Thursday 2nd June - overnight train to Kunming.

Friday 3rd June - fly from Kunming to Shenzhen and then cross the border to Hong Kong. Flying straight to Hong Kong would have counted as an international flight and been much more expensive, hence us entering via Shenzhen. Hong Kong is hot! Having spent the last few weeks up in cool, rainy mountains it's a bit of a shock to the system!

Our hostel, Hong Kong Hostel, turned out to be a disappointment. There were no signs for it anywhere so we ended up just walking into an apartment block wedged between some shops. There were signs everywhere saying about how there was an illegal hostel operating out of the building, which turned out to be our hostel. When we eventually found the reception it looked like a typical hostel - posters and maps everywhere, a communal area with people on laptops. However, we were whisked away to a completely different building. Our room was in another apartment block, and was just a hotel room with no reception, no communal areas, nothing. The room was very nice, but part of the experience of being in a hostel is being able to meet other people, talk to the staff about where to go and grab a meal. We couldn't do any of that.

Saturday 4th June - wandered around Hong Kong. There doesn't seem to be much here but shops, shops and more shops! Which would be great but the current exchange rates mean that everything is about the same price as home, grrr. We went up the mid-levels escalators, which are the longest chain of escalators in the world. We rose up steadily through streets of shops and boutiques and restaurants all the way up to the apartment blocks at the top. Foolishly we stayed all the way to the top, which is just a residential area with nothing to see. Which meant snaking our way all the way back down to the centre of town afterwards!

In the evening we stepped out of our hostel only to get swept up in a crowd heading towards the park. There were people shouting through megaphones, police, roads sectioned off, and we were stuck in the middle of it. We found out that it was the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square riots and this was an annual event in Hong Kong. We followed the crowds into the park. The air was thick with the smell of melting wax as everyone lit a white candle, the park hummed with the sound of thousands of voices singing together. It was a lovely event and we're really glad we got to witness it.

Sunday 5th June - Kowloon. This is the area opposite Hong Kong island. And it's just full of even more shops. It does have some famous shopping streets though - ladies market is full of stalls selling all kinds of clothes, mobile phone cases and various other knickknacks, the fish market is shop after shop of pet fish, and the flower market sells all manner of beautiful flowers. At the end of it all is the bird park, where not only can you buy a pet bird, but you can bring your bird there, in it's cage, to get some fresh air and chat to other birds. Seriously! There are bars set up all over the place for people to hang their bird cages up!

At night they put on a light show on the harbour. Buildings on both sides of the harbour flash neon lights on their buildings in time to music. It was quite a spectacle!

Monday 6th June - Stanley Dragon Boat Festival. We were lucky enough to be here for one of the most well-known Chinese festivals, and we headed to Stanley as this was where the biggest races were being held. It turned out to be a bit disappointing. It was more like a corporate event than an ancient festival. The beach was taken up with stalls for all the competitors to sit in whilst they waited for their race, there was little beach or shade for spectators. The races themselves were just churned through so they could get through the vast number of corporate teams. After watching a few races we gave up and decided to escape the scorching head by heading back to the air-conditioned malls of the city.

Tuesday 7th June - Ocean Park. Although there is a Disneyland here, there is a competing theme park in Ocean Park. It's a nice day out, with an aquarium, a giant panda enclosure and some rides. It's a far cry from Alton Towers though!

Wednesday 8th June - the Peak Tram. A steep tram takes you up to the top of the hill behind Hong Kong centre... And to more shops! Yes, even at the peak, with panoramic views of the harbour, they've built a mall. In the evening we went on a dinner cruise around the harbour. We had a buffet dinner, watched the light show that we'd seen previously from Kowloon, and listened to the live band murder various hits from the seventies.

Thursday 9th June - Aberdeen. We went to this fishing town for the famous Jumbo Floating Restaurant. It's three floors of restaurants on a massive floating barge. It turned out to three floors of extremely expensive restaurants. So expensive looking we didn't even stop to look at the menus! Aberdeen seemed nice, lots of expensive looking yachts tucked away behind hundreds of fishing trawler boats.

Friday 10th June - fly to Guilin via Shenzhen. Despite getting up before six this morning, we managed to miss our flight. And unfortuntely the next one isn't for another 12 hours. Luckily, Shenzhen airport has a Starbucks.

Bye!
Lindsay and Chris