Blogs from Sha Tin, Hong Kong, Asia

Final day and its a bit sad to say that however it's been such a great trip that we can't have any complaints. I'm not sure what the reason is but again it was another terrible night sleep for me as I was awake from 3am until 7am and then back asleep for a couple of hours while Lauren had some breakfast. We had planned to take a taxi to Times Square to have a look around and do some last minute shopping. We almost didn't make it as we had the world's worst taxi driver, for the whole trip which was about 30 minutes we drove as if he was driving a manual car and it was stuck in the wrong gear for the whole trip, we just kangaroo hopped the whole way. Probably not ... read more

Got off to a strange start today. I'm not sure if it's jet lag or whether I am still not feeling 100% but I woke up at 1am and it took me about 3 1/2 hours to get back to sleep. The funny thing was that we were planning to get up at about 8am and do some shopping before the races however once I got back to sleep at 4.30am, neither of us woke up until 1.30pm! The races started at 1pm so obviously no shopping today and we didn't get there until race 5. I think since we have got to Hong Kong and slowed down, our bodies have also decided to get some rest. So we eventually made our way down to the train which only needed to go one stop before the ... read more

We both had a rough night last night as we were finally stung by jetlag for the first time on the trip. We both went to bed at about 9.30pm and for some reason I was back awake at 12.30am and couldn't get back to sleep until about 6ish... Lauren was a little bit the same although managed to get a little more than me. So after a lack of sleep, we both decided that a late start was in order and didn't leave the hotel until after midday as we headed across the Chinese border to Shenzhen. I had also started to attract what Lauren had last week and wasn't feeling 100% so wasn't moving too quickly. We arrived at the border and had to go through customs, which all up cost us about $80 ... read more

Well we left the hotel in Paris to get to the airport after a very cruisy morning which is something that we hadn't been able to have for a while. We were nice and relaxed until we reached the train station to head to the airport where everything turned to shit, people everywhere, couldn't buy tickets and then missed the first and second trains which was a major issue as they only went every 30 minutes. Eventually we said enough was enough and into a taxi and I think that's the end of catching trains with luggage! We had to fly back through London and endure a seven hour stop over before our flight to Hong Kong, we were dreading this as we weren't sure whether we could leave the airport or not however the our ... read more

Well I'm back. Sorry I didn't write anything I was just too busy. Trying to get settled and then I'll write and post pictures. ... read more

Sunday 29th August 2010 We left Perth just after midnight on a Cathay Pacific flight. This was a new plane but it had seats where the base slid forward rather than tilting backwards and we found them most uncomfortable. Rags slept very little. We reached Hong Kong and caught the airport bus for a 40 minute trip to a bus station where we were met by David, a friend of Judy's, at whose house we were staying. David and Carmel live in an apartment attached to the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Carmel is a professor here, David an associate professor at Lingnan University. Rags had not met either David or Carmel and Judy hadn't met Carmel so we spent a couple of hours really getting to know each other. We had a great chat and ... read more

So some thoughts on Hong Kong... This place is the most developed metropolis I've ever seen. The city itself is an island, but beautifully developed areas stretch far out, all the way to tai wai, near sha tin, where I am with Johnny. The metro is gorgeous, with every station having glass walls covering the tracks like you see in airports. Travel on the metro is cheap (I've been all over the thing and haven't yet spent $10US), with prices depending on both where you enter and exit, and the metro card works like a debit card for buses, taxis, ferries, and shops. I've often thought Hong Kong reminds me of Mumbai because of the asian tropical environment, though its mostly a lot cleaner than Mumbai. Nobody I've met here speaks English though, except for Johnny's ... read more

Hells yeah. Just woke up and I'm listening to rearranged and melodrama online. Yesterday was a fucking amazing day. Me and Johnny chilled until like 2pm after the crazy night before. We had lunch of udong noodles with his dad and talked about the kinds of netbooks out there, cause I figured I could use one for skyping and mobility since my large computer is such a bitch about those things. Around 4 we left to Sham Shui Po and found this enormous electronics store with all different vendors. In it me and Johnny could simply walk around and compare prices and models over and over. We narrowed it down to two models, one within the cheap range I was hoping to spend, the other slightly more. In the end I got the more expensive one. ... read more

I have recently gone through a spate of bad airplane-seat-neighbors. You know who I mean: the chatty ones. The ones who recently got dumped by their fiances, are on their way to see their spoiled grandchild, won $20 at the lottery, or need to pass their fireman's EMT exam but probably won't because instead of studying they are flirting with you. The curse was broken, however, on my flight to Hong Kong. I sat next to a sullen-looking expat who waited until ten hours into the flight to open his mouth and ask me if I was visiting for the first time. I took the opportunity to ask him if there were any activities that he would recommend; things a little off the well-beaten tourist path. "You have to go to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery ... read more