Hong Kong & Singapore

Sooooo, I suppose it's high time I posted another entry. This is going to be a shiort one which does not reflect negatively upon the people involved in it, but rather upon the prices charged for internet access where I am now on an island in Thailand.

So I sadly left the boys and headed on my merry way down to Hong Kong. I say merry - getting a ticket was a mission! I meant to go on the train but there were no tickets, and so I ended up on the bus. (Which is actually apparently FASTER! and it was a SLEEPER bus!! with beds!!). I don't speak Cantonese, and I had no map, no guide, no nothing!! We tried to tear the pages out of John's China Lonely Planet but sadly totally failed :-(.

So I got off the bus about 15 hours later in a town I presumed to be Guangzhou, my transit town for a bus to HK. I promptly got ripped off by a cab driver, and had to give him 55 Yuan and 3 USD.... random. He dropped me off outside a Starbucks where I made myself feel better by tucking into a lovely iced Mocha, then I caught the bus to Hong Kong.

I couldn't find a decent (cheap) place to stay so I eventually gave into my tired legs and booked into the YMCA which was a rip-off and there were no gay man dressed up and singing, what a let down! Though it IS the same place my dad stayed about 30 years ago so I thought that was pretty cool! I went to a nice veggie restaurant and then up to Victoria Peak by tram and watched the city below me (trying to pretend I wasn't surrounded by tonnes of tourists!!), and then decided to walk down a dark alleyway to get back to the Star Ferry. It was great - like walking around the Gower roads, but really hot and, well, tropical!

The next day was the Olympic torch rally which was a bit of a boon - I was innundated with flags and stickers and everyone was very cheerful.... It was a bit weird but nice to see so many happy people!

Then I flew to Singapore... I know I know I was supposed to do it all by train but I RAN OUT OF TIME, and London to Hong Kong is still darned impressive, right?

Anyway then I had a week in Singapore with my Dad (for a few days) and Nick, Bev & Liza (family friends who live there) which was just LOVELY, chilling out after many busy days, spending time in the park (where all the supposed responsible adults climbed up to the top of a massive rope climbing frame one after the other), visiting the Asian cultures museum, eating loads of delicious food for FREE!! Hanging round at the gaffe and in the pool, visitng techy-geek heaven at Sim Lin Square.... and spending time with one of the coolest 4 yr old ever to have existed, even when she didn't want to stop playing lego!! Seriously awesome R&R before heading back on the train (a mere 3 day trip!!) to catch up with me fellas ;-)

More on that later.....

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