We arrived in Hong Kong and immediately bought a travel card in the airport that included 2 way travel from the airport to the mainland and 3 days unlimited travel, it was a bargain for what we got.

Once we got that sorted we headed for Lamma Island, about 30 mins away from Hong Kong by ferry. The reason we went their was that Aaron, one of Matthews mates lived here for a year and said it was cheaper than staying in Hong Kong. We arrived on a weekend which caused a bit of a problem as a lot locals come here for the weekend, but we eventually found somewhere,dumped our bags, went for a curry and then watched Portsmouth beat West Brom in the semi final of the FA cup.

Our first full day and Matthew was once again persuaded into completing a survey on touism. Then we went to do our admin jobs although it was a Sunday and a bit of a waste of a day really, we intended to apply for our China visa's and go to Singapore airlines to book the rest of our flights for the next 6 months. Obviously as it was Sunday everywhere was closed ( what day it is doesn't really mean much to us at the moment). We did have a look around the main shopping street though, that was heaving, i was worse than Leeds just before Christmas! We then walked to see the skyscrapers and the avenue of stars. That was a really nice walk and the views were good, but again it was really busy. Matthew wanted to do a funny pose next to Bruce Lee but wouldn't as there were so many people about. Our first impressions were that it was very similar to Singapore, but with a few old parts to it. It was a lot busier and a lot more expensive though.

The next day was pretty much a repeat of the day before, but this time we had some success, although as we are from the UK we are charged so much more than everyone else to get into china. 40 quid for 1 month, everywhere else we have been has averaged around 20! Obviously we paid it although pissed off and had to wait 4 days for it to be processed. Once all out admin jobs were done we went to have another look at the avenue of stars hoping it was a bit quieter. It was so we managed to get some photo's without anyone in them. I'v got to say the views of the harbour front were amazing, it felt really strange actually been there after seeing loads of photo's of it and seeing it in films! We hung around there to see the free light show they put on every night. It holds the Guinness world record for the biggest light show in the world, and it was great. Matthew has taken a small video so you can see for yourselves. We both loved it.

The next day we visited Hong Kong island itself. This is all very new and the buildings were very similar to those in Singapore. Matthew had read about a 800metre escalator and was fascinated so we went to have a look, it wasn't s good as it sounds, its not all joined together, there are gaps so people can get on and off and their are loads of restaurants and bars around this area. We went all the way to the top though, which obviously meant we had to walk all the way back down! we then decided to try and find some Dim sum to try, we were unsuccessful which i think Matthew was happy about as he said he didn't really like the look of it. Our next stop was up to the peak, a tram takes you up to the top and it gives great views of Hong Kong and all the surrounding islands. Well it would on a clear day, it was really foggy when we got to the top, we still had a decent view but it could have been better, was still worth it though. Once we were back at the bottom we had a wonder around admiring all the buildings, some were really unusual and they were definitely bigger than the ones in Singapore.

On the last day of our free pass we went to Lantau island and went on a 6 kilometre cable car journey up to a small village that has the Tian Tan Buddha (the largest bronze sitting statue in Asia). The journey was supposed to offer impressive views as far as China, however once we started getting higher, we were just surrounded by clouds, it was really foggy we couldn't see a thing but white cloud all around the cable car. It was a god send in some ways as it meant the really anoying chinese tourists in the same car as us actually sat down for 2 minutes rather than rocking the cable car and blocking our views. Once we reached the top it was really foggy, we headed to see the Buddha statue. From teh bottom we couldn't even see it as it was so foggy, so we walked to the top and still we couldn't get a clear view of its head. All that effort for pictures of cloud!

On out last few days while waiting for our visa's to be ready we did try dim sum, and Matthew didn't like it one bit, i though it was ok, but don't think i will have it again and the rest of our time was spent planning what we would be doing in china.