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Published: August 6th 2007
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Holly's Birthday Dinner
At Temple St Markets. It was incredibly fresh food that was very tasty... We are finally in China proper. Although we crossed the border nearly a week ago, we've spent that time in transit (almost 2 days) to Hong Kong, a few nights in Hong Kong and we're now in Xian.
We left Hanoi, Vietnam at about 8pm on Tuesday night to arrive in Nanning, China at about 8am Thursday morning. Not much sleep available there as we got off the train at the border and waited about 2 hours while they checked our passports and visas. Lots of paper work to fill out and we were on our way again but then there was paper work on the China side and they checked our passports again on the train. Our first mission in Nanning was to get to Hong Kong. We bought a train ticket to Guangzhou which turned out to be another sleeper so we had about 12 hours to kill in Nanning. We found a great place for breakfast and had a steamed bun with meat and noodles inside, a pancake like thing and a dish of steamed dumplings and 2 bottles of water for 6Y (about AUD$1). We walked the rest of the day away searching for a cinema
Hong Kong at night
The impressive view from Victoria Mountain. Skyscrapers are the flavour of the day... or something similar to kill time. We found a garden instead, where we also found our first fellow foreigners of Nanning. Nice enough park with some interesting sites but we were really too hot and tired to appreciate it fully. We couldn't walk anywhere in Nanning without a million eyes on us - except when everyones' eyes were on a 5 or 6 year old busker doing amazing flips and tricks on the streets.
Our overnight train to Guangzhou turned out to be a 3 tiered sleeper and Lew and I had the top 2 bunks...in neighbouring compartments. So we slept with our heads towards the aisle so we could look around the wall to each other. It was then another train to the Guangzhou Dong (East) station where we could buy our ticket for a through train to Kowloon in Hong Kong - arriving at about noon on Thursday. After such a journey, can you blame us for flying to Xian after that?
Hong Kong was great!!! We found some real budget places to stay in the ChungKing Mansions. Our first room cost HK$150 (about AUD$25) but we both had to breath in to be able to
2nd Class Sleeper - China
This is the spacious top bunk of 2nd class sleepers on the trains in China. We learnt our lesson and will travel 1st class from now on. close the door with both of us and our packs inside the room. We also had to sit sideways on the toilet as there was no leg room to sit straight. The TV didn't work either so we moved to another place in the same complex for HK$160. We had room to breathe and even had a bath!! No time to indulge though. Our first full day was spent seeing the sights like the big Buddha on Lantau Island, riding the trams on Hong Kong Island, taking a tram up to Victoria Peak for the 8pm nightly light show (pretty subtle but still amazing) and shopping at the Temple Street Markets on the mainland.
Our second full day was my birthday!! YAY!! and we spent it at Ocean Park on Hong Kong Island. We watched a dolphin and seal show, walked through the amazing aquariums and went on all the rides. There were 3 aquariums, one for fish, one for sharks and one for jelly fish!! Pretty cool. I had some birthday money to spend so I used it to get in a pool with 2 dolphins (and 5 other people). We got to play games with them and
Holly's new best friend
Even got to hug them... Great birthday present from Johanna! pat them and then hug them for a photo. They were such beautiful animals and it was well worth it. AWESOME!! We had planned to have Indian for dinner but the street stalls at Temple Street markets were amazing so we went back there and ate fresh crabs and mussels and drank beer and had MacDonalds Chocolate Sundaes on the way home. An EXCELLENT birthday!!!
The flight to Xian turned out to be about the same price to take a first class sleeper train (about HK$900 or AUD$150). Easy decision really. We caught the ferry from Hong Kong to ShenZhen airport(more paper work and visa checking to get back into China) then a flight to Xian arriving at about 9pm last night.
So far in Xian, we have walked and walked and walked. The Lonely Planet Guide has been a bit of a let down for China so far. Although it's the most recent edition, it's still 2 years old and, either things have changed real quick or the authors haven't really been here. The place we're staying at - Jin Jiang Inn - is costing us 140 Y (a bit less than AUD$25) and anything under 200Y
A Traditional Vietnamese Hut
From the Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi, Vietnam. This museum contained displays of the different buildings, clothes, tools and artifacts of many ethnic tribes of vietnam. is meant to be budget!! We have aircon, a TV, our own bathroom with little soaps and combs and towels and even slippers!! Also, the only way we found this internet cafe was asking at a hotel and being walked to a doorway where we walked up about 3 flights of stairs before seeing a huge floor of computers. There's no way any foreigner would find this place and we couldn't find any in the area suggested in the Lonely Planet.
Tomorrow we hope to do a day trip to the Terracotta Warriors and some other museums out that way - maybe even some hot springs.
Hopefully we'll get another post in in Beijing - might be easier to find the internet cafes there??
-Holly and Lew.
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Alison
non-member comment
Happy Birthday Holly
Happy Birthday Holly, I won't say I hope you had a great birthday because I just read your latest blog and it seems you had a wonderful time! If you are still having trouble find internet cafes ask Netty where they are, she trudged the streets looking for them last year. When you come home perhaps you could write your own travel guide. Looking forward to the next update. Love Alison