What follows is the first blog of many of my time in china over 3 weeks. The blogs will be written be location/ province as opposed to weekly. The first one details the beginning f my journey from Cambodia to leaving Hong Kong. Between 2nd june till 4th June. Plead retake not while I am no Bear Grylls, Michael Palin, Indiana Jones or hybrid of Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGregor I will endure to deliver the best result possible as a traveller and blogger for a travel blog.

After a Wellcome back party for Eric at his house, the next day we embarked on a journey from Siem reap to Bangkok in Thailand. Eric accompanied me due to his niece flying into Bangkok 24 hours after my flight to Hong Kong and to bring her over the border. We made it across the border following a 2 hour dive in the afternoon. We crosse the thai/ Cambodian border easily into the border town of poipet.

We found a bus heading to Bangkok and I paid for myself and Eric 400 thai baht but a soon as we settled Into out seats the bus driver charged us more claiming we didn't get tickets properly. However the sad reality is that ur to myself being the white boy/ foreigner/ black sheep of the bus they were trying to pick on me but Eric an I left with getting out money back and found another bus company half an hour away which offered a cheaper price of 233 thai baht each to reach Bangkok and we took it with smug looks that we showed the other bus company who tried to pick on us and thought we'd be hopeless without them. 5 hours later we made it To Bangkok and were situated at a hotel ''calypso'' that was situated half an hot away from one of the two airports in Bangkok I was flying from.

My airline was air asia which is the best budget airline in all of Asia and used very regularly for its cheap prices and excellent service as my flight for example costed a mere 90-100 pounds I fly from Bangkok to Hong Kong. You might ask why I didn't fly from Cambodia- well the flights were longer and more expensive for reasons i don't know why and air Asia were a good deal.

Returning I Bangkok myself ad Eric ate out on the streets and then I went back to the hotel to shower and rest as it was a 6 am take off flight with a 4 am check in and it was 11 pm by the time I returned to the hotel on June the 2nd. After a short nap Eric saw me off in a taxi to the airport and I thanked him greatly for an amazing experience in Cambodia( had I not chosen to do china I would have stayed in Cambodia longer and even flown back for my parents wedding aniversay, but alas the chance to travel china was a no brainer when I was so close and any further chances would come at great costs and slim chances)

The airport at the early hours of 4 am was very crowded but I was able to check in in time and on the half full flight socialised greatly with an American father and daughter, Tyler and Cameron( not the winklevoss twins)who were traveling around Thailand and taking a brief break to see Hong Kong. As a note of trivia air Asia may ring a bell to those who heard about sir Richard Branson losing a charity wager and in may dressed up as a female flight attendant on an airline and waxed his legs and donated the airfare tickets to charity- that was air asia.

The flight was two and a half hours and upon arrival it was 10 an Hong Kong time and Hong Kong airport to me ga a the familiar architecture of heathrow terminal 5 which as a regular traveller I'd never expect in any other airport. As with being a UK national I didn't need a visa and had a free month entry which was welcoming. STA travel, who organised the 3 week tour of china is signed up for, had emailed me an option to pay for a meet as greet driver to take me the the Cartias bianchi hotel in Kowloon of the island( the airport's location). I made the payment but even through I arrived a little after 10.15 when it was agreed for the meet. There was no one there for me and I was self aware I'd come out of one of the two arrival gates and I check the outsides if both back ad forth and around the airport for nearly and hour until I had no choice but to take independence ad reprise my one man wolfpack status to withdraw and exchange money and make way on my own to my hotel carrying in total 100 litres of stuff from a daypack and a 90 litre north face bag.

Taxi fares to get to Kowloon were 220 hkd so I took the airport train that costed 10 hkd and an additional 50 hkd from the station via taxi to the hotel. Hong Kong upon arrival with the sights d it's tall skyscrapers and scope amazed me and it was truly the most civilised up to date city thus far of my Asia tour excluding china thus far( Hong Kong is one country but two systems due to an administrative state over china following the UK handover of 1997).

I arrived at my hotel and crossed paths with three fellow travellers on the same tour who were also gap year students. These 3 friends had even done their dive training on koh tao around te same time as I was there and they had done Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and New Zealand an china was next on their travel list.

With mutual experiences we bonded and ended up being neighbours with out rooms and bonded over television interests and our travel stories and the nostalgia of the old gameboy colour/advanced days of Pokemon as children. We had a few hours until 6 pm where we would meet our tour guided Charlie( G adventures and STA travel host the same trips at different prices but sta do better deals but it was primarily a g adventure tour I was on) after some time exchanging money and exploring the streets of Kowloon in the endless rows of banks, fast food joints and tall buildings it was eventually time to meet the group. We met at 6pm and it was revealed by Charlie I was meant to ah e reported to a desk upon arrival as didnt know I was in the hotel. This airport desk I wasn't informed of as all I was told was someone would meet me as I'd my around for 30 minutes I had to reach the hotel alone. This mix up had cased some confusion and I demanded a refund from sta for possibly not mentioning this detail and the airport desk people had been waiting half a day for me after my landing. As this might have been a g adventures feature I was annoyed and so the refund is as we speak currently being investigated and looked at as to I I was informed about he desk or not. The group together was rounded up as a UK NHS physician on a year's leave to travel, a German lawyer in 30s on a six week leave, two Swedish girls who are having their first travel in Asia. Myself and the other 3 British travellers( and youngest of he group together) and an American couple who arrived later in the evening( one was a former soldier who'd been stationed in the Kuwait desert which had interesting conversations for me).

Charlie outlined the trip and details we need to know about china and info such as the fast rate if chine inflation at 20 yen per two weeks and the cost of the whole trip potentially and the activities and traveling arrangements. Following the briefing and introducing one another Charlie took us on the metro to Victoria harbour to watch te free Victoria harbour lightshow( an amazing sight of the skyscrapers across the harbour turning int he lights and different colours to a backing track every night at 8pm till 8.10) and myself and the other 3 gapes found jackie chan'd cemented handprints with his star plate which was a massive bonus( and potential bucket list ambition achieve for kung fu fans) following this Charlie took us out for a Chinese spicyy meal where we learnt the Chinese table manners, food choices and customs. A fantastic diet evening. Next day following checkout from the hotel we embarked on a trip to the border to enter china at Shenzhen. This involved a mere 39 minutes by the metro to the border. With visas already in place we made it between borders. After exchanging more money and leaving Hong Kong we had another being on our frat stop, the beautiful countryside of Yangshuo in the Guilin province and signed up for the activities such as kayaking 200 Chinese yen. A bike tour/ mud bath and hit spring 180. A bamboo aft across the river li, 180 and a cooking school for /200. After eating together at a Chinese fast food joint in a tain station. We bought our own snacks and beer for a 14 hour stopover train journey in a carriage of 3 levels dunk beds in section if the carriage. Here ends the hong kong blog. Whilst my time in Hong Kong was brief i did manage time before. Check out to explore Kowloon park and Nathan road and I enjoyed the time in hong kong and the scenery as can't express for words my excitement over potentially high anticipation for what china has to offer myself as a traveller as I enter the country of great scenery, spectacular technology the most stable economic reputation with inflation every two weeks. I hope you find this china blog for I've the next 3 weeks interesting, intellectual, incredible or insightful to an amazing experience and culture through my eyes as I continue to feel changed and developed from my travels.

Until next time, enjoy as a new chapter and the final phase of the Asia adventure begins!!!!