Ten hours on a sleeper bus later and we were in the bright lights of Hong Kong. Ant had told me about the delightful accommodation he'd stayed in with Toby and Matt a few years back - a maze of windowless bedsit hostels crammed into a high rise mansion block in Kowloon along with dozens of curry houses, mobile phone shops and knock off watch shops. I didn't think for one second we'd stay there on my birthday weekend, surely not... but actually it wasn't that bad and we nicely grew accustomed to the curry smells wafting through our only air vent. I also got to perfect my drowning-cockroach-down-the-toilet skills.

So we ticked off all the HK things to do - Star Ferry, Victoria Peak Tram, Big Bus Tour, bargain hunting at Sogo, ate loads of wontons and spent way too much time queuing at the Chinese Visa Department to extend our visa (as we'd entered via Tibet, we'd only been given a 20-day 'permit' to travel around the country - which is basically a separate piece of paper rather than an official stamp in your passport as the Reds don't want any evidence in your passport that you've been to Tibet).

We then spent the rest of our time doing the ex-pat thang hanging out with my friend Tim from Leeds who moved over there 3 years ago. Had a wicked time down at the Rugby Club thanks to his hilarious gang of buddies who all made us feel very welcome. It really was just like a bit of London had been plucked out of the West End and transported over to the East. Awesome fun.

We then popped over on the ferry to Macau to raise a glass of sangria in honour of my 29th year on the earth. We got a brilliant recommendation from the rugby boys for where to eat and spent a couple of hours in a very Med-feeling restaurant by the beach feasting on fresh fish and suckling pig surrounded by a mix of Chinese and Portugese people. Very bizarre but a very cool place. Nice to see that loads of the Portugese architecture and style survives (China likes knocking old stuff down it seems) but equally it was weird and amazing to see the strip of mega Casinos being built. Gambling is of course illegal in China (like everything else) so Macau with its separate legal system has made the most of that fact and is seriously starting to rake it in. We went to The Venetian - a ghastly mega complex complete with its own Rialto Bridge, St Mark's Square and entire gondola-bearing Grand Canal - and it was absolutely packed with thousands of Chinese trying their luck. We chose wisely not to gamble away our travelling fund and instead opted for the inhouse perfomance of the Cirque de Soleil which in true Chinese-style was the biggest and best. Vegas had better watch out.