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Thursday 28th April
Arrived into Hong Kong from Guangzhou and then took the metro all the way out to Kowloon and checked into a hotel! We had pre booked it a long time in advance so it was actually cheaper than a hostel room. Spent the day doing very mundane tasks and enjoying the luxuries of non "quick drying" towels - which I might add do a great job at drying quickly...they just don't really dry you.
We went out to Soho for a couple of cocktails but failed to push through for a Thursday night out and collapsed into bed pretty early.
Friday 29th April - Wedding Day!!!!!
Judge if you will but we were very excited about the Royal Wedding and had scouted out a few pubs to watch it in in Soho. The Yorkshire Pudding Pub was packed. ALL the Brits and some Americans and Aussies who weren't working clearly had the same idea and arrived from about 3pm and we all sat and watched the wedding. I loved seeing the Princes and 100%!w(MISSING)ould have loved to have been at home to see it! The party atmosphere looked amazing!
Having had a few ciders we headed
to another bar for cocktails and got chatting to Delboy, an Irish expat. He and his mate Will kept us entertained and promised to show us the ropes. The ropes including buying cheap cheap drinks from 24/7s and having a chat outside. It maybe the first time I've had a Smirnoff Ice since Michelle and I bought them when we were 15 and had to try and open them in a telephone box in Bromley High Street. Classy.
We went on to a club and danced the night away to some suprisingly good music. Beyonce's Single Ladies came on and we continued to dance when some *!*&$! came up to Michelle and said "You look horrifically single!" WHO SAYS THAT! Utterly charming...how does a person look single when dancing?!
We had a great night with an invitation from Del and Will to go out with them again on Sunday as it was a National Holiday on the Monday and apparently it could get a bit wild. Brilliant day!
Saturday 30th April
Waking up extremely hungover we clambered to the shops to buy boxes of cereal for brekkie. I totally overdosed on muesli and may have eaten one box in a day. Oh dear! We went over to the Peak Tram at about 6pm and queued for an hour with a crazy lady who claimed the American government had infected her brain and had planned 9/11. She held tin foil to her head the entire time so I am not sure she rallied much support.....
Took the tram up to the top and watched the light show and I definitely think I could live a year or two in Hong Kong! Primarily because when we got back down and back into Central we went for the most amazing Pizza Express. It is a tradition between Michelle and I and it was perfect for a western treat. Not really back packing though!!! The pizzas were twice the size and twice as nice...Peking Duck Pizza was delicious!
Sunday 1st May
Having overdosed on probably the recommended daily allowance of cereal for a month we spent the day chilling out before meeting the Irish lads at a country club. They were watching the Man U v Arsenal match and the Hong Kongers were not impressed as Man U lost. Every person in China supports Manchester United!
We moved onto pubs and then a club. There were plenty of bottles of vodka flying around as apparently you aren't allowed to buy a drink you have to buy the bottle. How very "playboy!"
Monday 2nd May - National Holiday
Waking up extremely hungover we had to leave Hong Kong :-( along with every other mainlander who had opted for a long weekend in HK. We had tried to book sleepers for the journey from Guangzhou to Nanning but they were fully booked so had no choice but to book hard seats for the 14 hour overnight journey.
It was NOT enjoyable at all this time. There were 4 times as many people and you could not breathe for the smoke. The girl next to me kept taking photos of me everytime I closed my eyes and a maniac was trying to sell toothbrushes at 3am in the morning. I had to tell him to ssssh as a) no one was buying them and b) he had been yelling about it for well over an hour. Drove me crackers!
The above could have only been topped by me being p!ssed on. It was by a child but still! I probably soaked up most of the wee as I had just about nodded off and didn't notice immediately. I watched the mother just whip off his trousers and put him in some new ones...presumably expecting him to do it again in another hour or two.
Not a happy bunny!
Tuesday 3rd May - Hanoi baby!
Arrived into Nanning extremely grumpy and ironically we could only book a luxury sleeper onto Hanoi. We were excorted to our private room and settled down for some peace and quiet. We reached the border at 12.30am and the guard came on and took our passports and told us we had to take all our stuff off to be x-rayed. I don't know why we thought this was ridiculous as it has to be done at every train station in China. You also get padded down! We clambered off the train in our pjs and had our photographs taken. I told a man to stop filming us but it turns out he was an official!
We got back on the train and reached the Vietnam border at about 1am and again got off the train and passed our passports over at a kiosk and waited to be called back up. We were there with two blond Danish girls and when their passports were being shown the entire Vietnamese hall turned round and stared at them. It was very funny!
Back on the train to Hanoi!!!!! Wahooooo!
Much love x x
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