After nearly missing our transfer, being rushed through security and a dramatic run through the airport, we made our connecting flight just in time! Then for the challenge of finding our hostel .. much to our enjoyment (Not) we lapped the airport 5 times .. Turns out not as many people as we thought speak English (ignorant b******s who doesn't know how to speak English? lol) and everyone had a different route for us to take.

We then bumped into a very helpful American man who pointed us in the right way and off we went. A train and a bus journey later we arrived in Tsim Sha Tsui (or shim sha shoe as we like to call it). After sorting out the Hostel we decided to taste some local foods and had hongkong McDonalds. Due to jetlag we slept through to the night before deciding we decided must explore Hong Kong. After hearing about Hong Kong's amazing views we wanted to see what all the fuss was about so walked to the Waterfront which you can see from the pictures are incredible. Regretted not bringing a better camera as ours just didn't do it justice.

Wide awake we decided to head to a bar and check out Hong kong nightlife .. In the hope of finding more western people we started out in an Irish Bar for a drink though it was only quiet .. might have something to do with the fact it was a Wednesday night. We then went in search for somewhere else to go .. As not many people speak good English it was very amusing having to act out us dancing in the street to try and sign language to the locals what we were looking for. We got there in the end and they pointed us to the 6th floor of a hotel. Very happy to find that it was Ladies night in this place meaning it was free in for girls and free drinks all night as well ... So you can imagine we were in our Element. As soon as we walked in we were greeted to everyone waving at us and inviting us over to their table. They were showing us the drinking games they play and we were talking about the Olympics; they love Tom Daley. It was very weird having everyone wanting to take photos of us and being pulled from one person to another. A few pitchers of sex on the beach later we were sitting at a table with locals eating cat's tongue which at the time tasted and had same texture as spare ribs, we were loving it, 5am and it was time for us to go home.

The next day we slept through till 5pm a mixture of jetlag and hangovers, we couldn't get rid of the taste of cat's tongue and it was physically turning Emily. We thought the best solution for this was to go for a McDonalds (yes 2 McDonalds in 2 days, we are missing normal food)

We then took the ferry and a bus to Victoria peak the highest point of Hong Kong which overlooks the whole City .. We thought the view at the Waterfront was amazing this was unbelievable!

Getting quite used to the trains now we found our way to Disneyland quite Easily (Well Emily did Niki just goes where she's told). We came on a very Hot day and found it quite unbearable at times .. A Hong Kongalian as Niki calls them (getting confused with Mongolians and actually thought they were called this!!) fainted in front of us from Heat exhaustion. We felt faint quite a bit, god help us climbing this mountain in orientation week next week we wouldn't even walk properly on a flat surface!.

Overall we found Hong Kong to be quite similar to the UK, they still pass out and throw up on the floors after nights out .. they still get into fights in the street and start arguments about people pushing in. They all use umbrellas though to shade them from the sun as opposed to rain and the children are the cutest things in the world we can see why so many celebrities adopt foreign kids. It has been a nice transition between home and China and we will definitely be coming back at some point!

Tomorrow we have to find our way to the middle of China (which is the size of Europe) with no prebooked trains and little mandarin skills, it will be an experience to put it nicely. We are looking forward to meeting all the other teachers, finding out where we will be living and the activities during orientation week.

zaijian

Nik & Em

xxxx