After our fourth and final visit to Bangkok airport we only had a short hop to Hong Kong. We were increasingly concerend that this would prove to be as close to China as we would get after Beijing changing Visa requirements within the last month. However, cold hard cash is always the sweetener, so after paying our Hostel through the nose, we had our China visas within 48hours.

Relieved, we set about trying to find somewhere to watch Sweden play Greece in Euro 2008. So it was a Brit pub and pints of Stella to watch Zlatan and my adopted country (for the next 3 weeks only) beat the Greeks. Kom igen Sverige, nu eller aldrig!!!

Much of the our time spent in HK was actually spent perched on the edge of the Kowloon wharth overlooking Kong Kong Island and the incredible lightshow everynight. This was mainly, due to us trying to avoid spend too much time in our hostel. Although "allegedly" rated the best hostel in Asia, it was in downtown Kowloon and situated 13 floors up in a deplapedated tower block. The picture will say it all!

Its currently monsoon season across most of Asia, and the day before we arrived in HK they were hit with a deluge. Landslides, roads closed, many of the tourist attractions shut down, we were a little concerend to say the least. However, the wetest we actually got was from the constant dripping of a million aircon units attached to every highrise, and there are few of those.

To be fair though we really liked HK, probably our favourite city after Sydney. Great food (the obligatory Dim Sum feast), amazing skyline and cheap shopping. We did the usual tourist stuff, catching the Star ferry and riding the peak tram etc.

But now the fun starts and the real China mission. First step and the small hurdle of a 36hour train journey to our first destinantion, Xi'an.