Following our 25 hour, and slightly boring train journey from Beijing we arrived around lunchtime in Hong Kong. We went straight to hostel- thanks dad for booking! Was more like a box than a room! Very damp, with ensuite that was tiny with shower over the toilet and whole thing a wet room! All seemed fine though- until we tried to sleep!

Spend the day exploring- watched the light show- different buildings lighting up and lasers from top of buildings across the river- all in time to music! Impressive- but seemed a bit wasteful when we realized they do it every single night! Went to the cinema in the eye to see 'journey to centre of the earth' in 3d- bit silly but great effects and they have popcorn with caramel that is so much nicer than at home!

On trying to sleep we realized the bed had massive dip in middle, room was really sweaty without aircon (which was really noisy and barely worked) and there was a constant dripping sound coming from the aircon unit- which we didn't realize until we asked owner in morning it was drips from the aircon unit upstairs. So glad we had some ear plugs with us!

Following day- bit of a nightmare trying to sort out visas to get back to China- horrible woman in travel agents made us spend ages sorting out all evidence etc before telling us she couldn't help anyway because we didn't have flights directly leaving the country. So... we made ourselves feel better by buying a small camera- for when other one too big to carry around! Had our first bad meal since left home this eve- real rude staff, who insisted we had to pay for snacks they served even though we said we didn't want them, and then served us cold duck pancakes- with hardly any meat on the duck- mm pancakes with cold sauce and skin!! oh well, we learned that if we get the feeling we don't like somewhere in future we're just going to get up and leave!

Made up for it next day with trip to the beach (following 2 hours queuing at embassy for visas!- which are now due to arrive tomorrow in time for planned leaving!) beach really quiet but lovely views- did swim, but seemed to get bitten by something in water- felt like p****ng on our skin as we swam- other people had same thing and we also noticed no locals appeared to be swimming! Had a lovely meal in evening, which made up for day before! And ended up going to cinema again- more popcorn and film about hit man in Bangkok- wanted to see Bangkok! Also most things very expensive here, so quite cheap evening!

Anyhow, leaving here once got visas in morning- staying one night just inside china and hoping to get to border following day to cross and go to Hanoi in Vietnam.

Hope everything's good at home, love to all

xx