Ni Hao(Hello), After a busy couple of days in Hong Kong we have just made it to Beijing on a 23 hour train journey through mainland China. But before we go in to much detail about that I think we should bore you about everything that has happened in between, so brace yourselves to read our essay ‘After Magnectic Island’.

Well after Magnetic Island in Australia we headed for our last greyhound coach journey to Cairns, the Greyhound has taken us over 2500km from Melbourne through to Cairns with 10 stops and some overnight buses thrown in. (a few geeky stats and facts for you!) Overall Greyhound was a good experience with no major faults.

Cairns being our last stop prompted us to stay at a cheap hostel as we needed to save some cash for China, so you really do get what you pay for and the hostel was an absolute sh!t hole (excuse my French, but we haven’t sworn at all on this blog in two months). So as we thought so badly of the place we decided to stay there 3 nights (to be fair the staff were really friendly and helpful)

We decided that Cairns was overrated and too expensive, a real drinking town for young travellers, fortunately we had done enough partying in Brisbane to make up for it. On the plus side we managed to get free food vouchers at a local pub/bar place, the menu wasn’t exactly prepared by Jamie Oliver or even a school dinner lady, but it served a purpose a done us a favour . (besides you could upgrade to some more hefty meals if needed for about 2-3quid)

Our days in Cairns we spent down on the lagoon (sounds plus! It’s actually a swimming pool next to the sea) and organising China, which we knew would be complicated, and it turns out it was more than that. But we are organised now, at least up to Beijing anyway (oh dear we are now in Beijing, better do some research) Amy also managed to catch up with her old school friend Steve, who gave us some helpful hints a tips on travelling in South East Asia. Unfortunately like everyone we have met Steve couldn’t offer us any help on China, so it seems travelling through China is going to be quite unique, something we are looking forward to telling everyone about.

I decided I should treat Amy to a romantic last night in Australia, so I whisked her away to ............ Cairns Airport. Where we had to spend our last night as we had to check in early (4am) for Brisbane where we transited through for our flight to Hong Kong. She said it was one of the best dates she had ever been on!

So we arrived in Hong Kong on the 19th, I was like an excited boy at Christmas, seeing all the lights and hussle and bussle of Kowloon, Amy had seen Hong Kong before, what she hadn’t experienced however was doing it ‘backpacker style’. We checked in at our hostel, in the heart of the action, booked for 3 nights for no more than 55quid. The hostel was in a residential block 15 storeys up and the owners couldn’t speak a word of English, but we got by and the room was modern and even had the most amusing en-suite, no bigger than 2ft x 2ft, with the shower head sitting directly above the toilet. So you could save alot of time in the morning by killing two birds, maybe 3 birds! With one stone, if you get what I mean.

Our first day in Hong Kong we walked the streets getting our bearing’s and stumbling across some of the many markets they have, including the Jade market where Amy and I bartered for a very nice Jade Bracelet, and we also went through some amazing fresh food markets. We stopped off for lunch at a typical dim sum street bar, where we got some funny looks but had some brilliant food. I had pork balls in soup, now I couldn’t work out whether they were actual porks balls as they had the texture of them, either way it didn’t matter as they tasted great. We paid 4 quid for the whole meal, two courses each.

We then headed to the Star Ferry and made our way to Hong Kong Island to do the peak, it was a clear day and the view of Kowloon and Hong Kong was amazing. Unfortunately Amy left her camera in the toilet, which put a little downer on the day, but we were in the right place to barter for a new one! In the evening we took in the light show on Hong Kong Island’s buildings, and then we headed for some Sushi for dinner (again spending 6quid for loads).

Our second day in Hong Kong we headed to Lantau island via the ferry, going to Tai-o fishing village, where the houses are on stilts and the food markets are cheap and full of fish. Then we ventured on to the big budda, and it was BIG sitting on top of the mountain, it reminded us of home and in particular our fathers!! We headed back to the hostel in the evening where we stopped at a very busy food market where we ate a bucket load of food, a whole pigeon, the best Calamari I have ever had, some garlic veg and noddles, all for 15 quid. Again some strange looks but the locals seemed to appreciated that we were experiencing there way of life instead of going to a tourist restaurant. This is where i discovered I had lost my phone, so 2 months without a hitch and then we lose 2 expensive things in as many days, but again we were ok , worse things can happen! Our last visit was to the temple markets where we managed to get 2 pairs of Ray-Ban sun glasses for 6quid (of course the actual authenticity needs to be questioned, but they look bloody good) In fact so good they all thought I was Brad Pitt! Well I did any way.

Our last morning in Hong Kong was spent shopping, mainly for a coat as mainland china is up to minus 5 in the evening, which means that our ‘wear plenty of layers’ idea was put under scrutiny, so we decided to hedge our bets and buy coats (knowing we can off load them at Christmas to Amy’s parents, Thanks in advance) but we managed to grab a bargain spending around 60quid for both. Heading back to the hostel we picked up our bags and carried them to the train station where we caught the 15.15pm train to Beijing (booked days in advance through there strange and complicated system), 23 hours in a soft sleeper cabin that we have fortunately got to ourselves. The food was to be desired, so we had to live of snacks we had purchased.

We arrived in Beijing literally 4 hours ago, the first we done was locate the ticket office for our train tickets to Xi’an, after getting that out the way the culture shock was indeed a shock, no one could help us get to our hotel. So we managed to get a bus in to the centre of Beijing for 10p each, where no taxi would take us to our hotel because it was too close and they wanted a lot of money to take us, it was 3km away. It started getting dark and the best we could do was use our phrase book to find an internet cafe and get there on our own. Amy was absolutely brilliant and worked out where to go via the underground and a short walk. 3 hours after getting in to Beijing we found our hotel, absolutely elated we went to check in...............and they didn’t have our booking but we managed to prove our booking and they gave us a room, 2 nights for 40 quid. And the best bit is that we are just over the road from Tiananmen Square and the forbidden city, we also have internet, although all social networking sites are banned over here (facebook etc). So after the first stage of panic mode we have come through well. We headed straight towards the food markets and had oddles of noddles, lamb and beef skewers (although they tasted the same, so it was probably dog, only joking dog lovers) and i think i ate something dodgy, but not sure yet.

Over the next couple of days we are off to see a bloody great wall, a forbidden city that we are allowed to see an something square beginning with T....................Can’t wait!

Sorry, I know it’s a long one, but then that’s what all the girls say......boom boom!! (then again when it’s minus 5 maybe not!!!)

Until next time, love and miss you all. J and A