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Thanks to CIS Tours in Hong Kong, we finally have Russian visas valid for the whole of October. So after some months of uncertainty (though we had a plan B) we now know we are going to head back to Europe via the trans-siberian railway. We spent 5 days in Hong Kong last week in order to get the visa and really enjoyed exploring the cityscape. Hong Kong was devastated during the war years and the population shrank to just 10% of its current size. Immigration since has lead to significant land reclamation and of course the ubiquitous skyscrapers. Typhoon Goni wasn't too scary and once the clouds rose on day four, the harbour views were stunning, especially at night for what was billed as the largest sound and light show on earth. Our budget didn't extend to any blow-out meals, but we did experiment with quite a lot of Chinese food, including having a dim sum breakfast.
Our trip has now taken us to Manila in the Philippines, where the flight from Hong Kong had to circumnavigate typhoon Morakot which has had devastating affects on Taiwan and China. Here we are having the treat of spending 2 weeks staying with Bobbi and Dean, friends from our time in Uganda. Andy isn't seeing much of the place though as he's doing two weeks voluntary work with World Vision International's office. Fran meanwhile is trying to learn some Russian via youtube and a few words of Japanese in preparation for the next stages of the trip.
Manila is a hot, humid, very crowded and economically diverse city. So far we've toured 'Intramuros', the old walled town (not that there was much of the 'old' left by the end of WWII), and been to quite a few shopping malls (of which there are no shortage ... and the best thing being the air-con!). We've made it to a couple of sunday services. One of these was at the central Methodist church which made an informal change from the Catholic and Anglican traditions. We are also getting our Chinese tourist visas here which has proved a bit more time consuming than we'd thought as we both needed to go in for an interview. Once Dean's birthday party is over and we've seen Imelda Marcos' coconut palace we'll be heading for our next destinations, Japan and South Korea.
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