To fly from mainland China to Hong Kong is expensive as they class it as an international flight and whack a load of tax on top so to save money we flew to the next nearest place called Shenzhen. Because it was a late flight we decided it would be easier (and cheaper) to stay there one night and leave for Hong Kong in the morning. Good job we booked some accommodation because once again our flight was delayed, this time by a couple of hours. I had picked the closest hotel to the airport so it would be quick and cheap to get there and back. When we got off the plane there were 2 taxi ranks, one with a huge queue and another with hardly any queue. Being British we picked the biggest queue, if everyone else was choosing those ones it must be for a reason. There was a friendly Chinese girl in front of us who could speak English and took pity on us. She showed the address to the taxi driver and asked him to take us there. He told her we were in the wrong queue as this was long distance taxis. Typical! She asked the security guard to let us go to the front of the other queue but he refused. Then she apologised that she had to leave us to it because the rest of her family were waiting in the taxi. Well to cut a long story short, even the short distance taxis refused to take us because it was too close and not worth their while on the meter at 3am. We had little choice but to agree to pay extra. The k*** of a driver didn't even take us to the hotel so we had to walk a block with our backpacks and stinking colds at ridiculous o'clock! Of course when we got there the hotel staff didn't speak English but we eventually got to our room which was decent. We decided against waking up early to go to Hong Kong because we were so ill we just wanted to sleep.

In the morning we had another mishap because the water stopped working halfway through Bryan's shower and I hadn't had one yet. He went out to get a cheer up McDonald's (and came back with a super size!) while I tried to get ready as best I could with no shower and without brushing my teeth. When we told reception about the water fail they just laughed! I felt too ill to do anything about it but really I should have asked for some money back. We got a normal priced taxi back to the airport. Apparently there's a metro that goes across to Hong Kong but the first thing we came across was a bus so we just got on that thinking it would be more comfortable which fortunately it was. The border crossing was horrendous because it took about 2 hours in a theme-park style queue with annoying Chinese people trying to push in all the time. So there we were dragging our backpacks feeling like death warmed up and we noticed the body temperature sensors and thought we were in trouble since we both had fevers. Fortunately we got through without a problem and got on the bus at the other side. Needless to say we did nothing for the rest of the day except sleep and feel sorry for ourselves!

Accommodation is expensive in Hong Kong so we just booked the cheapest place available and hoped for the best. It was on the 12th floor of a skyscraper in the very busy centre of the city. Our room was tiny but clean with a shared bathroom and very friendly owners. Considering it was the cheapest it was actually alright. We even had a TV! The ground floor was a bit like walking into Southall with loads of Indian food stalls all over the place and there is only 1 lift that goes to all the even numbers so you do have to wait a long time. As soon as you step outside it's crazy with people trying to sell you fake watches or drugs!

The first day we spent there we met up with Mark, Bryan's football friend's son, who has lived in Hong Kong for nearly 20 years. He took us to his nice apartment where we had a proper English cuppa for the first time in months! It was good! Then we went to a Japanese restaurant and had some lunch which he generously paid for. He showed us some of the more interesting style buildings in the city and took us to the part of town with all the expensive designer shops. Of course this wasn't so that we could go shopping but so that we could see the worlds largest picnic that occurs every Sunday. There are thousands of Philipino housemaids who all get the day off on Sunday but have nowhere to go so the authorities close off the streets and they all sit around eating their feasts or doing each others hair and nails. It's pretty crazy to see! We rode the star ferry back across the harbour where we sat at a bar enjoying some drinks and watching the view of the amazing skyline change from day to night. The drinks were expensive here and everytime we agreed to another beer we cringed a little inside but again Mark kindly paid the bill at the end. We offered to take him out for a meal another evening but I think he was too busy with work to take us up on the offer. That same evening we had arranged to meet up with another couple from our previous hostel in Chengdu who coincidentally were in the same building as us. Since it was too expensive to go out to a bar we decided to buy some drinks from the Seven Eleven and sit on the wall by the harbour an admire the skyline. A poor man's night out but it was still good fun.

The next day we wondered around the city to see the sites. From what I could tell its sort of a generic city that could be anywhere in the world. There's a million shopping malls so it's great if you have money, but despite Hong Kong having a lot of history they seem to have done a good job burying all evidence of it. We stumbled across one sorry looking church and an old wall but everything else is new and modern and devoid of any culture. Not even a squat toilet!! Still we found a nice park to wander around which takes you through an aviary. At first I thought we were looking at birds from outside cages until I realised we were inside a giant cage with them! And there was some big threatening looking birds in there! We then took a funicular train up an almost vertical incline to a place called "the peak". From here you can get some really nice views of the Hong Kong skyline as long as you can find your way out of the shopping centre that the train spits you out into! Seriously it's harder than you would imagine it took us a good 15 minutes! We got there at a good time because it was still daylight but turning into evening so we were lucky enough to see the change from light to dark. This is also the area where the rich and famous live so it has some nice tranquil walks around what I can only assume are huge mansions but all we got to see were electric gates and security cameras. Given that owning a small flat in Hong Kong costs a fortune, having land so big your house is hidden must make you super wealthy!

On our final day in Hong Kong I really wanted to try out a Michelin-starred restaurant. Yes I know we've been eating pot noodles for the last month and now we're eating at Michelin restaurants it doesn't make sense. Except it does when you realise it's one of the cheapest restaurants in Hong Kong. It's called Tim Ho Wan and apparently serves some of the best Dim Sum in the world. Everything in Hong Kong is in English apart from this restaurant which has the name only in Chinese but that's not a problem because you can easily recognise it by the queue of people outside! You see they don't do reservations they just write down a number on a menu for you and you have to wait your turn. If you think you have a long wait you can go away and come back, but if you miss your number then tough luck! We got there about 11.30am and we were given number 62 and it was currently on number 15 so we had about 3 hours to wait! But we got really lucky because 3 american guys had a flight to catch so they gave us their number which was 27 so we only had to wait about half hour. It's not posh at all, it's the complete opposite, small, stuffy and really crowded. You're literally just jammed on the end of a table within forking distance of the strangers next to you and the staff are too busy to smile so you're literally just there for the food which was very good. I've never really had dim sum before so I can't honestly tell you if it's better than anywhere else or not but it was cheap enough with each dish costing around 12 HK dollars which is about £1. We ordered 6 dishes and were so stuffed we couldn't finish it all so we had it as a takeaway snack on the way to the airport. Not bad for our final meal in Asia.

Hong Kong isn't really somewhere to go on a budget but we had to do it whilst we were in the Asia. Not that it is really Asian because even though it's not under British rule anymore it still has a distinctly British feel. If it wasn't for the crazy humidity you would be forgiven for thinking you were in Britain because everyone drives on the left, the road signs are exactly the same as British signs, everything is written in English and they even have London buses. The population is so multicultural you would have a hard time guessing which race has the majority there. It is of course nothing like China and has no intentions of becoming part of China again either. They have their own laws and get by just fine without China's rule. However, the girls are nowhere near as stylish as the ones in China, despite all the shopping malls!

The end of our Asia travels marks roughly the halfway point in our journey which is an incredibly scary thought! However, we still have a lot more ahead of us and hopefully a lot less organising because most things should be already sorted out for us. That means less effort and more enjoyment. Excellent!