It just happens that our flight to Hong Kong coincided with the time that a pig decided to sneeze in Mexico and all the worlds press went into a frenzy hoping it was going to be a "pandemic of swine flu". Now since the outbreak of SARS in 2003 Hong Kong and China have been paranoid about diseases and it's not unusual to see people wearing face masks like some sort of comforter. But with the dreaded swine flu being rife worldwide (about 6 deaths out of 6.5billion people but apparently that is rife to the world press) it looked like half the plane was about to go into surgery with everyone in their green and white surgical masks. Needless to say, we didn't join in with their little games.

The flight was long but not too bad and we touched down in a humid Hong Kong around 4pm. After a body heat scan and a health questionnaire to make sure that we were not infected we picked up our bags and got onto a highly organised train which met with a highly organised free bus and before we knew it we were in the centre of Kowloon. It was a short walk to our hotel and by the time we had checked ourselves in it was getting on a bit and we were both extremely tired. We decided on a leg stretch out onto the busy neon lit streets of Kowloon and just walking down the road was a test of ones patience. Every other shop has its hawkers outside wanting to either sell you a watch, a handbag or strangest of all offering you a tailored bespoke suit. The food area wasn't much different with everyone asking you to sit and enjoy food at their place. There were buckets of live fish, crabs, crays and lobsters on the floor just waiting to be selected and all we wanted was a snack before hitting the sack. We opted for some steamed dumplings from a place round the corner from the hotel and called it a night.

Sunday arrived and we were awake at stupid O'clock as our bodies were telling us it was hours later than it actually was. We had to move from our first nights accommodation to where we would be staying for the first night of our trip. We took advantage of the early start and dumped our baggage off at our second hotel. Realising that there was a lot to do in Hong Kong and with not much time to do it we headed out to go and see some of the more unusual markets to start our experience off. We headed to the fish market where you can buy pretty much any sort of fish but these were not for eating. In tiny little bags there were cold water, tropical fresh and salt water fishes. There were all kinds of turtle and terrapins for sale and even in one shop they had an entire coral reef in a tank complete with anemones, clown fish and clams. From there we walked through the flower market which smelt beautiful as you walked past . Each shop had different sorts of displays from your standard bunches of roses and tulips to ancient bonsai trees and row upon row of delicate orchids all in flower. Finally coming out of the flower market we ended up in the bird park. This was most surreal as fully grown adult men doted over songbirds in small cages feeding them strange pastes from tiny spoons and generally standing around showing off their birds. Moving further into the park there were larger cages chocked full of birds for sale. Everything from small thrush like songbirds to exotic parrots and minor birds. After the hecticness of the markets we decided to get above it all and take a panoramic look at the city from on high by riding the Peak Tram. After taking a combination of the subway and shanks' pony over to Hong Kong Island we arrived at the areas most popular tourist attraction. We purchased our tickets and joined the Disneyworld-esque size queues to ride the tram to the top. After 40 minutes queuing a 1200 ft rise on the tram and what seemed like a never ending succession of escalators we reach the viewing platform and were not disappointed by the view over Victoria Harbour, Kowloon Bay the towering skyscrapers and surrounding hills. It was only when you get up and above it all that you realise just how built up and crowded Hong Kong is. There was not a single storey building in sight and the concept of living in a house is simply alien to them. If its not a towering high rise office it is a towering high-rise residential block all looking exactly the same and all in perfect rows. This place is a definite no-no for us as a place to live!

After a quick lunch it was time to head back down again and make our way to Kowloon park to watch the free Sunday performance of Kung Fu and martial arts along with the occasional dragon and lion dance thrown in for good measure. Then back to the hotel to meet up with the rest of our fellow travellers. We met our guide for the next 21 days called Lillian. She will be showing the sights and sounds to us as well as Dan from America, Helen from New Zealand, Sjofn from Iceland and Angelica and Simone from Germany. We were pleased that we had a nice small group so lets hope that we can all get along!

After the introductions the rest of the group headed out for some food whilst Katie and I graciously declined as we wanted to head down to the harbour to watch what the Guinness Book of Records describes as the Worlds largest permanent light and sound show! The show creates an all round vision of lights shone from and onto the buildings on both sides of Victoria Harbour which is all accompanied by what turned out to be some terrible music and a narration (all in Cantonese of course) that was apparently describing the energy, spirit and diversity of Hong Kong. I think that bit was a little lost on us as we just went to look at the pretty lights!

As we had missed out on the food earlier we decided to head back to the street food area we found the previous night and sat down over a dish of pork knuckles and noodles and watched the world go by for a while before catching the last of the night markets and being offered more fake Rolexes and Prada bags than we could shake the proverbial stick at. It was then back to the hotel for a good nights sleep in a comfortable bed as the next day we start our travels over China sleeping on and in a combination of trains boats and monasteries on the way!