kennyg662
Kendall Joined: October 11th 2009
Logged in: December 6th 2009
Logged in: December 6th 2009
Travel Blog Posts
Pearl Tower and Me
Pepsi decided to sleep in so I followed this random middleman who took me around to a few different back alley shops for a commission. I ended up buying a tie and shirt but saw a lot of interesting things out the back of these shops. At first I thought they would try and trap me out the back and force me to buy something but it was all good :) After this we headed off to the most famous landmark in Shanghai, the Pearl TV Tower. We took the Bund tunnel to get there. The Pearl Tower is the tallest tower in Asia and we went up to the observation deck at 269 metres. Like Macau, this tower also had clear glass floors. This time I did not give Pepsi the chance to chicken out. ... read more
Maglev
The first thing we did when we got to Shanghai was take the Maglev demonstration line. This is the fastest public ground transport in the world. Unfortunately we didn't experience the top speed of 431kmh as it was too late in the day, 300kmh was still fast enough though. We then caught the train the Nangjing Street East which is where we were staying. Our hotel was in the middle of the street and there were people and shops everywhere. We really noticed the difference between here and Beijing. The weather was also much warmer so we no longer needed our jackets. We grabbed some dinner at a local Chinese restuarant, they missed half of our order but we were full anyway. Pepsi decided to leave his video camera as a tip until I reminded him ... read more
Pepsi and I
Today started at 6am, we were armed with 3 double cheeseburgers each (there was seriously nothing else we could buy at the supermarkets) and headed to the back packers hostel. We got onto a bus which doubled as a sauna as the heating was turned up way too high. We arrived at the start of our hike 3 hours later. We chose to do the Great Wall hike to Simatai which is the most original part of the wall and there are not as many tourists here. The hike was 8kms it took about 3.5 hours so the going was quite tough. Some of the stairs were 80 degrees steep, some steps were broken/missing and there were no hand rails. The hike was tough but it was awesome and the views were spectacular. This is meant ... read more
Tiananmen Square
Today we started the day at the markets. Our primary goal was to buy jackets. Pepsi bought 2 jackets and I bought 1. The starting price on my jacket was 650 and I eventually got it for 150 (quite cheap as the quality was good). Our next stop was Summer Palace which was amazing. I could not believe the size of the complex (290 acres). We had a busy schedule so I made Pepsi powerwalk. I wanted to get to buildings at the other side so we powerwalked there (30 mins), took about 5 photos and then powerwalked back. Check out the pics..... We then caught a cab to Forbidden City and had a quick look around. There was an arguement in the crowd and then 2 ppl were escorted out of the complex by the ... read more
Snake
We caught the train from HK to Shenzhen as it is much cheaper to fly out of Shenzhen. I was so tired because I stayed up too late writing emails and updating the blog. I fell asleep on the train and my head was leaning on my suitcase which had a blue sticker on it. As I was passing through immigration they were giving me funny looks and I got pulled aside. He asked me what was on my head, at first I had no idea what he was talking about but then I wiped my head and I could see blue on my hand. I realised it was the blue sticker from my suitcase and after this I was on my way. We made our way to the airport and saw Yao Ming's stunt double ... read more
Teaching B.Lee a lesson
Today we stayed in Central Hong Kong so we caught the MTR from Yau Ma Tei. For some unknown reason Pepsi decided to leave his suit back at the last hotel and was sad the whole day (don't worry we went back later in the day to collect it)........ Today we also did a lot of walking around the streets and Hong Kong is a really good city. It would be good working here if they paid me enough of course!! After we grabbed a traditional Asian meal at McDonalds we headed off to Victoria Peak. The ride up on the tram was spectacular and it was so steep I felt like I was on a rollercoaster at a theme park. We had a great view of Hong Kong from the top (see pics). They also ... read more
Ferry
Today we went from Macau to Hong Kong via the ferry. It went a lot faster than I was expecting and it only took around an hour. From here we took an old skool 80's model Toyata Crown (LOL!!!!!) to our hotel. Every single taxi in HK is an old Toyota Crown. Our hotel was very basic and I think our room was the size of a wardrobe. Each time we moved it was like human tetris. Our hotel was in Yau Ma Tei in the Kowloon area. From here we took a walk (over 5kms) to the water and checked out the famous avenue of stars (similar to Hollywood). On the way back we explored the famous Nathan Road and other surrounding streets and somehow we managed to get lost. About 2 hours and 10kms ... read more
Ruins
We had a sleep in and another buffet for breakfast. Our first stop yesterday was the Ruins of St Paul's. This must be the main tourist attraction in Macau as there were people everywhere taking photos. It is weird because the front of the building looks perfect but that is all there is. It only a few metres thick. From here we walked to Mount Fortress and had a look at all the old school cannons. There is a great view of the city from up at Mount Fortress. Our next stop was the Macau Museum. They were scanning for H1N1 at the entrance but we both made it through ok. It was now lunchtime so we stopped to get some food including a couple of famous Portuguese egg tarts. The eggs tarts were so good! ... read more
High Rollers
This morning Pepsi and I flew to Macau and Justin flew back to London via BKK. The last thing Justin did when he saw him off was accidently break Pepsi's sunglasses. Pepsi was so sad the whole afternoon his $20 go-lo glasses were broken. We landed in Macau at lunchtime and checked into the Grand Waldo hotel. It was nice to be back in a decent hotel where we could have a decent shower and relax. The day was quite relaxing and we played some blackjack and explored around the Cotai area. The Venetian is one of the biggest Casinos in the world and it was huge, very similar to the one in Vegas. The new City of Dreams complex was very impressive and we had prioirty tickets to the Bubble show there. The bubble show ... read more
Tank
Day 17 - Ho Chi Minh An early wake up call and we were off to the Cu Chi Tunnels. We stopped halfway there to take a toilet break and look at some art work and furniture done by the handicapped people (as a result of Agent Orange). The artwork was amazing, I wanted to buy some but it was expensive and I have no room left in my suitcase. In the space of 5 mins we almost had 2 accidents in the bus. Both times people pulled out in front of us without looking. They were both very very close and I think we all needed a new pair of underpants. I took a lot of photos at the tunnels and we saw examples of the tunnels and various booby traps used by the Vietnamese. ... read more
