We're in Hong Kong!! The train journey was about 20 hours & we are starting to get a bit bored of them now but should be the last one for a while as we are getting a flight to Vietnam & I think it is mainly coaches down there. We arrived at about 1.15pm & found our hostel in a taxi - the taxi driver spoke english & drove on the lefthand side of the road! Unfortunately the luck of nice accommodation didn't follow us down here! The hostel is ok but it is definately a hostel. We have booked three nights there so may find somewhere else to stay for the last 2 or 3 nights as we have become accustomed to the high life now! There are so many different cultures here, so much different from other places we have been to. We had a walk down to the harbour which is about 5 mins away. We are yet to work out what other sights we will see yet. I think we are going for a curry tonight as there are alot of indian restaurants about!

The curry was delicious, we had a buffet & had alot to eat, however the bill was about 50 quid! Oops. When we got in there we noticed a live indian band which we thought was cool but when they started playing it was so loud we were almost deafened & couldn't hear each other speak! We spent the rest of the time in Hong Kong on noodles, rice, kebabs & macdonalds. I don't think our bodies are thanking us for it tho & I definately have a buddha belly going on!

Hong Kong was really cool, more like a hot London than anything else but after being in China for 3 weeks it was quite nice to be somewhere that felt more homely. There are alot of different cultures in Hong Kong, altho of English, Indians & Africans and Chinese obviously! We walked down to the harbour on the first day & they were putting all the Christmas decorations up at the shopping centres :o(, it's going to be a weird Christmas this year. Later on we noticed on Hong Kong Island the skyscrapers have Xmas lights on them too, they looked well cool.

Charlie dragged me to Hong Kong Disneyland. I really didn't want to go but Charlie insisted ;o). It wasn't that big but it was still nice. The only big ride they had was Space Mountain but Charlies favourite ride was the Buzz Lightyear ride where you have to shoot all the baddies! The best bit about it was the metro train to get there was disneyfied & the windows & the handles to hold onto when you're standing up were all shaped like mickey mouse heads & they had little gold statues of all the charaters inside.

We took the peak tram up to the highest point on Hong Kong Island. There was a massive que & as usual all the chinese tried pushing in & bundled on. We managed to get a seat tho. It was a scary ride, it almost goes vertical! It stops at different stations on the way & I thought every time it would just roll back down the hill when he took the breaks off! At the top of the peak was a massive shopping centre which we weren't expecting, we went to the top & outside where the views were amzing. We wanted to get up there for sunset but there were so many people queing (perhaps with the same idea) that when we got up there it was dark. I still think that was better then the day time tho as the lights were really pretty & I think the smog would have restricted the view even more in the day. When we came down we noticed a restaurant called Bubba Gump's Shrimp Shack (or something!) it was really funny & based on the Forrest Gump film. They had a bench outside with his suitcase, a box of chocolates & his trainers. We stopped to take Charlies photo but didn't go in as neither of us like Shrimps!

We went to see the worlds biggest seated bronze Buddha today. It was one of the best landmarks we have seen (all the temples seem to roll into one eventually!). It was really impressive, we got there at sunset about half an hour before it closed so it was deserted & we pretty much had ot all to ourselves. Unfortunately the cable car up the mountain was closed so we had to get a 45 minute bus ride instead, which was pretty scary as we were hanging off the cliff most of the way!

We went out for a couple of drinks & met this old irish guy, who we couldn't really understand but he bought us a couple of drinks. Charlie started to get ill that night & suddenly had to leave but it was whilt this old guy was in the toilet so we had to scarper befoire he got out & started talking again, bless him. He bought me a t-shirt as well!

It had been pretty warm so we decided to go down to the beach as we hadn't done much chilling out but when we got there the breeze made it really chilly so we didn't stay for long & couldn't even afford to get any fish & chips. :o(

Xxxxxxxx