Hong Kong!!

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So i awoke about 6am to people getting off the bus...since the majority of people remained i wasn't that worried. Then an hour later there was another stop, this time at a police checkpoint to enter Shenzchen Special Econmic zone. Here all of us had toget off to have our IDs checked. I took the opportunity to check with the driver that they were going to the railway station. Lucky for me there was a guy who spoke a little English who kindly acted as a translator!

BUT...when the translator told the driver...the driver replied (in Manderian) that as i was the only one heading there they were not going to stop there. And that i should get another bus.

Now i had read online that this might occur so i argued my case with the help of the translator but the driver wasn't budging! WANKER. This went on for 5 minutes, with me showing my ticket, saying i would complain etc...but in the end he just walked away from me. The translator was nice to offer to show me the way to the rail station...which i thanked him for...but i just asked him to explain where i needed to go to a taxi driver once we arrived at the final stop.

Back on the bus i was pissed off and a little worried, why hadn't i gotten someone to write down the location for me in Chinese....AARRRRRRGGGG!

But then something great happened. We pulled up to the bus station and it appeared that there was also 3 Chinese girls and 1 Chinese man that also needed to go to the station. They statyed on the bus until finally the driver came down and shouted at them to get off. Once off the bus and with my luggage the translator guy told me that this other guy would help me and the girls get to the station. YIPEEEEEE!!!

And he did exactly that. He was such a gentleman! He carried my heavy bag up stairs, paid for all our bus fare, and took me right to the escalator in the station to where the boarder control for entry into Hong Kong was. Ledgend! What a wonderful display of kindness, and it lifted my mood.

The boarder crossing was so easy and once there i got the train directly to Hung Kom. Left my luggage in the storage facilities and started walking about Hong Kong. I walked for hours, and went over to Hong Kong island. I found it a little disorientating as there are so many walkways about the roads, with many of them passing through buildings. But still everything was so well sign posted!

As expected the financial area has a lot of money...like beijing it had its fair share of designer shops!

Later on i went back to Hung Kom to pick up my luggage and meet my friend Florence. A quick stop back at hers to drop the luggage we headed straight out to meet her old work friends for dinner. So my time in China i've had 1xMcDonalds, 1xKFC....and now i was going to have Belgium food and beer! Her friends were lovely...and i got to hear Cantonese spoken. I didn't realise but the written language is the same as Mandarian and it's only the spoken that's different. The older generations generally didn't speak Mandarian, as they were under British rule, but now it was a requirement for it to be thought in schools. The converations were great, and i'm really glad Florence let me experience this!

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