in Callums oversized flip flops too after i supported some very bad blisters from partying the night before. It didn't stop me braving another night though, partying in my vans i must add with plasters strapped all over my feet. This time we did get a taxi back but still rocked in around 5am and leaving us all very poor.

The next day was time for a bit more sighting seeing including seeing a 'miss fat beauty' competition.. yes worded exactly like that. This consisted of fat people belly dancing before us to win .. i was actually v.entertained. We headed up victoria peak to see the view of HongKong.. the clouds stopped us a bit though and we didnt get the perfect view we were looking for. I had a good laugh with Jeremy quoting as many white chicks quotes as we could remember... i was crying. We calmed down on the partying that day and me and Callum went to rustle up the meat we brought to cook a dinner. The mash was a tad lumpy but our chicken and pork i thought were very good (ok maybe Callum did cook them ones). We settled down to a film and playing the logo game on my Ipad before setting off to sleep, the boys having to work the next day and me and Cat needing to catch our bus.

We said goodbye to the boys in the morning and me and Cat headed to get the bus to the subway station. Without the HK boys we got v.lost and took us a long time to eventually get the centre. Another eventful trip trying to find Mrs Meng son who was giving us the tickets for the bus but eventually we were on the bus .. a 13 hour journey ahead of us! The women infront of me spent the whole journey with her seat all the way back, my legs crushed.. i had to ask her to move it forward in the end.. she wasn't impressed when i asked! We had a break half way for the toilet which consisted of a small room of 6 squatty toilets, all facing each other and with tiny partings between them, not quite high enough to hide my dignity. When the toilet near the door came free i politely let the lady behind me go first as i waited for the 'most private' toilet to be free.. by this i mean only one person could watch me pee. The journey wasn't too bad as i managed to get some sleep on it. The terror came when we were dropped off in 'Nanchang'. The bus stopped in the middle of nowhere, only a restaurant in sight. He let the 4 of us going to Nanchang off, insisting we were here. Luckily the 2 chinese boys also getting dropped off knew we were being wrongly done so insisted we took pictures of the number plate and helped us get back to the centre, paying a fortune to do so... not fun when its 4am. The rest of the journey was much easier and everyone seemed happy to see us when we were back, by everyone i mean the corner shop lady, she probably lost a lot of buisness whilst we were gone.

Overall we had an amazing time in Hong Kong and i even want to go back with another friend. The HK boys were lovely and i know i'm missing them both already, nearly as much as i miss Cadbury chocolate and Subways! We had a day to sleep and wash clothes before it was then time to head to Jiujiang to meet our friends and then begin our journies, starting in Shanghai

<3

p.s. I have also brought a brand new beautiful camera which i have taken some great pictures on, i've uploaded them on here but the quality isn't brilliant